Sludge Watch ==> Hawaii - sewage spills and spills and fines and spills

[Maureen Reilly]

Sludgewatch Admin:

The sewage violations in Hawaii are out of control...old infrastructure and 
growth is allowing all kinds of leaks of sewage into recreational coastal 
water and beaches.
And their sewage sludge pelletizer has already caught fire at least once.
Stay tuned.
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OUR OPINION

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Another day, another ruling on sewage
THE ISSUE
Honolulu Star Bulliten

A federal judge has ruled that the city violated wastewater regulations by 
failing to meet deadlines for two facilities.

Another federal court finding of wastewater discharge violations leaves the 
city at risk for hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, an outcome that 
neither the administration, taxpayers nor the plaintiffs who brought suit 
want.
Indeed, fines could hamper rather than resolve issues the suit seeks to 
correct as the city struggles to improve sewer lines and treatment 
facilities that have suffered from decades of neglect and only in recent 
years have been made a priority.

The environmental groups who filed the 2004 legal action will likely ask the 
court to impose measures to assure the city continues to work toward Clean 
Water Act compliance at the Sand Island and Hart Street plants, both of 
which saw years of construction delays.

At Sand Island, the city hopes to meet federal standards with a disinfecting 
facility, which was to be completed more than four years ago, now undergoing 
tests, but the need for repairs and upgrades to critical sewer mains 
stretches from Kaneohe-Kailua to Ala Moana, Waikiki to Leeward Oahu. 
Meanwhile, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is considering requiring 
a higher level of treatment at the Honouliuli plant that could run up costs 
into the hundreds of millions of dollars, if not more.

At the same time, the city is spending millions to defend legal complaints 
that the administration contends are already being addressed by a 1995 EPA 
enforcement action. But plaintiffs say spills and breaks remain unacceptably 
high, none more vivid than the massive rupture in Waikiki last year.

This cycle of violations, lawsuits, rulings and fines has become too common, 
and since none of the participants relishes the repetitious course, it 
behooves them to seek consensus and drop the adversarial routine.


http://starbulletin.com/2007/11/04/editorial/editorial01.html


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Updated at 12:14 p.m., Sunday, November 4, 2007

Sewage spill in Wahiawa at 5,000 gallons

More than 5,000 gallons of sewage spilled at the Wahiawa Wastewater Sewage 
Treatment plant and an undetermined amount of sewage poured out of a sewer 
manhole in Kailua early this morning, the city said.
The Wahiawa spill was due to heavy storm water run off after the 4:30 a.m. 
spill, said Bill Brennan, city spokesman. The city brought in portable 
pumping equipment to pump out the overflow. Warning signs were posted, 
Brennan said. The manhole overflowed on Hele Street and Keolu Drive, Brennan 
said

http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2007/Nov/04/br/br4026795183.html