HONOLULU (KHON2) — Multiple state agencies estimate there are over 80,000 cesspools statewide and experts believe it contributes to about 52 million gallons of raw sewage into the environment every day.
There are roughly 11,000 cesspools on Oahu with the highest priority areas stretching from Mokuleia to Kaaawa. According to officials these Priority 1 cesspools have the greatest potential to impact human health and are across from natural resources like reefs and drinking aquifers.
“It’s polluting the ocean, people are getting sick from skin infections and gastroenteritis from the pollution that gets into the water, and it’s also bad for the coral reefs,” explained Ted Bohlen, retired deputy attorney general for the state Dept. of Health’s Clean Water and Safe Drinking Water Branches. He also served on the state’s Cesspool Conversion Working Group from 2018 to 2022.
In 2017, a law was passed that requires all cesspools in the state to be upgraded, converted or connected to either sewer or septic.
Bohlen said only a few hundred homes are converting every year, and thousands need to be converting to meet the 2050 deadline.
“The cost is very high and that’s the problem and that’s why we don’t do it right away,” Bohlen said. “It costs around $30,000 to upgrade a cesspool to a septic system or another system like it and some places it’s even worse because of the nature of the property.”
Ewa resident Iris Higgins said her family has been living at their home for 55 years. She showed KHON2 where her dad cemented and covered their cesspool back in the 80s.
“My dad talked about it maybe 25 years ago and said that [government] were promising they would tie us in with the environment here, but that hasn’t happened yet,” she said.
She said the new houses built nearby do have septic and some are working on being tied in with sewer, but she hasn’t heard of any updates and wasn’t aware of the 2050 law.
All of her neighbors still have cesspools as well.
City Council Member Matt Weyer introduced Bill 15 to offer grants to help motivate those homeowners to convert.
“We have a lot of local families, they don’t have the capital or resources to just do the conversion, so with the resiliency fund that voters just passed, we have general funds set aside every year focused on sustainability and resiliency programs so really this is an opportunity to give families access to capital,” he explained.
Money from the climate resiliency fund would be used to fund a grant program. As the bill is currently written, grants would not exceed $50,000 and would be awarded to households with an income under $100,000.
“This program is one aspect of that providing economic relief for our families and in a sustainable way,” he said.
He added the cesspool conversion is an island-wide issue and sewer projects are needed in places like Ewa and Kahaluu as well. He said he is open to all ideas on how to use climate resiliency funds.