EPA, DOJ, State of Hawaii, environmental groups, reach agreement with the City and County of Honolulu to address wastewater collection and treatment systems (HI)
(08/10/10) HONOLULU – A
comprehensive settlement has been reached with the City and County
of Honolulu that will address Clean Water Act compliance at
Honolulu’s wastewater collection and treatment systems, the
Justice Department, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
Hawaii Attorney General’s Office, Hawaii Department of
Health, and three environmental groups announced
today.
The settlement which also resolves
lawsuits brought by the Sierra Club, Hawaii’s Thousand
Friends and Our Children’s Earth Foundation, includes a
comprehensive compliance schedule for the city to upgrade its
wastewater collection system by June 2020. Under the settlement,
the Honouliuli wastewater treatment plant will need to be upgraded
to secondary treatment by 2024. The Sand Island plant will need to
be upgraded by 2035, but could be extended to 2038 based on a
showing of economic hardship.
Work on the wastewater collection
system will include rehabilitation and replacement of both gravity
and force main sewer pipes, backup strategies to minimize the risks
of force main spills, a cleaning and maintenance program,
improvements to Honolulu’s program to control fats, oils and
grease from entering into the wastewater system from food
establishments, and repair to pump stations.
"Today's settlement represents a
significant commitment that will address the City and County of
Honolulu's aging wastewater collection and treatment systems," said
Ignacia S. Moreno, Assistant Attorney General for the Justice
Department's Environment and Natural Resources Division. "The end
result will not just be an improvement to the system's
infrastructure. It will also significantly reduce both the public
health risk caused by exposure to pathogens in raw sewage and the
amount of harmful pollutants entering Honolulu's vibrant marine
environment."
“This settlement will lead to
significant improvements in water quality for the people of Oahu,
and for the visitors to the island’s world-class beaches. It
calls for aggressive actions in the near term to upgrade the
city’s sewage collection system, and set outs a longer term
schedule for construction of secondary treatment at the Sand Island
and Honouliuli plants,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s
Administrator for the Pacific Southwest region. “The work is
on a multi-year schedule to allow the city to spread out the costs
of this critical program.”
“This settlement has many
positive features, and among the biggest are the collection system
improvements to prevent future major raw sewage discharges, as
happened at the Ala Wai Canal in 2006,” said Laurence Lau,
the State Department of Health’s Deputy Director for
Environmental Health.
In addition, the city will be paying a
total fine of $1.6 million to be split between the federal
government and the state of Hawaii to resolve violations of the
federal Clean Water Act and the state of Hawaii’s water
pollution law, such as the March 24, 2006 Beachwalk force main
break that spilled approximately 50 million gallons of sewage into
the Ala Wai Canal.
The settlement, lodged today in U.S.
District Court for the District of Hawaii, is subject to a 30-day
public comment period and final court approval. A copy of the
settlement document will be available on the Department of Justice
Web site at: www.usdoj.gov/enrd/Consent_Decrees.html
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