Greens Aim to Sue Honolulu for Sewage Pollution

HONOLULU, Hawaii,, May 6, 2004 (ENS) - Three environmental groups plan to sue the city and county of Honolulu for continuing violations of the federal Clean Water Act caused by spills from the city's sewage systems.

The organizations say these spills are polluting local streams and nearshore coastal waters and resulting in beach closures, human health risks, and substantial economic losses to ocean recreation and tourist based businesses.

"We cannot continue to allow the city to violate the law," said Tiffany Schauer, executive director of Our Children's Earth (OCE). "These types of raw sewage spills affect everyone from water recreationalists to business owners who depend on local water oriented recreation and tourism for their customer base."

The OCE, along with the Sierra Club's Hawaii Chapter and Hawaii's Thousand Friends (HTF), provided the city and county Tuesday with their 60 day notice of their intent to sue. The legal action centers on hundreds of Clean Water Act violations at five wastewater treatment plants and associated collection systems.

The notice alleges the city has repeatedly violated its permits by failing to maintain, fix, or upgrade facilities in a timely manner, causing discharges of partially or inadequately treated sewage into ocean outfalls that exceed limits set by law for harmful bacteria and cancer causing pesticides.

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawaii Department of Health have tried to get the city to comply with water pollution laws, but their enforcement divisions are underfunded and understaffed," said Christopher Sproul, one of the lawyers for the environmental groups.

"They have failed to solve the sewage spill and other extensive problems that persist at the city's wastewater treatment plants and collection systems," Sproul said. "Citizen involvement is needed to protect Hawaii's waters, and the people and businesses that use and rely on those waters."

The notice also alleges that the sewage collection systems are decrepit and dangerous.

The groups cite government records that find the city committed 309 sewage spills in 1999, 305 spills in 2000, 237 spills in 2001, 194 spills in 2002 and 183 spills in 2003.

These spills sent large volumes of raw sewage streaming into private residences and businesses, streets, storm drains, and numerous waterways

Frank Doyle, director of Honolulu's Department of Environmental Services responded to the Sierra Club’s statements today saying that Honolulu is working to correct the problem.

“The City and County of Honolulu has aggressively pursued upgrading its wastewater system," Doyle said. "Over $940 million has been appropriated for wastewater improvements from FY1994 through FY2003. An additional $73 million is appropriated for the current fiscal year, $120 million is proposed for FY2005."

“Even this significant effort does not preclude all spills during periods of heavy rains when rainwater infiltrates manholes and sewer lines and overloads treatment plants and the collection system," he said. "Much of the rainwater enters the sewer system in old sewer lines and connections within private property. The general public needs to understand that the spills are primarily rainwater and even more diluted when they reach ocean areas."

Doyle said the city has been working closely with the state Department of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and is on schedule on a 20 year plan to address the infiltration and inflow issues in our sewer system during wet weather flows.

The number of spills has been reduced from 465 in 1994 to 183 in 2003, said Doyle. "The number for the first few months of this year is higher reflecting the heavy and consistent rains that occurred in January and February. We do not expect this aberration in the weather condition to continue."

"These sewage spills pose serious health risks to the public," said Laura Edmunds, the Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter's Blue Water campaign coordinator, who was not satisfied with Doyle's explanations. "The city needs to clean up its act."