The recent repointing of the bike and walk path at Ala Wai has reminded many of the incident that closed it eight years ago: the massive spill that sent 48 million gallons of raw, untreated sewage into the Ala Wai Canal. The spill closed Waikiki beaches for weeks, posing a serious environmental and health threat. It was, by all accounts, the largest sewage spill in the past two decades. However, it was only one illustrative event in a series outlining the deterioration, neglect, and failings of the Honolulu sewer system. Indeed, sewage spills had been an ongoing problem before the Ala Wai spill, with one occurring almost daily.
While the Ala Wai spill occurred at a time when the Sierra Club, along with Hawai’i’s Thousand Friends and Our Children’s Earth Foundation, had brought a civil suit against the City and County of Honolulu (CCH) for repeated violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA), it was not the first suit brought against the city. In 1990, Hawai’i’s Thousand Friends and the Sierra Club brought a civil suit against the CCH for repeated illegal bypasses of sewage treatment equipment. By 1993, the court issued a declaratory judgment against the CCH, finding it liable for 9,870 violations of the secondary treatment requirements as well as 52 bypasses and 52 counts of non-reporting violations of the act (Hawaii Thousand Friends vs. CCH). This ruling was followed by a lawsuit brought against the CCH by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of Hawai`i Department of Health (DOH) for unpermitted sewage overflows and spills in 1994, which was settled via a Consent Degree in 1995 (Sierra Club vs. CCH). The Consent Degree aimed at remedying CWA violations and tackle the spill problem by requiring sewe...
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...number of sewage spills on Oahu as well as a decline in volume. Similarly, the annual progress reports required by the settlement and Consent Degree reveal overall compliance with project schedules and construction (Honolulu.gov). However, many of the “big” projects are yet to be completed, which renders assessments of progress and commitment challenging. More accurately, the CCH has until June 2020 to complete the sewer retrofits, recovery, and improvements. Additionally, it has till 2024 to accomplish upgrades to secondary treatment at the Honouliuli wastewater treatment plant and until 2035 at the Sand Island plant. Nevertheless, considering the developments since the Ala Wai spill one could conclude that as unfortunate as the Ala Wai spill was for the environment, Honolulu, residents and visitors it provided the impetus for change.
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