Cesspool owners could be charged a monthly rate equivalent to sewage rates starting in 2025, per a state bill that recently passed the halfway milestone in the Legislature.

This would impact the state’s approximately 83,000 properties with cesspools. Compared to other states, Hawaii’s wastewater systems are reliant on cesspools. 

This reliance carries environmental concerns. Cesspools, which are essentially giant holes in the ground, collect wastewater as homes and businesses flush their toilets and wash their laundry.

As the wastewater accumulates in cesspools, it also filters into the ground – a problem especially for the “Priority Level 1” cesspools located close to the ocean. Such systems contribute to coral deaths, according to Ted Bohlen of the Hawaii Reef and Ocean Coalition.

He testified in support of House Bill 2743, saying that it’s important for property owners to convert their cesspools to cleaner forms of wastewater management like septic tanks or connecting to a county sewer line.

“But it is very expensive,” he said. “And so how we’re going to do that is really the issue – where is the funding going to come from?”

House Bill 2743 is intended to help answer a question plaguing residents since 2017, when lawmakers passed a bill requiring all cesspools be converted to other forms of wastewater treatment by 2050. 

The bill essentially allows counties to charge what’s called a “cesspool pollution fee.” Those fees can then be deposited into a new fund for mitigating the effects of cesspools. Counties would also be required to publish comprehensive plans of where they intend to build new sewer lines. 

Three senate committees discussed the bill on Wednesday, and each decided to defer a vote until next week. In the meantime they’ll consider proposed amendments like a pollution fee waiver for low-income cesspool owners.

A New Source Of Funding

Two main options currently exist for homeowners wanting to convert their cesspools to alternate wastewater systems: They can install a septic tank or connect to a county sewer line. 

But both of these options are expensive. Septic tanks often cost $20,000 or more, and connecting to a county sewer line – legally required in Honolulu if the county builds one down your street – costs about $8,500 to $10,000 per property. 

Switching to a septic tank shortly before learning that the city plans to run a sewage line past your house would be a costly mistake. 

“If I had a cesspool – which I don’t, but if I did – I would be wondering, ‘Well wait a minute, do I need to upgrade my system myself and pay for it myself? Or is the county going to bring me a sewer to my house?’” said Roger Babcock, who oversees wastewater in Honolulu as director of the Department of Environmental Services.

This ambiguity is a big reason why the bill also mandates that each county publish a consolidated sewer plan by 2027. Currently, said Babcock, Honolulu has several separate plans that lay out how the county intends to extend its sewer system.

“We just have to put that information together into an integrated plan,” Babcock said.

Babcock said in October that the state’s 2050 deadline to convert cesspools was off to a slow start. He said at the time that he planned to talk to state officials about how to get the ball rolling faster.

The state Department of Health is in charge of regulating the state’s 83,000 cesspools. 

“But they don’t have manpower to really do anything – or, they can’t make a plan because they don’t do wastewater treatment. They only regulate it,” said Babcock.

HB 2743 would bring in county governments as partners. A cesspool pollution fee would allow them to dole out grants and low-interest loans to low-income households that want to convert their cesspools. 

“Funding will be essential; the costs are very high for either sewering or upgrading on-site systems,” the Surfrider Foundation wrote in support of the bill.

The Nature Conservancy also supported the bill in written testimony, as did Hawaii Realtors and the Hawaii State Association of Counties. Other supporters include two Hawaii County Council members, the Kauai Department of Public Works and the Maui Chamber of Commerce. Maui’s Department of Environmental Management testified in opposition.

Chipping Away At Cesspool Conversions

The fee would be limited to the amount counties charge people for using their respective sewer systems. In Honolulu, that amount is about $100 per month. 

With about 11,000 cesspools on Oahu, that means the city could receive roughly $13.2 million each year in cesspool pollution fees – not a huge amount relative to the task, which could cost about $50 million for some projects. That was the estimated cost last year when the city considered extending its sewer system to connect a remaining swath of just under 1,000 houses in Ewa, a project that Babcock said is currently on the back burner until they do more public outreach.

Babcock agreed that pollution fee revenue wouldn’t be able to fully cover projects like this.

“But obviously it’s a good chunk,” he said.

In addition to expanding sewer systems, counties are empowered by the bill to give out grants to households making no more than 80% of the area median income, or just under $105,000 per year for a family of four. Low-interest loans can be made to households earning up to the median income, which is $131,000 for a family of four.

Between these two options — expanding the sewer system and making grants and loans — Babcock leans towards the first, since getting more customers on the system would mean that the monthly rate per household could stay low. But he emphasized that this decision doesn’t have to be made just yet, and that a case could also be made for prioritizing grants and loans in his department’s approach to spending the cesspool pollution fee revenue.

“It would be perhaps a combination,” he said.