In the islands of Hawaiʻi, there are more than 80,000 cesspools that are lawfully required to be converted, upgraded, or connected to a sewer line by the year 2050. Of the 80,000+ cesspools, the conversions follow a prioritized sequence consisting of three levels.
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Priority one requires immediate conversion as these areas impose the greatest contamination hazard on the environment.
Priority two comes next, where the contamination hazard still imposes a significant threat to the environment.
Priority three will still require cesspool conversion, but can happen at a later date as the contamination hazard is less threatening than priorities one and two.
Cesspools are containers - typically made of concrete block, cement, or bricks - with porous walls, allowing waste and wastewater to seep into the surrounding soil. Cesspools vary in size depending on how much waste is being produced. Single family homes, residential units, and even businesses and institutions use cesspools.
The reason Hawaiʻi is mandating the conversion of these cesspools is because waste is allowed to leak into the soil, therefore contaminating the environment. Imagine the 80,000+ cesspools, and then think about how much waste just one person produces every single day. That’s a lot of contamination on what is a small piece of land. This, paired with the fact that tourism in Hawaiʻi is a massive industry, increases the amount of waste being produced.
Why 2050 and not sooner?
It is expensive, and a solution not many households can afford, especially local households. Given that Hawaiʻi has the highest cost of living in the United States, and that a majority of the required conversions are local households, there aren’t many people who have 20-30k to spend converting their current wastewater situations.
There are also more problems on top of the cost. For one, it’s a process. It takes months to make the drawings, get approved, buy the materials, and install it. Two, there aren’t too many licensed engineers with the ability to complete these conversions. Additionally, different types of soils means almost every conversion has to be individualized as there are regulations in place that cause the solutions to vary. And finally, it’s difficult, expensive, and takes a lot of time to connect homes to sewer lines.
All in all, it is a work in progress. One that will benefit Hawaii’s environment, as well as the state economically once completed. However, there are many drawbacks and considerations to make because of the many factors that make these upgrades and conversions seemingly impossible given the massive workload and short timeframe.
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