01-26-2006, 08:17 AM
Aloha Lucy, I can't answer all your questions, but when I was building a house on 5th in HPP a driller approched me offering to drill a well for $100 per foot(60'deep) and added I would need a septic system to guarantee purity. Since none of the neighboring houses had septics, (and many more have been built adjacent since, without septics), I figured catchment was actually less risky for water quality, and a whole lot cheaper than a well. Another problem with groundwater quality here is unpermitted housing, where the sewer pipe is usually just run into the closest convenient crack in the ground. That is one of the big beefs of cave explorers here, they say Kazimura and the other big caves are running sewage in places. BTW, geothermal is still drilling those holes into the volcano in the same place, just down the road from me in Pohoiki.