New Tax for everyone not on sewer

[Carey]

Only a very little bit of Hilo & Kailua Kona have sewer hookups - mostly very old... (the lines are pua along Kalanianaola) and as it stands, our treatment system is also fairly old....

Although most industry not on sewer on island have now complied with the 2005 deadline for septic....but many are primary...a few are secondary...very few tertiary....pumping is mainly for solids removal, effluent is normally handled with leach field (here little loops) or injection wells...

In many areas of the country that are not accessible (easily) by sewers, tertiary or quaternary septic systems are required... having updated a primary septic to a tertiary in our last house was not a horrible undertaking, & less $$$ than sewer hookups....


Hate to say it, but everywhere I have lived, updating the waste water systems of the house was a cost of living.... (how many of you have heard tales of old from your ohana, if your house has more modern conveniences, (& if you are reading this...well...you have access to a computer, & modern communication lines!) you are used to living in an ohana that is willing to update...

I would not doubt that eventually cesspools will need to be upgraded here & would not be surprised if the jump is to tertiary or quaternary treatment septic (this produces effluent that is very close to a waste water treatment plant)

Some may hoot & haller over the injection wells that a company has, yet fail to realize that they may have a polluting "injection well" right in their own 'back yard' (if the depth of you cesspool is greater than the width, it qualifies...and if you are utilizing a crack or tube, those count - heck the crack could be looked as as fracking!)

It surprises me that some of you on this one thread initially did not want to pay a tax for a service that was "not for you", WOULD YOU RATHER PAY FOR DIRECT TESTING OF YOUR CESSPOOL/SEPTIC???? that is done in areas of the country...some municipalities do not allow a building permit or a land transfer WITHOUT a Board of Health test...that is paid by the landowner.... of course, if your system does not pass, you must upgrade to a higher treatment system to retain occupancy....

[kalakoa]

Direct testing paid by landowner, and a mandate to upgrade at time of sale, would actually "do something" about the problem.

Paying fees to the State (and having that money disappear somewhere into the budget) seems like a formula for "zero return on investment".

Again: if DoH is already supposed to be performing these tests, how are they (we) paying for it? Or are they just not doing tests?

[Seeb]

You have to separate any tax or fee from the state with any problem getting solved here that money is just falls into the oahu sucking black hole
Because this problem should have been solved decades ago. A lot of states phased out cesspools in the 70s. Health Departments have required septic systems designed on a seep test since the 80s most places
sewer systems cost 100s of millions of dollars - that's why you try to plan population density in rural areas and you don't let developers subdivided denser than X without providing infrastructure 1st

[Chunkster]

Noted in the article that Russell Ruderman voted in favor of this new tax. The next time we all see him, we need to ask why he is trying to make life even harder for people in Puna struggling to get by. Like others, I don't trust the Hawaii state bureaucracy to do anything useful with the money. And who decides how much this tax is going to be anyway?

[kalakoa]

State promises the fee will be "reasonable", but they're probably using an Oahu definition of that term.

[terracore]

So a household with 10 people using a single cesspool will be taxed the same as my vacant lot which has an unused cesspool? But a huge ranch with 1,000 crapping cattle won't be taxed at all?! On municipal systems on the water/sewer bill usually the sewer is the higher part of the bill. But it's metered (they figure a gallon of water becomes a gallon of sewer, watering your lawn be damned).
This bill is poorly conceived and needs to die.

[rainyjim]

America - home of the wage slave.

[kimo wires]

Tax me for my cesspool. Take the money and spend it on sewer infrastructure on Oahu...And still no toilet at Kahena Beach.
They're REALLY concerned about the water quality here aren't they.
What a crock.

[David M]

I still suspect that the herds of cattle and countless wild pigs in our neighborhood contribute far more waste that all the cesspools in the neighborhood.

David

Ninole Resident
Please visit vacation.ninolehawaii.com

[Bullwinkle]

Smells like they are trying to establish a pipe line to funding should the EPA come to town ....

But what do I know? - I thought whats her name was buying a beach yesterday.....