In 1994 the state sued the city after a five-year permit authorizing the city to pour treated wastewater in the Wahiawa lake expired. The city had been discharging treated effluent into the lake since 1929.
The lake water has been used for irrigation by Waialua Sugar Co., which built the dam that formed the lake for that purpose. The Army, meanwhile, had been discharging treated wastewater directly into the company's irrigation ditches.
The closing of Waialua Sugar changed all that because water would no longer be drawn off for irrigation. The lake would be subjected to increasingly higher levels of pollution that would eventually kill it.
The city took the position that a new sewage treatment and disposal facility had to be built, but the cooperation of the federal Environmental Protection Agency, the Army and the state was needed. The state filed suit because it contended that the city had failed to make plans to deal with the problem.
The solution as announced this week: The city will stop pouring treated wastewater into the lake. The city and the Army will pipe their effluent to the Honouliuli treatment plant and a wastewater reclamation facility in Ewa, for use for irrigation.
The capital improvements will cost the city $18 million and the Army $21 million. Senator Inouye has pledged to have $21 million in federal funds appropriated to cover the Army's costs.
It took years to work this agreement out between the various branches of government, but the pact addresses a major problem for Central Oahu residents.
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John M. Flanagan, Editor & Publisher
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