Sewage backups
vexing for residentsThe city says it plans to install new
valves and pumping systems
in the coming months
Susan Rocco rushed through a February storm to her Foster Village home from her Honolulu office.
But she was too late. A valve on her home's sewage line remained open, allowing sewage from city lines to back up and spew from her toilet. Rocco and a friend spent hours cleaning up the couple of inches of brown water that covered her floor.
It was not a new experience. Rocco and her family have cleaned up sewage on a regular basis for nearly a quarter-century.
"It's a stressful thing," she said. "We just clean up and keep going."
Rocco, along with other families and businesses in various parts of the island, hope to get relief from the city before another rainstorm.
The city will install new valves and pumping systems within six months to stop the sewage backups to three homes on Piikea Street in Foster Village, said Frank Doyle, the city's director of environmental services.
"These type of solutions will be temporary. In some areas it will be permanent," said Doyle.
He said the city also plans to do sewer work in Kailua near Buzz's Original Steak House on Kawailoa Road and in Waimalu on Olepe Loop where sewage has backed up during recent storms.
The cost for the work was not available, but Doyle estimated a project to be done in the next couple of years on Olepe Loop is estimated at a "couple of hundred thousand dollars."
Rocco, who lives with her son and brother, recalled how her parents formed a line of friends and family members who scooped and passed buckets of sewer water out of their split-level home at 1716 Piikea St. during their first sewage backup, in 1980.
Since then the house has been flooded with sewer water at least 25 times, she said.
During heavy rains, Rocco leaves her office or wakes up in the middle of the night to grab a 12-foot metal key that shuts off a manual valve on the sewage line in her front yard.
"It's really miserable when I know it's going to rain. I debate whether I go to work, whether I have to set the alarm in the middle of the night to go look," she said. "It's very unpleasant."
Seven years ago she spent $5,000 to have a one-way valve installed and other plumbing work done. But the mechanism has not been effective.
"It doesn't solve the problem," said Rocco. "The water still comes in but not as fast."
Rocco said she was told by the city that they will install another valve near the front of her home in the next couple of weeks. She said the city told her it is looking into installing a "mini processing plant" within a year and a half that will permanently fix the problem.
The sewage backups have damaged her furniture and floor, and she speculates her home has been devalued by tens of thousands of dollars.
Two houses away, Bernard and Susan Bisch have had similar problems since December.
Sewage and water backed up twice during storms in December and January. Afterward, the city installed a one-way valve on the sewage line at the top of their driveway.
Bernard Bisch said the valve prevented sewer water from flowing into their home in February, but their driveway was covered with four inches of feces and sewer water when a cement cap on a sewer line blew off during a storm.
"I want the problem fixed completely," he said. "They only fixed it halfway."
"It's a health hazard for all of us," Bernard said. The couple has a 6-month-old boy, Cuatro. "They need to figure out something."