Sewage plant being
retooled as fish farm

The first phase of the UH-Hilo
facility will be finished next year

HILO » In a former sewage treatment plant on the coastline, the University of Hawaii at Hilo is creating an aquaculture research facility which will include edible fish.

At yesterday's dedication of the Pacific Aquaculture and Coastal Resources Center, Hawaiian community leader Patrick Kahawaiolaa recalled how the adjoining Keaukaha Hawaiian Homes area endured the stink of the Hilo sewage plant from construction in 1965 to decommissioning in the early 1990s.

With the smell still in their minds, Kahawaiolaa said, it will be many years before Keaukaha residents will eat fish from the new center.

But he also said he sees the center as a sign of change.

Hawaiians were excluded when the 12-acre shoreline site was taken from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands. Hawaiians will now be included as the center opens for research for commerce and also for ocean education for children.

The first phase of the nearly $6 million project will be completed in late 2005, said UH-Hilo professor Kevin Hopkins, in charge of the project. That will include use of two 500,000-gallon former sewage tanks for fish, plus 24 new small tanks. Use of two other large tanks from the sewage days will await further funding. The center also includes another six acres at an inland site.

The tanks have been thoroughly cleaned and sand-blasted so that no sewage bacteria remain, said Peter Boucher, head of the Hawaii County Wastewater Division.

The cleanup cost the county more than $700,000, Boucher said.

He and others credited former Mayor Stephen Yamashiro with the foresight to save the tanks and buildings at the site. As existing structures, they are "grandfathered" and subject to far fewer costly requirements than a completely new facility would have to meet.

Still, it took the county a decade to find the best new use of the facility, turning it over to the university in 2001.

There is no way that Hawaii aquaculture ventures can compete with Asia in fish and shrimp production, Hopkins said. But research in Hawaii can create superior brood stock for Asia, such as brooder shrimp that sell for $35 each, he said.