Cachola wants
sewer fee exemption

The councilman says Kalihi
should be compensated
for Sand Island growth

Honolulu communities near the Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant should be exempt from paying increased sewer fees, according to at least one city councilman who represents the area.

Councilman Romy Cachola said the exemption would be compensation for the "negative impact" of the planned expansion of the plant so it can handle more wastewater from other parts of the island.

Cachola told Mayor Mufi Hannemann's administration yesterday that residents of Kalihi and nearby neighborhoods should get a community benefit just like what's being talked about for Leeward Coast residents who put up with a landfill in their back yard.

"When the mayor said we're coming up with a $300 million expansion for Sand Island Wastewater Treatment Plant, and said that's in Romy Cachola's district, I wasn't happy," Cachola told officials during city budget hearings on the administration's capital improvement funding requests for sewer projects.

"I think this is another major negative thing for the community. If we're going to accept (wastewater) from other communities, we should at least get a benefit package."

Hannemann has offered a benefits package to the communities along the Leeward Coast including the area from Ko Olina to Makua after the City Council voted to expand the current landfill at Waimanalo Gulch instead of relocating it to another site.

The mayor is also proposing to increase sewer fees over the next six years -- 25 percent next year and then 10 percent for each of the subsequent five years -- to generate more revenue to fund sewer projects.

Hannemann is asking for $72 million for the Sand Island plant expansion to treat 90 million gallons of sewage daily, from the current 82 million, to meet population increases in urban Honolulu.

Cachola agrees the plant's expansion will help prevent sewage spills, but pumping another 8 million gallons of sewage through Kalihi and neighboring communities will hurt the area.

"Negative impacts like the prison, you have halfway houses, you have homeless shelters, you have everything in there," Cachola said. And he cited recent community opposition to the sludge-to-fertilizer pellet facility at the Sand Island plant.

"We are a recipient of all this and then you come up with a huge (sewer fee) increase. That's a double whammy," he said.

Others in his community agree with him.

"You name it, we've got it so anything else that comes in we should be compensated for it," said Bernadette Young, chairwoman of the Kalihi-Palama Neighborhood Board, who spoke as an individual and not as a board member.

Waianae Coast state Sen. Colleen Hanabusa said that while she's empathetic with Cachola's concerns, the Leeward Coast continues to be the dumping ground for unwanted things.

That includes sludge from the Sand Island plant, which is trucked to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill.

"I don't disagree that our communities are the ones that get dumped on," Hanabusa said. "But I think that some of us get dumped on more than others. On the Leeward side, I don't think you can beat the burdens that it bears."

Hannemann's administration did not respond to a request for comment.