HONOLULU The city of Hauula encompasses hundreds of homes on a narrow strip of land sandwiched between the verdant cliffs of the Koolau Range and the Pacific. But the stunning views obscure an environmental issue below ground.
This rural part of the island of Oahu is not connected to city sewers and waste from toilets, sinks and showers is mostly collected in hundreds of pits called cesspools.
With climate change, rising seas are eroding the Hawaiian coastline near homes with cesspools. Rising seas are also pushing the island’s groundwater closer to the surface, allowing cesspool effluent to mix with the groundwater table and flow into the ocean. And scientists say that in the future, cesspool pollution could even seep into the streets and parks of former low-lying wetlands.
We want proper sanitation as much as anyone does. We don’t want our children swimming in an ocean of bacteria, said Dotty Kelly-Paddock, president of the Hauula Community Association. It has to change.
Hawaii has 83,000 more cesspools than any other state, and about 20% are located within 1 kilometer (0.6 mi) of the coast. Six years ago, Hawaii mandated that all cesspools be removed by 2050.
The task is daunting and costly, but scientists warn that the problems of this unsanitary complication of island life will only be exacerbated by global warming.
Cesspools popped up all over Hawaii during years of rapid growth and are now everywhere, from old sugar plantation towns to the posh Honolulu enclave Black Point.
Most homes with cesspools are in neighborhoods with no sewers. In theory, soils gradually filter bacteria and pathogens into their effluents.
But rising seas and more intense storms are encroaching on coastal properties, as happened last year when a house collapsed on a beach along Oahus’ surfing mecca North Shore. Some coastal erosion removes the sand surrounding cesspools and carries the wastewater out to sea.
Inland cesspools are sometimes so close to groundwater that sewage pollutes them and can travel through headwaters to beaches and the ocean.
When researchers placed the dye in shoreline cesspools in the Big Island town of Puako for a 2021 study, it emerged in the coastal springs only nine hours to three days later, said Tracy Wiegner, a professor of marine sciences at the US. University of Hawaii-Hilo.
The researchers also found that bacteria levels in the ocean exceeded state health standards across 81 percent of the Puako homes sampled.
Public health officials warn that exposure to sewage can cause gastroenteritis, diarrhea, conjunctivitis and skin infections. A 2020 Hawaii Department of Health report said little is known about how bacteria and viruses are transported through waters in humid tropical regions where people swim year-round, but said Hawaii had double the rate of hard-to-treat MRSA superbug infections than the national average.
Environmental scientist Daniel Amato coordinates volunteers who test water quality at 24 sites across Oahu for the Surfrider Foundation every two weeks. He said it’s hard to prove that cesspools are the source of the bacteria the team finds, but bacteria levels are high where there are many cesspools.
Wastewater in the ocean from cesspools and other sources also damages coral reefs that support marine life and tourism.
The nitrogen in the wastewater acts as a fertilizer for the non-native algae that dominate the once diverse coral reefs. This reduces food for native fish and harms reef health.
Scientists say some feces-filled groundwater can leak through drains and onto the ground as rising sea levels raise groundwater above it. This aspect of climate change is most likely to occur first in extremely low-lying areas where coastal wetlands have been replenished and rebuilt.
When the water table rises, as it does and as it does, it will be extremely polluted water right there in our communities, in the midst of our communities on the streets, on the sidewalks, in our backyards, said Chip Fletcher, interim dean at the School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. This will pose a huge health threat.
High water tables are already contributing to chronic flooding in an industrial area of Honolulu.
Mapunapuna, home to auto body shops, a car rental shop and scrap metal yards, was once a wetland and is sinking. Several streets regularly flood even when it’s sunny and it hasn’t rained. At high tide, water covers streets and sidewalks.
Shellie Habel, a coastal geologist with the University of Hawaii’s Climate Resilience Collaborative, said parts of Waikiki in Honolulu could show such flooding in a decade or two. Even the famous seaside resort visited by millions of tourists a year was built on former wetlands.
There are no cesspools in Waikiki, but there are a few in the Ala Wai Canal watershed that borders the district.
Hawaii landlords have 27 years to hook up sewer lines or convert cesspools to a cleaner method of disposal. Those without a nearby sewer may consider installing a septic tank, which stores solid waste and has an attached leach field to gradually filter wastewater through the soil.
But experts say rising sea levels and groundwater will prevent leach fields from seeping wastewater into many coastal lots. A 2018 report from Miami-Dade County in Florida found that 1,000 septic systems were already failing due to high groundwater levels.
The solution to these problems is not simple. The uncertainty created by climate change is making it harder for policy makers to decide where to install sewers, said Juliet Willetts, a professor at the Institute for Sustainable Futures at the University of Technology Sydney.
We can no longer predict with certainty that there will be floods that often or anything, he said. We have only ideas of what it could be.
Honolulu City Council member Matt Weyer said his constituents are concerned about cesspit conversion costs, with estimates ranging from $10,000 to $50,000 per property.
His largely rural district includes Hauula, the Oahus North Shore and most of Oahu’s cesspools that scientists say need to be shut down urgently.
In March, the state offered $5 million in grants of up to $20,000 each to help homeowners. The money ran out in just two weeks.
The Honolulus municipal government, responsible for all of Oahu, plans to eliminate nearly 1,000 of the island’s 7,500 cesspools by spending $50 million to run sewer lines in a neighborhood of Ewa Beach. The project will be financed primarily by tax-exempt municipal bonds.
The city is also investigating ways to connect homes in the coastal towns of Haleiwa, Kahuku and Waimanalo with many cesspools. But Roger Babcock, director of the Honolulus Department of Environmental Services, said it won’t be possible to lay sewer lines everywhere.
The city is already spending $2.7 billion, under an agreement with the US Environmental Protection Agency, to upgrade two wastewater treatment plants and reduce sewage spills.
Even with its hundreds of cesspools, the quaint beach town of Hauula is not currently on the city list for a sewer study.
Kelly-Paddock, the community association’s president, said many of its nearly 4,000 residents work two or three jobs to keep food on the table and stay in their homes. He doesn’t know how they will pay to convert their cesspools.
The solution for many Hawaiian communities will require significant spending, said Wiegner, a professor of marine sciences.
We know this is a problem. Everyone wants to fix it, she said. But finding the money to make it happen is really challenging.
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