The Maui County Council passed universal municipal wastewater disinfection legislation with second and final reading on Friday, January 12, 2024. Mayor Bissen signed ordinance 5592 into law on January 21, 2024.

The new law mandates 100% of municipal effluent in Maui County to be disinfected and treated to R-1 standards by January 1, 2039:

"Starting January 1, 2039,

municipal wastewater effluent

produced by the County must meet

Hawaii State R-1 reuse water standards.

The Council must allocate sufficient funding

for the implementation of this subsection

so that its requirements will be met

by the implementation stated above."

Even though the law has a 15-year implementation timeline, the Kihei Wastewater Reclamation Facility has already completed installation of a new ultraviolet disinfection channel with capacity to treat all the injection well effluent discharges from Kihei WWRF, but fecal indicator bacteria readings in effluent remain above the detection limit for the test in the most recent Underground Injection Control Program monitoring of injection well discharges.

When queried, the Maui County Department of Environmental Management disclosed that they are planning to implement fixes to “pinch points” in Kihei WWRF plumbing that are preventing disinfection of all injection well discharges, which will enable 100% R-1 effluent production by FY2027, to eliminate the release of disease-causing pathogens from municipal injection wells in South Maui for good.

The Kahului WWRF, according to a Maui County official in official Council testimony, will require up to $20 million in further investment to realize 100% UV disinfection and 100% R-1 effluent quality. Reef Power LLC is open to facilitating a tax-deductible donation from any interested philanthropist, to accelerate installation of ultraviolet wastewater disinfection of injection well discharges at the Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility, through the Maui County Council Memorandum of Agreement process that has in the past enabled the transfer of private funds to the County for certain permitted infrastructure improvements.

Now it’s time for a statewide version of Maui County’s Bill 52 that would mandate universal disinfection and treatment to R-1 standards for all municipal wastewater discharges by all State and County operated wastewater treatment and reclamation facilities across Hawaii. Effluent water quality testing results describing fecal indicator bacteria levels measured in wastewater effluent produced by each of Oahu’s nine municipal disposal methods were recently added to www.FlushAware.com and indicate a wide range of disinfection treatment levels and resultant pathogen threat in effluent discharging from municipal plants across the island.

The State of Hawaii urgently needs a uniform wastewater effluent quality mandate that requires treatment of all municipal discharges to the Hawaii State Department of Health R-1 standard — including reef-safe disinfection.

There is no acceptable place to release disease-causing pathogens into the environment of our unique island ecosystems or recreation areas.

Whether effluent is reused or discharged to surface water, groundwater, or the ocean, all municipal effluent discharged in Hawaii should be completely disinfected first.

A statewide law could be modeled after the legal structure successfully developed in collaboration with community activists, the Maui County Council, the Maui County Department of Environmental Management, and the Honorable Maui County Mayor Richard T. Bissen, Jr.

Such a new Hawaii statewide law modeled after Bill 52 could read:

A BILL FOR AN ACT
RELATING TO WATER POLLUTION CONTROL
 
BE IT ENACTED
BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
 
Section 1.
 
Chapter 342D, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
 
§342D-   Municipal wastewater treatment; R-1 water standard. 
 
(a) For purposes of this section: 
 
   (1) “Municipal wastewater producer” means any wastewater treatment facility owned or operated by the State or a county. 
 
   (2) “State R-1 water standards” means the applicable effluent water quality requirements for R-1 recycled water as established by the Department of Health. 
 
(b) By January 1, 2040, all municipal wastewater producers shall ensure that any wastewater effluent discharged from their facilities meets State R-1 water standards. 
 
(c) The legislature shall appropriate sufficient funds to ensure compliance with this section.
 
Section 2.
 
This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

Reef Power LLC has contacted state legislators and is planning to meet with a potential sponsor this summer.

Stay tuned on Instagram at @reefpowermaui and @flushaware !

Send your thanks to the Maui County Department of Environmental Management for investing in the work to realize 100% municipal wastewater disinfection in Maui, with this KudoBoard