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COUNTY OF HAWAII <br />ORDINANCE NO. <br />STATE OF HAWAII <br />BILL NO. <br />325 <br />AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 21, ARTICLE 5, SECTION 21-37 OF THE <br />HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2005 EDITION AS AMENDED) RELATING TO THE <br />SEWER CONNECTION LOAN PROGRAM. <br />BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAII: <br />SECTION 1. Chapter 21, article 5, section 21-37 of the Hawaii County Code 1983 <br />(2005 Edition, as amended), is amended to read as follows: <br />"Section 21-37. Findings and purpose. <br />Increasingly strict Federal and State government requirements springing from the <br />Federal Water Pollution Control Act, P.L. 92-500, commonly called the Clean Water Act, <br />have been placed on local governments to upgrade the treatment of wastewater. The <br />County of Hawaii, as a condition of receiving Federal construction grants for wastewater <br />treatment facilities, has been mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency to <br />construct sewer lines and laterals in Hilo and Kona and to expedite full utilization of the <br />collector lines by requiring existing houses adjacent to those sewer lines and laterals to <br />connect to the sewer system. <br />While sewer connections to future new subdivisions can be planned to minimize <br />the cost and the cost can be amortized in the mortgage, sewer connections to existing <br />houses are more problematic. The cost of connecting an existing house to the sewer can <br />be very expensive and varies greatly with the geology (soil or rock), the elevation of the <br />house in relation to the lateral, the distance from the house to the lateral, and the <br />topography and improvements between the house and the lateral. Many of the houses <br />mandated for sewer hookup are owned by elderly people on fixed incomes who may find <br />it financially difficult or impossible to pay for the connection at an estimated cost ranging <br />from $3,000 to over $30,000. <br />Section 21-5, requires connection to the sewer of lots accessible to a sewer. <br />Conditions of Federal Environmental Protection Agency grants for construction of <br />wastewater facilities in Hilo and Kailua-Kona also require the County of Hawaii to <br />ensure full utilization of those facilities by mandating connection of existing houses to <br />the sewer systems. For the Hilo wastewater treatment and conveyance project, Federal <br />EPA Grant no. C150062 02, condition no. 14 of Grant amendment no. 1 requires the <br />County of Hawaii to enforce the sewer use ordinance and require each and every <br />existing dwelling or dwelling equivalent accessible to a sewer in Hilo to connect to the <br />collection system. For the Kailua-Kona Sewerage System, Federal EPA Grant no. <br />C150080 06, condition no. 8 requires the County of Hawaii to assure the timely hookup <br />of residences to collection sewers. <br />The connection cost may be financially burdensome for many owners. Therefore, <br />the council Ends that, in order to assure that all possible lots are connected to the sewer to <br />meet Federal and State requirements, it is in the public interest to create, in cooperation <br />