ORD 2008-117 2006-2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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COUN'T'Y OF HAWAII STATE OF HAWAII BILL NO. s2s ORDINANCE NO. Q8 117 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 21, ARTICLE 5, SECTION 21-37 OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2005 EDITION AS AMENDED) RELATING TO THE SEWER CONNECTION LOAN PROGRAM. BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAII: SECTION 1. Chapter 21, article 5, section 21-37 of the Hawaii County Code 1983 (2005 Edition, as amended), is amended to read as follows: "Section 21-37. Findings and purpose. Increasingly strict Federal and State government requirements springing from the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, P.L. 92-500, commonly called the Clean Water Act, have been placed on local governments to upgrade the treatment of wastewater. The County of Hawaii, as a condition of receiving Federal construction grants for wastewater treatment facilities, has been mandated by the Environmental Protection Agency to construct sewer lines and laterals in Hilo and Kona and to expedite full utilization of the collector lines by requiring existing houses adjacent to those sewer lines and laterals to connect to the sewer system. While sewer connections to future new subdivisions can be planned to minimize the cost and the cost can be amortized in the mortgage, sewer connections to existing houses are more problematic. The cost of connecting an existing house to the sewer can be very expensive and varies greatly with the geology (soil or rock), the elevation of the house in relation to the lateral, the distance from the house to the lateral, and the topography and improvements between the house and the lateral. Many of the houses mandated for sewer hookup are owned by elderly people on fixed incomes who may find it financially difficult or impossible to pay for the connection at an estimated cost ranging from $3,000 to over $30,000. Section 21-5, requires connection to the sewer of lots accessible to a sewer. Conditions of Federal Environmental Protection Agency grants for construction of wastewater facilities in Hilo and Kailua-Kona also require the County of Hawaii to ensure full utilization of those facilities by mandating connection of existing houses to the sewer systems. For the Hilo wastewater treatment and conveyance project, Federal EPA Grant no. C150062 02, condition no. 14 of Grant amendment no. 1 requires the County of Hawaii to enforce the sewer use ordinance and require each and every existing dwelling or dwelling equivalent accessible to a sewer in Hilo to connect to the collection system. For the Kailua-Kona Sewerage System, Federal EPA Grant no. C150080 06, condition no. 8 requires the County of Hawaii to assure the timely hookup of residences to collection sewers. The connection cost may be financially burdensome for many owners. Therefore, , the council finds that, in order to assure that all possible lots are connected to the sewer to meet Federal and State requirements, it is in the public interest to create, in cooperation