HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-03-29 EMC testimony (3-25) Hecht, DebbieComments to the Environmental Management Commission’s- Agenda 3.29.2023
VIII Reports/ Correspondence
#2 Budget 2023-2024 and
#4 Wastewater Division projects and updates for West Hawaii.
Aloha Environmental Management commissioners.
A very grateful mahalo for your service to protect the environment of our island and to make sure we
process waste and sewage properly to protect the health of citizens.
My name is Debbie Hecht and I have been concerned about the cesspools and septics around
Kahalu’u Bay for about 20 years and how they affect the health of citizens and visitors. I used to
swim at Kahalu’u three times a week, but I won’t swim there anymore, since I got an infection in my
arm that went to the bone and landed me in the hospital twice, close to sepsis. I was on IV antibiotics
for 3 weeks.
There are two maps attached to this email:
1. A map that shows the general location of the sewer lines in the area. There are two sewer
systems: The lines that go from Kahalu’u Beach Park and south are privately owned and
service some of Keauhou. The county’s sewer lines come from the north and stop at Queen
Kalama. You can see the approximately 1 mile that is without sewer.
2. I created the other map on a TMK parcel level that shows how each property processes
sewage. I apologize for how crude the map might look, but I hope you can see that there are
at least 69 cesspools and 14 septic systems and 5 aerobic systems in the area.
The sewage in the cesspools and septic leach lines pollute the ocean. Septics are not the answer,
the leach lines are high in nitrates from urine and have polluting household chemicals. The septic
tanks can fill up at king tides or tsunamis and overflow. As you know, cesspools are holes in the
ground where black water sewage from your toilet and house goes straight into the ground and then
seeps into the ocean where we swim. The sewage percolates through the porous volcanic/sand soils
at high tides. When you snorkel on the north side of Kahalu’u Bay, you can see there is more algae,
and it has increased over the last 20 years. People get sick from staph or MRSA in Kahalu’u Bay.
When I went to the Keauhou Urgent care and Ali’i Health doctors at both places told me that they see
frequent infections of people that swim at Kahalu’u. This is a public health issue and isn’t a
fundamental job of government to protect the health of citizens?
I respectfully request that the Environmental Management commission send a formal communication
to Mayor Roth, the Director of Environmental Management, Ramzi Mansour, and Deputy Managing
Director, Bobby Command and Deanna Sako, Director of Finance and ask them to include money in
2023-24 budget to get an Environmental Impact Statement and the engineering drawings completed
in this fiscal year, to extend and connect the sewer line, so the project can be “shovel ready” to apply
for Federal and state grants.
The community has been talking to elected officials for more than 20 years, through 4 administration
changes. It is time to get this done to protect the health of citizens and the health of the ocean
environment!
Mahalo for your time and service,
With warm aloha
Debbie Hecht
808-989-3222
Hecht.deb@gmail.com