Hawaii Bans the Construction of New Cesspools

With more than 90,000 cesspools across the Islands, Hawaii has the highest number in the country.  Until recently, Hawaii was the only state that still allowed these substandard waste systems to be built.  For the last few years, the Hawaii Chapters have been working with the Dept. of Health to support changes to Hawaii's Administrative Rules (HAR) to ban cesspools.  After years of advocating against the construction of new cesspools, we are happy to announce that Gov. Ige signed into law the new rule changes to ban them on Fri., Mar. 11, 2016! “Cesspools provide no treatment, and inject about 55 million gallons of raw sewage into Hawaii’s groundwater every day, potentially spreading diseases and harming the quality of drinking water supplies and recreational waters,” Gov. Ige said at the signing announcement. The new HAR changes would also put into place the new $10,000 tax credits that Surfrider's Hawaii Chapters helped pass last year for homeowners to upgrade their cesspools to better septic systems in certain areas near water sources.