Court Denies Hawaiian County's Plea to Reverse Wastewater Ruling
WAILUKU, Hawaii (AP) — An appeals court denied Maui County’s request for a full-panel review of its Feb. 1 decision that the county pumped treated wastewater into injection wells at its Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility for more than three decades, thereby violating the Clean Water Act.
“We’re pleased the 9th Circuit rejected this attempt by polluting industries to do an end run around the Clean Water Act,” Earthjustice staff attorney David Henkin said in a written announcement of the decision. “When Congress passed this landmark law to protect our nation’s waters, it did not create a loophole for Maui County to pollute the Pacific Ocean by using the groundwater underneath the Lahaina facility as a sewer.”
The county will appeal the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, County Communications Director Rod Antone said Friday.
The county has spent $94 million on wastewater treatment facilities to better clean water for it to be used for irrigation, Maui County Mayor Alan Arakawa said.
The Lahaina wastewater treatment plant processes about 4 million gallons (15.1 million liters) of sewage daily, injecting unused water into four injection wells.
A U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study in 2011 found that Lahaina wastewater flows into groundwater surfacing near Kahekili Beach, according to an Earthjustice announcement of the 9th Circuit decision. The upwelling of wastewater there has been linked to algae blooms that smother coral reefs and degrade marine ecosystems, the report said.
Earthjustice represents four Maui community groups: the Hawaii Wildlife Fund, Sierra Club-Maui Group, Surfrider Foundation and West Maui Preservation Association. The groups sued Maui County in 2012, the Maui News reported .
Earthjustice is looking to protect the sensitive coral reefs at Kahekili and beachgoers from pollution.
In its February ruling, now reaffirmed, 9th Circuit justices said that, “at bottom, this case is about preventing the county from doing indirectly that which it cannot do directly,” because it would need a Clean Water Act permit to dispose wastewater directly via an outfall into the ocean.
“To hold otherwise would make a mockery of the (Clean Water Act’s) prohibitions,” the justices said.
Related News
From Archive
- Fatal trench collapse in Mass. leads to $4.6 million OSHA penalty, dozens of violations
- OSHA investigates fatal trench collapse at Conroe construction site
- Final Lake Erie sewer tunnel project set to begin after decades-long $3 billion effort
- Texas811 launches real-time excavation detection to prevent utility strikes
- Fiber drilling strike triggers major sewer failure, lawsuits in Florida
- Fatal trench collapse in Mass. leads to $4.6 million OSHA penalty, dozens of violations
- Texas811 launches real-time excavation detection to prevent utility strikes
- Race Communications breaks ground on Bakersfield fiber network
- Final Lake Erie sewer tunnel project set to begin after decades-long $3 billion effort
- Inside Infrastructure: Utility locators warn of systemic failures in damage prevention process
Comments