After nearly two decades of fighting to hold the County of Maui accountable for pollution of West Maui reefs, we finally have a key opportunity to defend the reefs and push for maximum re-use of treated recycled (R-1) water in the Lahaina area. Now that the federal courts have determined once and for all that the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility needs a Clean Water Act National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permit, Surfrider needs your help to make sure the permit is as strong as possible, and also fits into the bigger picture of West Maui water resource issues, including the need to rebuild Lahaina for the benefit of its people. 

The Hawai‘i Department of Health (DOH) is holding a public hearing on the draft NPDES permit at the Lahaina Civic Center on October 1, 2024, at 3:30 p.m.

 CALL TO ACTION! 

Join Surfrider and our partners in calling to restore the imperiled coral reefs at Hā‘enanui and envision a future for West Maui where water quality and supply issues are met holistically and with the community’s needs and interests at the forefront of decision-making.

Please consider submitting written testimony to cleanwaterbranch@doh.hawaii.gov no later than 11:59 p.m. on October 2, requesting stronger permit terms including:

• Meaningful limits on nutrients and the pH of the facility’s wastewater discharges. The Facility discharges nitrogen and phosphorus in amounts far exceeding state water quality standards, and in amounts that are known to kill corals in Hā‘enanui reef offshore of Kahekili Beach Park. The reef must be restored so that it, and the other resources that depend on it, may continue to exist and be enjoyed by future generations.  Without reducing the acidity, nitrogen, and phosphorus levels of the Facility’s discharges, the reef will continue to suffer, with turf algae suffocating the coral.
  
  
• Requirements to quickly maximize water reuse, which would minimize (and potentially eliminate) harmful discharges to the ocean, while benefiting the West Maui community by increasing supplies of fresh water for irrigation, fire-fighting, and other uses; and
  
  
• Provisions to guarantee prompt public access to all permit documents, so that the community can stay informed about the status of pollution control at Hā‘enanui.

Personalize your testimony, Personalize your testimony, telling DOH how you use/recreate along the beach and in the water at or near Kahekili Beach Park, and why clean, nutrient free water is important to you and/or how water re-use would benefit you and your community

Lahaina injection wells

The Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation facility has pumped 3.5 million gallons of partially treated sewage water (R-1 water) into the groundwater every day for over 30 years. This facility uses injection wells to dispose of the highly treated wastewater, polluting the groundwater which flows through submarine springs and into the Pacific Ocean just offshore of Kahekili Beach Park, a popular recreational area traditionally known as Hā‘enanui. High nutrient content and acidity levels in the treated wastewater are degrading the coral reef health and water quality. 

What is an NPDES permit?

The Clean Water Act prohibits anybody from discharging “pollutants” through a point source (coming from single source) into a water of the United States unless they have a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. 

How did we get here?

Represented by Earthjustice, the Surfrider Foundation, alongside Hawai`i Wildlife Fund, the Sierra Club- Maui Group, and the West Maui Preservation Association, filed a lawsuit with the County of Maui in April 2012 to stop their polluting injection wells without a permit. The County of Maui argued that they did not need a permit because the wastewater was not entering the ocean directly, rather indirectly as discharge through injection wells. The case was eventually taken to the U.S. Supreme Court, and in 2020 the court ruled in favor of our coalition and agreed that the Clean Water Act can regulate discharges to the nation’s waters via groundwater if they are the “functional equivalent” of direct discharges. Please read this blog post for more in depth background on previous litigation. 

Given our successful lawsuit, DOH is now proposing a Clean Water Act permit (NPDES permit) to monitor and limit the pollution from Maui County’s Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility’s discharges.  This permit will be the first of its kind in Hawai`i to regulate ocean pollution through underground injection wells, which are used throughout the islands to dispose of wastewater and other pollutants. We need your help to ensure this precedent-setting permit is the best it can be. 

What’s in the proposed permit?

Earthjustice and our partners reviewed the near 200 page permit and submitted written comments regarding aspects that are missing or need to be emphasized in the application. Below is a brief summary of key points.

• The Good: proposed NPDES permit contains some strong points, including requirements to:
  • Test the Facility’s wastewater for toxicity
    
    
  • Monitor water quality at multiple locations as the wastewater travels from the Facility to the ocean; and
    
    
  • Regulate pollution at its source before the wastewater is injected underground.

• The Bad: proposed NPDES permit is MISSING some key points and must be strengthened to include:
  • Strong pollution limits and treatment for nutrients, i.e., nitrogen and phosphorous, which the Facility discharges in amounts far exceeding state water quality standards, and which are known to kill corals in Hā‘enanui reef offshore of Kahekili Beach Park
    
    
  • Limits on how much the Facility’s discharges can change the nearshore ocean’s naturally occurring acidity (pH); because of their acidity compared to salt water, the millions of gallons of fresh water that the Facility discharges each day are destroying Hā‘enanui coral from the inside out
    
    
  • Requirements to quickly maximize reuse of the Facility’s highly treated wastewater to minimize (or eliminate) discharges to the ocean and supplement the limited supplies of fresh water available to the West Maui community

• • Public access to reporting and other submissions required by the permit so the public can monitor permit compliance.                                             

To learn more about this proposed permit, check out our joint press release from last year with Surfrider’s partners about the permit application.