WAILUKU - The debate over whether to build two replacement injection wells at the Wailuku-Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility will be decided by the Maui Planning Commission.
That is, if an effort to resolve the issue through mediation doesn't work first.
Two local environmental groups, the DIRE Coalition and Save Kahului Harbor, on Jan. 25 appealed a decision by Planning Department Director Jeff Hunt to grant a special management area "minor exemption" to the county's Environmental Management Department, so it may replace two aging injection wells.
The injection wells at the Wailuku-Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility are used to dispose of an average of 4 million to 5 million gallons a day, said Environmental Management Director Cheryl Okuma. Using gravity, the treated wastewater is poured deep into the ground.
However, the plaintiffs blame reef-killing pollution, algae blooms and swimmers' infections on the injection-well practice, which Mayor Charmaine Tavares said she wants to end within the next decade. The county places an average of 9 million gallons a day of treated wastewater from toilets and drains through 18 injection wells countywide.
This week, the Maui Planning Commission voted unanimously to act as the deciding body as to whether or not the wastewater reclamation facility will get its permits. Members then scheduled a one-day contested-case hearing for April 27 on the SMA permit application and appeal.
The hearing will be open to the public.
Under the law, the Maui Planning Commission would make the final decision anyway, attorneys for both sides argued.
"We really want to move this forward," Maui County Deputy Corporation Counsel Jane Lovell told commissioners at their regular meeting Tuesday in the Planning Department conference room.
But first, Maui Planning Commission members ordered the nonprofits and county officials to try mediation as soon as possible from a short list of one retired attorney and two former jurists, including retired 2nd Circuit Judge Boyd Mossman, who is also an Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee.
A special management area permit, which is a form of extra government environmental oversight, is required for construction projects along coastlines in Hawaii. On the Valley Isle, the Maui Planning Commission determines who gets an SMA permit.
DIRE stands for "Don't Inject, RE-direct." Some of its leaders are also on the mayor's Wastewater Community Working Group, which is tasked with finding a way to turn the elimination of injection wells from wishful thinking into a reality.
The working group is scheduled to produce a report in December, although DIRE Coalition members have criticized Tavares for not doing more - and doing it faster - to end the complicated and expensive problem.
Save Kahului Harbor, meanwhile, is a collection of harbor users, including paddlers and surfers. The international Surfriders Foundation Hawaii Chapter also petitioned to join the legal proceedings on Tuesday, but commissioners denied its request, saying Save Kahului Harbor already represents the interests of surfers.
DIRE Coalition member Irene Bowie called that decision unfortunate, saying the Surfrider Foundation tracks individual cases where people become ill from the ocean water.
While solving the problem of injection wells is difficult, the appeal is complex, too, said DIRE coordinator Jeffrey Schwartz, who is a former federal Environmental Protection Agency attorney.
For instance, Schwartz asked: After the new wells are dug, will the old ones be filled in or maintained as supplementary injection wells? A mediator may not be able to put to rest the complaint, but he might be able to resolve some of these lingering questions.
However, in a brief interview Tuesday, Okuma said that the county must cap the old injection wells once they construct the new ones. It's a condition of the Maui County's well operation permit with the state Health Department, Okuma said.
Schwartz said the county was trying to make the issue simplistic to suit its needs, and noted that there may also be some federal considerations or violations associated with the injection wells.
Lovell expressed hope that with the help of a professional third-party mediator, which the county pays for, the sides will be able to find some common ground before the appeal goes to the Maui Planning Commission. Schwartz concurred, saying maybe the appeal won't have to go to the commission at all.
Deputy Corporation Counsel James Giroux, who advises the Maui Planning Commission, said he believes the members are fully capable of making a determination should it come to that.
This is a minor exemption, Giroux said, and he's seen commissioners deal with several more substantial or "SMA major exemptions" in a single day.
* Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@mauinews.com.
