Civil Beat: Hawaiʻi Homeowners Need More Options To Get Rid Of All Cesspools By 2050

Miloliʻi, on Hawaiʻi island’s leeward coast, is renowned for its dedication to traditional fishing practices, but the rural village has no municipal sewer system, leaving the 500 residents in and around that area to rely mostly on cesspools they can’t afford to replace.

“Most of my ʻohana, my family, we’ve been there for many generations,” Miloliʻi native Kaimi Kaupiko said. Typically, it costs tens of thousands of dollars to convert a cesspool to septic or some other treatment system.

“We don’t have those types of funds,” Kaimi said, “to upgrade systems or find a better solution.”