...SMALL CRAFT ADVISORY REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 6 AM HST FRIDAY...
* WHAT...East winds 15 to 25 kt with gusts up to 35 kt and seas
7 to 10 feet.
* WHERE...Oahu Windward Waters, Oahu Leeward Waters, Kaiwi
Channel, Maui County Windward Waters, Maui County Leeward
Waters, Maalaea Bay, Big Island Leeward Waters and Big Island
Southeast Waters.
* WHEN...Until 6 AM HST Friday.
* IMPACTS...Conditions will be hazardous to small craft.
PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS...
Inexperienced mariners, especially those operating smaller
vessels, should avoid navigating in these conditions.
&&
'A'ali'i is a reporter with KITV. He was born and raised on the island of Maui and graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor's degree in Journalism.
HONOLULU (KITV4) -- After state legislators passed a law in 2018 requiring property owners to convert their cesspools by 2050, a working group of experts has been evaluating how affordable the transition would be.
The total estimated cost of modernizing the roughly 88,000 cesspools across the state is $2 billion, according to members of the Cesspool Conversion Working Group.
"I think we all understand that the cost of this upgrade is going to be huge, but we can't afford to not do the upgrades," former Deputy Attorney General Ted Bohlen, a member of the working group, said.
Hypothetically, engineers forecasted about half of the cost could be covered by funding from federal grants and loans, the clean water state revolving fund, and rebates for homeowners.
"So that still leaves us with just over $1 billion in a funding gap to convert all these cesspools," Cari Ishida of Carollo Engineers explained. "Again, this is all hypothetical, we're just trying to get our arm around that funding gap."
According to Ishida, switching out a cesspool could cost anywhere between $10,000 and $38,000 depending on how complicated the new technology and system is.
Under a loan with a 4% interest rate over 20 years, coupled with monthly operational and maintenance costs, homeowners could pay somewhere between $94 and $339 a month.
Ishida explained the bill would be considered a financial burden to anyone who makes less than about $126,000 a year, which includes 94% of cesspool owners.
If a $10,000 rebate were provided, "82% would be financially burdened by the conversions, even with that $10,000 offset," Ishida said.
Bohlen argued the 2050 deadline to complete the conversions is too late.
"If we wait until 2050, we're not going to get the job done and we need to do the job. Pollution threats all of the reefs in Hawai'i and fresh water by 2050 and we depend on our reefs for our shoreline, our economy, for our wildlife here in Hawaii," Bohlen said.
Bohlen suggested about 26,000 of the state's cesspools be upgraded within the next 13 years, with the remaining converted by the 2050 deadline.
'A'ali'i is a reporter with KITV. He was born and raised on the island of Maui and graduated from the University of Southern California with a bachelor's degree in Journalism.