R-1 water resolution sent to Water and Infrastructure Committee

Maui County Council members decided Friday to take a “deeper dive” into the county’s ongoing efforts to increase production and expansion of recycled wastewater to make more drinking water available for housing and other uses.

Council members voted unanimously to refer a resolution drafted by South Maui Council Member Tom Cook to the Water and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by him. He said he would take up the matter in committee as soon as possible. “I think it’s important for our community,” he said.

The idea of using recycled wastewater to irrigate grass and shrubbery at parks, golf courses, hotels and elsewhere has been around for years, and many millions have already been budgeted and committed for R-1 water development. But now, because of last year’s Maui wildfires and an aggravated housing crisis, Cook’s resolution reflects a move to ramp up pressure on the Bissen administration to do more to free up potable water for human consumption and housing development.

The administration of Mayor Richard Bissen has already said that delivering more water for housing development is a priority.

West Maui Council Member Tamara Paltin was quick to point out that the resolution, as drafted, says “housing” but not “affordable housing.” She said the resolution needs to be fleshed out, calling it a “one-sided statement at this point.”

She also wanted more clarity about what the draft resolution means for West Maui, where a 2020 US Supreme Court ruling set the County and state on course to getting a federal Clean Water Act permit for water pumped underground into injection wells at the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility.

According to the resolution, the Lahaina facility — before the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires — produced 4.5 million gallons per day of R-1 water. Of that, an average of 3.16 million gallons per day went into underground injection wells in West Maui.

Paltin said that, following the Supreme Court ruling, “we need to use that R-1 (water) anyway, so I don’t know what the ‘urging’ result involving West Maui necessarily means, but West Maui needs to have a seat at the table if we’re passing anything when we already know that the injection wells need to come to an end.”

According to information provided to Cook’s office by the Department of Environmental Management’s Wastewater Reclamation Division, the county already has a six-year capital improvement plan for R-1 wastewater.

The draft Council resolution encourages the mayor and director of the Department of Environmental Management to invest in R-1 water production at the Kahului, Molokaʻi and Lānaʻi Wastewater Treatment Facilities, along with the expansion of the R-1 distribution system in West and South Maui. The Council also wants an annual progress report and asks the administration to explore public-private partnerships to expand R-1 wastewater distribution in West and South Maui.

Lānaʻi Council Member Gabe Johnson alluded to a comment by Cook about using his draft resolution as a way of “sending a message” to the Bissen administration regarding R-1 wastewater, and Johnson said the Council already approved an R-1 bill early this year.

“Writing bills and putting (it) into the law is sending that message in all caps, bold statement with exclamation points,” he said.

Early this year, the Council approved Bill 52 by a vote of 8-0. That measure, now an ordinance, requires municipal wastewater effluent discharged by the County to meet Hawaiʻi State R-1 reuse water standards.

Johnson also took exception to the draft resolution in that it doesn’t mention that water is a “public trust.” Instead, the resolution’s first sentence refers to water as a “scarce and valued commodity.”

“I don’t think water is a commodity to be traded, to be sold, to be bought,” he said. “Water is a public trust. It’s a public trust resource.”