“Wastewater has really been disregarded for years and years and years and it’s something we have to address as a state,” Rep. ![]() ![]() Thankfully, Hawaii’s congressional delegation is increasingly aware of the severity of the problem. No other state in the country has a higher per capita number of cesspools. Hawaii’s 88,000 cesspools discharge 53 million gallons of untreated sewage each day. Over the last year, our W4W group has been meeting weekly, focused on four long-term goals: workforce development, infrastructure investment, cesspool replacement and water protection. WAI helped to create the Work-4-Water Initiative by bringing together leaders from Hawaii Community College, the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College, the Water Resources Research Center and the Hawaii Department of Health’s wastewater branch. This sewage pollution poses harmful threats to public health, drinking water, the near-shore environment and coral reefs, along with Hawaii’s reputation as a world-class destination. Hawaii has some 88,000 cesspools across the state that discharge 53 million gallons of untreated sewage into our groundwaters each day. The new AJP bill would invest $1.7 trillion to get people back to work restoring our aging roads, bridges, water and wastewater treatment systems.Īs co-founder of the nonprofit WAI: Wastewater Alternatives & Innovations, I’m focused on the last issue. Congress passed the Biden administration’s American Rescue Plan Act and its members are currently arguing over the proposed budget for the American Jobs Plan. ![]() If there’s one thing most Americans should be able to agree on, it’s the need to repair our nation’s deteriorating infrastructure. Now, almost a year later, Hawaii has a major new ally in the work to convert cesspools: The federal government under a new administration is pushing policies and offering funding to do just that. Last July, in my IDEAS Essay about how Hawaii has the highest number of cesspools per capita in the country, I advocated that the pandemic should motivate the state and counties to diversify our economy and develop the wastewater workforce that is needed to convert all of these cesspools.
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