Kaua‘i County is unsure whether to accept $11 million in state funds for improvements to a wastewater treatment plant.
The Kaua‘i County Council voted Wednesday to reject a resolution that would increase a loan from the state to the county from $14 million to $25.5 million to make improvements to the Wailua Wastewater Treatment Plant.
The Wailua WWTP is more than half a century old, having been built in 1964, and receives wastewater from several east Kaua‘i communities such as Papaloa, Kapa‘a and Waipouli.
In 2024, Kaua‘i County Council passed a resolution authorizing the county to make a deal with the state for a $14 million loan via the State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund to finance renovations to the WWTP, planned since 2009, that would replace aging equipment throughout the facility and improve water filters to meet more stringent environmental standards.
On Wednesday, the Council discussed — and ultimately withheld judgment on — a proposal to nearly double that loan.
“This is a very antiquated facility, it’s very old,” said Council Chair Mel Rapozo. “How much have we paid in emergency repairs over the last five years? Because I know we have paid a lot.”
Rapozo went on to say the plant is located within a tsunami inundation zone and therefore cannot be expanded beyond its current footprint. And, because of constant equipment failures and repairs, the plant is currently incapable of operating at its full capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day.
“We’ve got to make a decision today on whether or not we continue to fund a plant tat is antiquated, in a tsunami zone and cannot be expanded, or do we reassign these funds to building a new plant,” Rapozo said.
While Kaua‘i Mayor Derek Kawakami published just on Wednesday a list of administrative accomplishments stating that the county is “actively evaluating sites to relocate the Wailua Wastewater Treatment Plant outside the tsunami zone,” that list adds that such a project will take at least 10 years to complete, during which time east Kaua‘i will still need a facility to process wastewater.
By the time the new resolution reached the Council agenda, the county was already up against a deadline. Donald Fujimoto, chief of Kaua‘i’s Wastewater Management Division, told the Council that the county has until June 2026 to expend the funds approved via the initial 2024 loan.
However, Fujimoto said, between the project’s inception in 2009, the loan’s approval in 2024 and when the county posted a bid for contractors to carry out the project in Dec. 2025, the economy has changed drastically. The lowest of the four bid responses — from Maui-based Alpha Inc. — was for $17.4 million, already more than the total loan.
Hence, Fujimoto said, the need to expand the loan. Fujimoto explained that the $25.5 million will cover the low bid, along with another $1.1 million for construction management, $3 million to meet new environmental compliance standards and $3.5 million for contingency funds.
Despite other improvements to the plant, it has not been operating at full capacity for decades — Fujimoto said it runs at about 600,000 gallons per day out of the 1.5 million per day maximum. Consequently, Council Vice Chair KipuKai Kuali‘i suggested that there is no need to do any more than the minimum needed repairs.
But Fujimoto surprised the Council by saying a subsequent phase of construction has been proposed that would allow the facility to reach the full 1.5 million gallon-per-day capacity — for another $50 million.
Even though County Engineer Troy Tanigawa emphasized that committing to the $25.5 million loan doesn’t commit the county to another $50 million project in the future, Rapozo was very cagey about the prospect.
“Don’t get pissed off because we’re asking questions and please don’t ask me to support this today with a two-hour discussion on why you need this money,” Rapozo said. “From 2009 to 2024, 15 years, we let it go, we let it rot. And today … the bidder said if don’t give them that money then he’s going to pull his bid. As far as I’m concerned, don’t do business with that guy ever again.”
The Council discussed for hours whether the $14 million loan could be sufficient to keep the facility running and in compliance with environmental standards for another 10 years while a new plant gets developed, but the Public Works team could make no guarantees.
Ultimately, the Council voted to defer the matter until a future meeting so that Public Works can develop more detailed cost breakdowns for the project.
Meanwhile, Kawakami appeared at the meeting, promising that more details about the planned new wastewater treatment plant will be forthcoming later this year.
Aloha State Daily reached out to the Kaua‘i County Public Works Department for further comment.
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