The Department of Environmental Management said it’s ready to put aside long-standing plans to build a state-of-the-art $160 million wastewater treatment plant. This would be on the island’s western shore.

Researching More Cost-Effective Alternative Plans For Hawaii

The environmental management director, Ramzi Mansour, said he is looking into a more simple and cheap alternative. Instead, it would be building out of a multi-million sand-filtrated treatment plant. That plant would focus on R1 water. It is considering the highest-grade of recycled water. In fact, Mansour wants to produce R2 water. At a portion of the price, it can still be using for golf courses and agricultural irrigation.

Ramzi Mansour Says the Plant can be Built for Much Fewer Than Hundreds of Millions!

“In fact, we are not going to spend the $160 million. Moreover, that itself is a relief,” Mansour says this week. It was shortly after Hawaii County Mayor Mitch Roth’s cabinet partook in a forum on what the administration has achieved in its first 100 days. “We may be able to do it in tens of millions rather than hundreds of millions. This depends on the operational techniques and the Department of Health concurrences.

R2 Water isn’t Half Bad For Hawaii!

It’s still highly useful but R2 water is one step down from R1 water.

Techniques for Process R-2 Water

Exploring the techniques for processing R-2 water is the department’s short-term goal, Mansour said. Or even better, R-1 water. That is without major facility improvements. It is to secure the required permits for those discharge levels once it does.

In fact, Mansour said on a current tour of the wasterwater treatment plant: “We can do it.”

For R2 water, then it is just the issue of finding users. At the top of that list are local golf course and farmers. In fact, discussions are happening now.

“Moreover, I would say we are very close,” Mansour said. “We are going to continue to monitor the results in the sewage. Now, we are already at the R2 water, even better.”