LAHAINA — A recent scientific discussion about a federal permit to dispose of wastewater — with costly new conditions for taxpayers — quickly transformed into a format for Maui County Mayor Charmaine Tavares to introduce an ambitious plan to use the treated wastewater to grow algae as an alternative energy fuel source.

Rather than continue the expensive and controversial use of injection wells, which pour treated wastewater back into the water table and are blamed by many for killing reefs and choking fish with algae blooms, Tavares proffered a pilot project that utilizes the nitrogen-rich byproducts of human waste.

Tavares said she wants to pursue an agenda that would eliminate the county's 18 injection wells. Someday. Maybe in 10 years, Tavares said.

Currently, every day the county's gravity-fed wells decant nearly 9 million gallons of treated wastewater down steel pipes that can sink 385 feet below the Earth's surface.

"Why not just get rid of it for good?" Tavares said in interviews on Friday and Saturday. "My goal is to get 100 percent diversion from injection wells countywide. We have a ways to go, but why not?"

Her initial plan? First, find a way to take the 3 million to 5 million gallons of treated wastewater per day that the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility puts into four injection wells, which are placed downstream of potable water tables, and use the water to grow algae in lined holding ponds.

The county Department of Environmental Management, which oversees the county's four wastewater treatment facilities, is in preliminary discussions with Oahu-based Hawaii Biofuels to set up an algae harvesting and processing facility. Kauai, Oahu and the Big Island already have similar projects under way to convert algae primarily into jet fuel. The easy-to-grow green stuff can also be used to make ethanol, biodiesel and even vegetable oil.

In the past few years, a couple of the industry's heaviest hitters, ExxonMobile and Dow Chemical, have invested hundreds of millions of dollars into converting algae into fuel, according to a report last month in The Wall Street Journal. Even Bill Gates has provided capital for the idea to a nonprofit startup.

Tavares and Environmental Management Director Cheryl Okuma said they will put together a local panel of experts next month to formulate a plan, analyze costs, set targets and schedule a timetable.

"I don't know how long it will take to implement," Tavares said. "We won't know until there's a plan devised in the next 12 to 18 months. I can't even say 10 years; it just depends. But we are also looking at more reuse options, and that looks very promising, too."

Right now, 22 percent of the county's treated wastewater is used to irrigate sugar cane and pineapple fields, home and hotel landscapes, and golf courses as well as for construction site dust control and firefighting. But the county's treated wastewater — which is clean enough for toilets but not to drink — requires a dedicated line, and it is very expensive to build new waterlines for irrigation, Tavares said.

Tavares announced her plan at the Lahaina Civic Center during a public hearing hosted Thursday night by Environmental Protection Agency officials based out of San Francisco.

The county has been haggling with the EPA since its Lahaina injection well permits expired five years ago.

The EPA scientists and bureaucrats demand more thorough water treatment than the county currently provides, with less fecal matter, nitrogen and unfiltered solids in its treated wastewater. In order to meet the new standards for the wells, which the EPA and state Department of Health monitor, Tavares estimated it would cost the county up to $30 million.

Regardless, sewer rates will almost certainly continue to rise. County officials have complained that while the feds continue to enact mandates for cleaner water, the EPA and Congress turned off the tap on grant funds for wastewater treatment facility improvements in the early 1990s.

With her plan, the taxpayers' money would be put to much better use, Tavares said.

About 50 people, most of them Maui clean water advocates and scientists, attended the hearing. It was the second EPA hearing in a year on a pending 10-year permit to continue the Lahaina injection wells.

In general, the testifiers supported Tavares' idea, some with enthusiasm. Many also wanted higher wastewater treatment standards; and most blamed the damage to Lahaina's reefs on the wells.

Robin Knox of Water Quality Consulting called the lack of government oversight and reef damage "criminal." She said she has coworkers who have contracted nasty staph infections in the ocean near the wells.

Tavares requested that the EPA allow the county to operate under current practices and water-quality standards for five more years, so her algae project and diversion for other uses can gain traction.

The county's wastewater infrastructure handles 14.6 million gallons a day from residents and visitors from toilets and drains.

Officials said in addition to the county's wastewater treatment, the water in its injection wells is further filtered through natural rock and sand formations before it reaches the ocean.

The EPA estimates there are 1.7 million injection wells in the United States, including those that feed into septic tanks and cesspools for single-family homes, which remains a common practice throughout Maui County's rural areas.

County Environmental Management Department officials said an unknown number of privately owned injection wells for large condominiums and businesses also exist today. They noted Maalaea's private injection wells in particular and said most tend to run shallower than the county's; and the wastewater isn't treated as thoroughly.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has said the agency's higher water-quality standards are rooted in science and the law.

But Okuma argued there is little science demonstrating that the permit conditions will solve any environmental problems.

There is also some controversy about which contributes more to oxygen-sucking algae blooms: injection wells or warm and dirty storm runoff from parking lots and roads.

Either way, most agree that injection wells are still a much better alternative to the bad, old days, prior to the mid-1970s and the U.S. Clean Water Act, when raw sewage was piped directly into the ocean. That practice — unbelievable to most people today — died out with society's better understanding of the environment.

Maui clean water advocates said injection wells are another archaic practice prone to accidents and even under the best circumstances with dangerous environmental consequences. Their days must be numbered as well, they say.
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