While DIRE and Maui Tomorrow were downstairs attempting to convince the Maui Planning Commission to do an Environmental Assessment on their $2,000,000 replacement sewage injection wells at Kahului, the Council was upstairs passing a rider on the funds to require the Department of Environmental Management to come up with a plan to recycle more wastewater and conduct sampling for water contamination before spending money to rehabilitate existing injection wells.

Council Member Wayne Nishiki introduced the proposal as an addition to the county’s budget for fiscal year 2011. Under his plan, the department would have to fulfill the requirements before it could seek or spend the money it is requesting for the injection well upgrades. Council Member Sol Kaho’ohalahala offered a similar plan, which would require Environmental Management to spend $250,000 of the money budgeted to carry out the water sampling, which he noted was ordered in January by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Nishiki’s plan would make the $2 million funding contingent on the department conducting a study to increase wastewater recycling. Nishiki said the study should include a plan and timetable for the county to treat all wastewater dumped in injection wells to “R1″ levels – safe enough to irrigate food crops.”It’s disturbing that this administration would not treat this water to R1 standards,” he said, adding, “We want this quality.”

In a second proposal, both Nishiki and Kaho’ohalahala noted the EPA had ordered the county to conduct water sampling, monitoring and reporting of contaminants at its wastewater facility in Lahaina. Nishiki said the county should be required to comply with the order before it could spend money on injection wells, while Kaho’ohalahala proposed requiring the department to spend $250,000 on the program.