Pa’ia residents saw their long-fought success in banning the County from forcing the polluted water from Hamakuapoko Well on them, completely undone by the current County Council.  A bill to reverse the hard-fought ban on Hamakuapoko well water advanced to the full Council.

Mike Victorino is responsible for authoring this bill.  Elle Cochran was the only dissenting vote.  Cochran said it would be much better to use the water for irrigation only.

The chemical manufacturers whose products contaminated the groundwater are responsible for filtration costs until 2039.  Opponents to using the water point out that there are problems with disposing of the contaminated filtrate and they are not confident that the well filtration can be operated in such manner as to remove all traces of the chemicals which are strongly suspected to cause birth defects in extremely small quantities.