In further follow-up testimony supporting an amendment to fund CBS-1169 work for UV disinfection at the Kahului WWRF, effluent is not disinfected prior to injection well discharge, pathogens are confirmed above detection limits in the effluent, and above the beach action value for fecal indicator bacteria in the nearshore ocean injection well plume, and the exposure pathway to swimmers, fishers, and subsistence users is documented.
The DEM Director's 2023 ADEPT public statement that disinfection was occurring at the Kahului WWRF may toll the statute of limitations back to 2018, as an affirmative misrepresentation of material fact by a government official may constitute fraudulent concealment, potentially tolling the clock until affected residents reasonably could have discovered the true condition of the effluent, which they had no opportunity to know when disinfection was ceased without public notice in 2018.
The recent Supreme Court decision removes the state tort cap entirely. Federal exposure under the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1251 and 1365, and 42 U.S.C. 1983 is uncapped, with realistic settlement exposure of $150 million to $400 million for the affected class.
The remedy is immediate and known: advance funding for CBS-1169 to start design work for UV for all Kahului WWRF effluent now.
I ask this Committee to act, issue a litigation hold on all Kahului wastewater records back to 2018, and engage independent counsel to encourage the Council to pass an amendment with funding for CBS-1169 without further delay, to communicate to citizens and all affected that the County will make their best attempt to remedy this as soon as possible.
Mahalo.
Travis Liggett, M.S.
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis.liggett@gmail.com
Note: I am not a lawyer, am not giving legal advice, and have no intent to initiate legal action of any kind against the County of Maui at this time
I'm writing with additional testimony supporting a previous request for a proposed amendment that would add funding for CBS-1169 design work to the FY2027 budget, so that reef-safe wastewater disinfection can be installed for discharges entering the ocean through nearshore injection wells at the Kahului WWRF.
The County's public representations regarding disinfection at the Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility have created compounding legal exposure that this body should not ignore.
DEM represented during the November 30, 2023, Bill 52 ADEPT Committee hearing that chlorine disinfection was restarted and operational at the facility. That statement was false. Chlorination had been discontinued, a decision made unilaterally in 2018 by DEM staff, with no public notice or notification of sitting Council Members discoverable by UIPA.
What DOH did not require, the County chose to discontinue, citing cost savings. The absence of an NPDES permit almost certainly required by the SCOTUS decision (County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund), which would also almost certainly have required continuous disinfection as a condition of ocean discharge, circumventing a critical regulatory backstop.
Contemporaneous effluent data from the facility's own UIC permit testing, conducted in April 2023 under UIC Permit No. UM-1398, recorded fecal coliform in effluent levels exceeding 2,400 MPN/100mL and Total Residual Chlorine at only 0.04 mg/L, indicating functionally zero disinfection. This data predates the November 2023 hearing by months and was in the County's possession at the time the misleading statements were made.
The compounding liability exposure here is not abstract. Any member of the public who entered ocean waters within the effluent plume in reliance on DEM's representation that disinfection was active (and who subsequently suffered illness) may have a cognizable tort claim, especially when no NPDES permit (as required) is active, and no public or Legislative notice of disinfection cessation was made. The elements are present: a permit requirement and connected duty to the public, a nonfactual affirmative representation, foreseeable reliance, and documented inadequate treatment. The 2018 decision to cease disinfection for budgetary reasons, absent regulatory compulsion but in the face of known public health risk, compounds this exposure further, especially when the decision appears to have been made improperly, as there was no public notice of the cessation of all disinfection treatment of injection well discharges.
We respectfully urge the Council to require DEM to correct the record, commission an independent review of disinfection compliance history at Kahului WWRF, and ensure that CBS-1169 funding is advanced in FY2027, and not delayed until FY2028.
Sincerely,
Travis Liggett, M.S.
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis.liggett@gmail.com
In follow-up to prior testimony submitted today, I wish to draw your attention to a specific statement made by Meghan Dailer, Environmental Health Specialist with the Department of Health Clean Water Branch, as reported in the November/December 2021 Maui Times, now attached in full form (previous testimony only included the first page).
Ms. Dailer stated that the injected wastewater from the Kihei Wastewater Reclamation Facility is treated with UV and should therefore not have any live bacteria or viruses in it.
This statement is directly and unambiguously refuted as nonfactual, and misleading to residents who may have adopted a false sense of safety recreating inside the injection well plume at Cove Park, by the facility's own UIC Analytical Reporting Summary Sheet submitted to DOH, sampled December 14, 2021, approximately six weeks after Ms. Dailer's statement. That compliance document, submitted under permit UM-1396, recorded fecal coliform in effluent at greater than 2419.6 MPN, a result exceeding the upper detection limit of the test. By definition, no sample, including raw untreated sewage, can return a higher reading.
The DOH's own compliance data falsifies the DOH's own public statement. Council is respectfully asked to take notice of this contradiction and the public health implications for residents and visitors at Cove Park and adjacent coastal waters, who may have consented to exposure inside the plume, modeled in the attached 2007 publication, based on this blatant misinformation.
Mahalo,
Travis Liggett, M.S.
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis.liggett@gmail.com
When the Department of Health's Meghan Dailer told the press in 2021 that high bacteria counts at Cove Park were likely due to wave activity and coastal vegetation contact, she was not telling the whole truth.
Her statement gave residents a false sense of security at the very location where DOH records more Beach Action Value fecal indicator bacteria exceedances in ocean water than anywhere else in South Maui.
The Kihei Wastewater Reclamation Facility's own UIC compliance report, sampled December, 2021, recorded fecal indicator bacteria in effluent at >2419.6 MPN, a result reported above the detection limit of the test itself.
By definition, even raw sewage such as a "spill" cannot return a lower reading. A 2007 USGS groundwater study confirmed that the facility's injection plume travels directly to the coast, discharging at the shoreline adjacent to Cove Park where up to 60% of groundwater entering the ocean is effluent full of pathogens.
A major source of contamination at Cove Park is not just the surf.
It is the Kihei WWRF facility, and DOH is not telling the truth in media reports.
Mahalo,
Travis Liggett, M.S.
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis.liggett@gmail.com
Aloha e Council Chair Lee, Vice Council Chair Sugimura, and esteemed Council Members,
My name is Serena Fukushima and I am testifying today in strong support of the Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF). My ʻohana has greatly benefited from their programs, especially the Tūtū and Me Traveling Preschool and the Keiki Assets Account (KAA) Program.
The Tūtū and Me Traveling Preschool provides high-quality, ʻohana-centered learning grounded in our cultural values and has served over 50,000 keiki and caregivers across Hawaiʻi over the past two decades. Their thoughtfully curated curriculum includes diverse, themed learning stations, mele, dance, storytelling, and community-based huakaʻi that nurture both keiki and mākua. Our program meets for two hours, twice a week in our Upcountry community at Makawao Hongwanji.
Since my daughter began attending earlier this year, she has truly blossomed. Her social skills, confidence, and love of learning have grown tremendously. The kumu have become like extensions of our ʻohana, and we have built meaningful relationships with other mākua in our community—something that can feel like a true lifeline during the early years of parenthood.
Through our participation in Tūtū and Me, we also enrolled in the Keiki Assets Account, or KAA, Program. This program provides financial literacy resources and seed funding for a savings account for our daughter. It helps families build financial stability, break cycles of generational poverty, and create real pathways for our children to stay and thrive here in Hawaiʻi.
These programs have been life-changing for our family. They provide culturally grounded early education, family support, and financial empowerment that strengthen not only our daughter’s future, but our entire ʻohana.
Due to federal education funding cuts, PIDF is now facing a $20 million loss, forcing the closure of 17 locations and its virtual program—including all Maui programs. These services are critical for our communities and are offered at no cost to families like mine.
Without immediate action, these closures in September 2026 will further deepen educational inequities, reduce access to early learning opportunities, diminish vital community resources, and remove essential support systems for Maui’s keiki and ʻohana. This loss will also create a significant gap in culturally grounded educational support for Native Hawaiian keiki and families in our rural communities.
Maui County has always been a leader in putting our keiki and community first. Because of this, I humbly urge you to consider funding these programs to prevent their closure. An investment in our keiki today is an investment in the future of Maui.
Aloha Chair and Members,
In further follow-up testimony supporting an amendment to fund CBS-1169 work for UV disinfection at the Kahului WWRF, effluent is not disinfected prior to injection well discharge, pathogens are confirmed above detection limits in the effluent, and above the beach action value for fecal indicator bacteria in the nearshore ocean injection well plume, and the exposure pathway to swimmers, fishers, and subsistence users is documented.
The DEM Director's 2023 ADEPT public statement that disinfection was occurring at the Kahului WWRF may toll the statute of limitations back to 2018, as an affirmative misrepresentation of material fact by a government official may constitute fraudulent concealment, potentially tolling the clock until affected residents reasonably could have discovered the true condition of the effluent, which they had no opportunity to know when disinfection was ceased without public notice in 2018.
The recent Supreme Court decision removes the state tort cap entirely. Federal exposure under the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. 1251 and 1365, and 42 U.S.C. 1983 is uncapped, with realistic settlement exposure of $150 million to $400 million for the affected class.
The remedy is immediate and known: advance funding for CBS-1169 to start design work for UV for all Kahului WWRF effluent now.
I ask this Committee to act, issue a litigation hold on all Kahului wastewater records back to 2018, and engage independent counsel to encourage the Council to pass an amendment with funding for CBS-1169 without further delay, to communicate to citizens and all affected that the County will make their best attempt to remedy this as soon as possible.
Mahalo.
Travis Liggett, M.S.
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis.liggett@gmail.com
Note: I am not a lawyer, am not giving legal advice, and have no intent to initiate legal action of any kind against the County of Maui at this time
Aloha Chair and Council Members,
I'm writing with additional testimony supporting a previous request for a proposed amendment that would add funding for CBS-1169 design work to the FY2027 budget, so that reef-safe wastewater disinfection can be installed for discharges entering the ocean through nearshore injection wells at the Kahului WWRF.
The County's public representations regarding disinfection at the Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility have created compounding legal exposure that this body should not ignore.
DEM represented during the November 30, 2023, Bill 52 ADEPT Committee hearing that chlorine disinfection was restarted and operational at the facility. That statement was false. Chlorination had been discontinued, a decision made unilaterally in 2018 by DEM staff, with no public notice or notification of sitting Council Members discoverable by UIPA.
What DOH did not require, the County chose to discontinue, citing cost savings. The absence of an NPDES permit almost certainly required by the SCOTUS decision (County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund), which would also almost certainly have required continuous disinfection as a condition of ocean discharge, circumventing a critical regulatory backstop.
Contemporaneous effluent data from the facility's own UIC permit testing, conducted in April 2023 under UIC Permit No. UM-1398, recorded fecal coliform in effluent levels exceeding 2,400 MPN/100mL and Total Residual Chlorine at only 0.04 mg/L, indicating functionally zero disinfection. This data predates the November 2023 hearing by months and was in the County's possession at the time the misleading statements were made.
The compounding liability exposure here is not abstract. Any member of the public who entered ocean waters within the effluent plume in reliance on DEM's representation that disinfection was active (and who subsequently suffered illness) may have a cognizable tort claim, especially when no NPDES permit (as required) is active, and no public or Legislative notice of disinfection cessation was made. The elements are present: a permit requirement and connected duty to the public, a nonfactual affirmative representation, foreseeable reliance, and documented inadequate treatment. The 2018 decision to cease disinfection for budgetary reasons, absent regulatory compulsion but in the face of known public health risk, compounds this exposure further, especially when the decision appears to have been made improperly, as there was no public notice of the cessation of all disinfection treatment of injection well discharges.
We respectfully urge the Council to require DEM to correct the record, commission an independent review of disinfection compliance history at Kahului WWRF, and ensure that CBS-1169 funding is advanced in FY2027, and not delayed until FY2028.
Sincerely,
Travis Liggett, M.S.
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis.liggett@gmail.com
Aloha Chair and Council Members,
In follow-up to prior testimony submitted today, I wish to draw your attention to a specific statement made by Meghan Dailer, Environmental Health Specialist with the Department of Health Clean Water Branch, as reported in the November/December 2021 Maui Times, now attached in full form (previous testimony only included the first page).
Ms. Dailer stated that the injected wastewater from the Kihei Wastewater Reclamation Facility is treated with UV and should therefore not have any live bacteria or viruses in it.
This statement is directly and unambiguously refuted as nonfactual, and misleading to residents who may have adopted a false sense of safety recreating inside the injection well plume at Cove Park, by the facility's own UIC Analytical Reporting Summary Sheet submitted to DOH, sampled December 14, 2021, approximately six weeks after Ms. Dailer's statement. That compliance document, submitted under permit UM-1396, recorded fecal coliform in effluent at greater than 2419.6 MPN, a result exceeding the upper detection limit of the test. By definition, no sample, including raw untreated sewage, can return a higher reading.
The DOH's own compliance data falsifies the DOH's own public statement. Council is respectfully asked to take notice of this contradiction and the public health implications for residents and visitors at Cove Park and adjacent coastal waters, who may have consented to exposure inside the plume, modeled in the attached 2007 publication, based on this blatant misinformation.
Mahalo,
Travis Liggett, M.S.
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis.liggett@gmail.com
Aloha Chair and Council Members,
When the Department of Health's Meghan Dailer told the press in 2021 that high bacteria counts at Cove Park were likely due to wave activity and coastal vegetation contact, she was not telling the whole truth.
Her statement gave residents a false sense of security at the very location where DOH records more Beach Action Value fecal indicator bacteria exceedances in ocean water than anywhere else in South Maui.
The Kihei Wastewater Reclamation Facility's own UIC compliance report, sampled December, 2021, recorded fecal indicator bacteria in effluent at >2419.6 MPN, a result reported above the detection limit of the test itself.
By definition, even raw sewage such as a "spill" cannot return a lower reading. A 2007 USGS groundwater study confirmed that the facility's injection plume travels directly to the coast, discharging at the shoreline adjacent to Cove Park where up to 60% of groundwater entering the ocean is effluent full of pathogens.
A major source of contamination at Cove Park is not just the surf.
It is the Kihei WWRF facility, and DOH is not telling the truth in media reports.
Mahalo,
Travis Liggett, M.S.
+1 (808) 291-9934
travis.liggett@gmail.com
Aloha e Council Chair Lee, Vice Council Chair Sugimura, and esteemed Council Members,
My name is Serena Fukushima and I am testifying today in strong support of the Partners in Development Foundation (PIDF). My ʻohana has greatly benefited from their programs, especially the Tūtū and Me Traveling Preschool and the Keiki Assets Account (KAA) Program.
The Tūtū and Me Traveling Preschool provides high-quality, ʻohana-centered learning grounded in our cultural values and has served over 50,000 keiki and caregivers across Hawaiʻi over the past two decades. Their thoughtfully curated curriculum includes diverse, themed learning stations, mele, dance, storytelling, and community-based huakaʻi that nurture both keiki and mākua. Our program meets for two hours, twice a week in our Upcountry community at Makawao Hongwanji.
Since my daughter began attending earlier this year, she has truly blossomed. Her social skills, confidence, and love of learning have grown tremendously. The kumu have become like extensions of our ʻohana, and we have built meaningful relationships with other mākua in our community—something that can feel like a true lifeline during the early years of parenthood.
Through our participation in Tūtū and Me, we also enrolled in the Keiki Assets Account, or KAA, Program. This program provides financial literacy resources and seed funding for a savings account for our daughter. It helps families build financial stability, break cycles of generational poverty, and create real pathways for our children to stay and thrive here in Hawaiʻi.
These programs have been life-changing for our family. They provide culturally grounded early education, family support, and financial empowerment that strengthen not only our daughter’s future, but our entire ʻohana.
Due to federal education funding cuts, PIDF is now facing a $20 million loss, forcing the closure of 17 locations and its virtual program—including all Maui programs. These services are critical for our communities and are offered at no cost to families like mine.
Without immediate action, these closures in September 2026 will further deepen educational inequities, reduce access to early learning opportunities, diminish vital community resources, and remove essential support systems for Maui’s keiki and ʻohana. This loss will also create a significant gap in culturally grounded educational support for Native Hawaiian keiki and families in our rural communities.
Maui County has always been a leader in putting our keiki and community first. Because of this, I humbly urge you to consider funding these programs to prevent their closure. An investment in our keiki today is an investment in the future of Maui.
Mahalo nui for your time and consideration.
Serena Fukushima
serenapualei@gmail.com