Cesspool to Septic Conversion in Hawaiian Beaches, HI

Cesspool Conversion in Hawaiian Beaches

Hawaii has set a deadline for every cesspool in the state to be converted or closed, and nowhere does that land harder than East Hawaii, where whole subdivisions were built on cesspools drilled into the lava. A conversion means closing the pit and installing a permitted individual wastewater system in its place: typically a septic tank with a leach field or seepage bed, or an aerobic treatment unit where the lot is too small or too wet for a conventional field. We handle cesspool-to-septic conversions across Hilo, Puna and the Hamakua coast, from the site evaluation and the design that the Department of Health requires through the excavation, the tank and field installation, and the final inspection. Lava changes everything about this work. There is little or no soil, so most fields here are built on imported fill, and a lot that looks flat and easy may sit on a lava tube or on pahoehoe that will not break without a hammer. We look at your lot first, tell you which system actually fits it, and give you a real number before anything is dug.

Cesspool and septic service in Hawaiian Beaches

Hawaiian Beaches sits on the Puna coast north of Pahoa, a subdivision of modest lots along Kahakai Boulevard on streets named for fish, with Hawaiian Shores next door and the ocean a short walk makai. It is low, close to sea level, and warm, with trade-wind rain instead of the upland deluges, and it is one of the more affordable neighborhoods in Puna, which means a steady flow of first-time buyers and a lot of long-held family homes. Nearly every house is on catchment, and nearly every house is on a cesspool or a septic system. The lots are smaller than the acre and three-acre subdivisions inland, so the house, the catchment tank, the cesspool and the neighbor’s cesspool all sit close together, and the coastal rock holds groundwater near the surface. That combination makes Hawaiian Beaches the place where a cesspool is most likely to fill from below, and where a conversion has to be designed carefully to fit the setbacks on a small lot, often with an aerobic treatment unit instead of a full leach field. We pump, inspect, convert and repair systems in Hawaiian Beaches and Hawaiian Shores regularly. Tell us the street and what the system is doing and we will quote it straight.

• Site evaluation and system recommendation for your lot and household
• Design and Department of Health permit handled for you
• Septic tank with leach field or seepage bed, or an aerobic treatment unit where needed
• Raised beds on imported fill for lots with no native soil
• Old cesspool pumped, closed and filled to code
• Final inspection and the paperwork a buyer or lender asks for

Need cesspool conversion elsewhere? See all of our Hawaiian Beaches services or cesspool conversion across East Hawaii.