Cesspool to Septic Conversion in Honomu, HI

Cesspool Conversion in Honomu

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 Honomu

Honomu is the little plantation town at the turnoff to Akaka Falls, a single main street of raised wooden storefronts just off Highway 19 about ten miles north of Hilo, with camp houses behind it, Hakalau and its bay a few minutes north, and the road to the falls climbing mauka through old cane land and gulches. The town is unsewered and so is everything around it. The old houses on the main street and the camp lots are on cesspools from the sugar days; the farm parcels and newer homes up the Akaka Falls road and toward Hakalau are a mix of cesspools and septic, and the conversions are adding to the septic side every year. The ground is Hamakua ground, real soil over old lava, cut by deep gulches that carry serious water in a storm, and the rain here is heavy and steady through the winter. Honomu is small enough that the pump truck is a familiar sight, and the mix of long-time families, visitors passing through to the falls, and newcomers restoring a plantation house keeps us busy with pump-outs, inspections for the houses that change hands, and conversions planned ahead of the state deadline. We work Honomu, Hakalau and the Akaka Falls road regularly. Tell us where you are 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 Honomu services or cesspool conversion across East Hawaii.