Cesspool to Septic Conversion in Volcano, HI

Cesspool Conversion in Volcano

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 Volcano

Volcano is the village at the top of Highway 11, just under 4,000 feet at the gate of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, where the rainforest is thick with ohia and hapuu and the nights are cold enough for a fireplace. It is a village of artists, park staff and retirees, and it is one of the island’s vacation-rental capitals: the cottages and B&Bs along Old Volcano Road and in Volcano Golf Course, Mauna Loa Estates and Royal Hawaiian Estates fill up with park visitors week after week. There is no sewer. Every home and rental is on catchment and on a cesspool or a septic system, in rock that is young and in places layered with volcanic ash and cinder, under rain that falls most days of the year. Vacation rentals load a system in bursts a family never would, a two-bedroom cottage sleeping six on a holiday weekend and sitting empty the week after, and that pattern is the number one reason a Volcano cesspool backs up with guests in the house. Elevation adds its own twist: the ground is cold and wet, and a system that sits unused in a part-time home can surprise an owner who arrives for the season. We pump, inspect, convert and repair systems throughout Volcano and the subdivisions around it. Tell us the subdivision 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 Volcano services or cesspool conversion across East Hawaii.