By the end of 2013, the County must install a non-chlorine disinfection system at the Lahaina wastewater facility, to ensure that bacteria will not contaminate drinking water. In a statement to Civil Beat, Maui County officials disputed EPA’s allegations that the Safe Drinking Water Act had been violated. Officials also said that the brackish aquifer below the wastewater treatment facility wasn’t an underground source of drinking water.

The proposed compliance order, which is subject to a 30-day public comment period before it can be finalized, is part of mounting pressure on county officials to address alleged environmental violations at the west side’s sewage treatment facility. This comes on top of a planned lawsuit by environmental groups over alleged release of wastewater directly into the ocean.

Read more at Honolulu Civil Beat

If you would like to submit comments on this action:

Comments may be submitted to: Bryan Goodwin, Regional Hearing Clerk; U.S. Environmental Protection Agen-cy, Region IX; 75 Hawthorne St. (ORC-1); San Francisco, CA 94105. His phone number is (415) 972-3919, and his email address is r9hearingclerk@epa.gov.

Those submitting comments should include the case docket number, (UIC-09-2011-0002).

For more information, go online to www.epa.gov/region9/enforcement/pubnotices/pubnotice-maui-co.html or www.epa.gov/region9/water/drinking/dw-enforcement.html.