Bid protest delays Kealakehe wastewater plant overhaul again
A Hensel Phelps protest pushed Kealakehe’s overhaul back again, leaving construction start TDB while 1.7 million gallons a day still flow near Honokōhau Harbor.
A protest by Honolulu builder Hensel Phelps pushed the Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant overhaul back again, leaving Hawaii County without a firm construction start even after a 2025 settlement set a March 1 deadline to begin work. The county’s project page still lists the job as in procurement, with construction start marked TDB.
Hensel Phelps challenged a prior award to Maui-based Goodfellow Bros. valued at $24.835 million, adding another delay to a project that has already spent years moving through litigation and permitting. Hawaii procurement rules generally require bid protests within five working days after debriefing. County Corporation Counsel Renee Schoen formally resolved the protest, but not before it shoved the schedule off course.
Kealakehe still sends about 1.7 million gallons of treated wastewater a day into a percolation basin in a permeable lava field upslope from Honokohau Small Boat Harbor. Groundwater can carry contaminants from that basin toward the marine environment. The pollution complaint dates to 1993. Scientific studies have found wastewater reaches Honokohau Harbor and nearshore waters through groundwater flow.
The 2025 settlement resolved a 2023 Clean Water Act case filed for Hui Mālama Honokōhau, a group of Native Hawaiian cultural practitioners, fishers, paddlers, recreational ocean users and other community members. Under that deal, the county agreed to bring Kealakehe up to Hawaii Department of Health R-1 recycled-water standards and to study reuse options that could send treated water to Old Airport Park irrigation, convert green waste into soil, or support Kealakehe Regional Park.
The county also acknowledged in the settlement that Kealakehe needs a Clean Water Act permit and committed to apply for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit. In April 2025, county officials were waiting for Department of Health review of that application. The county’s project page now lists the R-1 reuse feasibility study due Oct. 3, 2026, followed by six months for the county to decide whether to build and operate the reuse project.
The settlement sets stipulated penalties after the March 2, 2026 deadline and they continue until a notice to proceed is issued, but they are payable only if the county fails to complete the recycled wastewater project by June 30, 2029. Hawaii County faces more than $1 billion in wastewater and cesspool-related upgrades over the next five years, including a $337 million replacement of the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant, which broke ground last July and is scheduled for completion in 2030.
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