HILO, Hawai'i — The Big Island will have to spend almost $20 million over the next five years to close 133 large-capacity cesspools that were in violation of federal Environmental Protection Agency regulations.

Federal regulations under the Safe Drinking Water Act banned large-capacity cesspools on April 5, 2005, but the county — like most owners of large cesspools — failed to meet that deadline. The EPA then entered into consent agreements with the county in September and this month set new deadlines for completion of work, officials said yesterday.

The agreements are the latest in a series of actions designed to close some of the approximately 2,000 cesspools in the state, including public and private facilities.

Other agreements have been reached with Kaua'i County, the National Park Service, the U.S. Army, Housing and Community Development Corp. of Hawai'i and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Cesspools are used more widely in Hawai'i than in any other state, and were finally banned because they discharge raw sewage into the ground. That allows pollutants and disease-causing pathogens to enter groundwater, streams and the ocean, according to the EPA. Violators face fines of up to $32,500 a day.

"This agreement commits the county to close their remaining cesspools, and thereby protects drinking water, streams and beaches throughout the island," said Alexis Strauss, director for the EPA's water division for the Pacific Southwest region, in a written statement released yesterday.

The EPA defines a large-capacity cesspool as one that discharges untreated sewage from more than one home or from a business or other facility that serves 20 or more people on any day. The new regulations do not apply to cesspools serving individual homes.

In September, the county Department of Public Works entered into a consent decree with the EPA that gives the county until Nov. 1, 2006, to shut down 103 cesspools. That work is expected to cost $7 million, said Brian Kajikawa, chief of the Public Works Department's building division.

The county facilities served by those cesspools include 35 parks, 16 police and fire stations, 16 community centers, several county swimming pools and about a dozen county baseyards and other maintenance facilities. Nearly half of the cesspools are in North and South Hilo.

In a few cases, the county will hook up the facilities to nearby sewer lines, but in most cases the county will install septic systems to handle the wastewater.

Yesterday, the EPA announced a second consent decree with the county Department of Environmental Management that requires the county to close another 30 large-capacity cesspools over the next five years.

Those projects include closing three cesspools serving sewage pumping stations, two serving 27 properties in the Komohana Heights subdivision in Hilo, 18 serving the Queen Lili'uokalani subdivision in Kona, and seven serving the police and fire stations, pool and parks in Honoka'a.

Private property owners tied to those projects will help cover the cost of the work, but the county share is expected to total almost $13.8 million, said Barbara Bell, director of the Department of Environmental Management.

Bell said the county was unable to make the April 5 deadline because the projects are complex, and it takes time to plan, design and fund them.

"Septic tanks and sewage treatment plants are better options than cesspools," she said. "They do a much better job of wastewater treatment."

In another agreement, the Department of Land and Natural Resources agreed to close 60 large-capacity cesspools by June 30, 2009, at a cost of $16.5 million.

And Kaua'i County is spending $1.4 million to replace roughly 50 park and neighborhood center cesspools with septic systems.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com.