The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with 7-Eleven Hawaii.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached a settlement with 7-Eleven Hawaii.
Under terms of the settlement, the company has agreed to audit all of its properties for the presence of large capacity cesspools, or LCCs, after the EPA discovered three LCCs serving 7-Eleven locations on the Big Island.
7-Eleven Hawaii will pay a $145,000 penalty, conduct a self-audit of the 58 locations it operates statewide, and will work with the EPA to close all remaining LCCs, the EPA announced Wednesday in a press release.
“It is crucial that businesses use proper wastewater treatment systems to protect groundwater from disease-causing pollution,” EPA Pacific Southwest Regional Administrator Martha Guzman said in the release.
“This settlement will help protect the islands’ groundwater by requiring the closure of all remaining 7-Eleven Hawaii illegal cesspools.”
The EPA required the closure of all large capacity cesspools by April 5, 2005, under the Safe Drinking Water Act’s Underground Injection Control program.
In July 2021, the EPA inspected two 7-Eleven Hawaii locations in Hilo and Pahoa on the Big Island, then identified an additional location operating with an LCC during a followup request for information that was issued in September 2021.
The three cesspools met the large capacity threshold under EPA regulations.
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