PMID- 36603245 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20230202 LR - 20230202 IS - 1095-8630 (Electronic) IS - 0301-4797 (Linking) VI - 330 DP - 2023 Mar 15 TI - Trade-offs across values in cesspool management highlight challenges to policy making. PG - 116853 LID - S0301-4797(22)02426-4 [pii] LID - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116853 [doi] AB - On-site Sewage Disposal Systems (OSDS) are globally common, and in Hawai'i they present a risk of contamination to drinking water sources and nearshore waters. State legislation has commanded that all cesspools are to be banned by 2050, thus requiring tens of thousands of systems to be converted in the coming decades. This project followed a participatory structured decision-making (SDM) approach to collaboratively design cost-effective and equitable solutions for thousands of cesspools in the high elevation areas of north Maui, Hawai'i. Participatory workshops with a diverse group of stakeholders set ten objectives and brainstormed 33 alternatives, for which the technical team then modeled groundwater nutrients, costs, and equity. All alternatives posed trade-offs, though composting toilets performed best across most objectives, albeit with high maintenance burden. Discounting innovative toilets, the multi-objective analysis suggests that the state should invest in cluster sewering of high-density communities, followed by incentivizing septic tank solutions in properties with the highest effluent flow first, then expanding across the area. The total project cost (installation and operation/maintenance) would be $183-258 million, depending upon the sewer-septic combination. An efficiency frontier reveals sub-par combinations, including aerobic treatment units and passive absorption systems, which cost much more and deliver lower mass flux reduction than more cost-effective alternatives. This study contributes a novel case of rural sanitation to the literature in which decision support tools are used to facilitate evidence-based, collaborative decision-making for sanitation planning. The state could use a similar participatory SDM process when approaching other communities to discuss their cesspool upgrade strategies. Broadening the use of decision analytic techniques can have wider ecological, economic, and social benefits for the state and contexts beyond Hawai'i, as SDM provides a transparent and rigorous, evidence-based decision-theoretic framework to explore multiple values and strategies to address difficult resource management problems. CI - Copyright (c) 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. FAU - Oleson, Kirsten L L AU - Oleson KLL AD - Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 1910 East West Road, Sherman 101, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA; Water Resources Research Center, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2540 Dole Street, Holmes Hall 283, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA. Electronic address: koleson@hawaii.edu. FAU - Barnes, Megan D AU - Barnes MD AD - Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 1910 East West Road, Sherman 101, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA. Electronic address: meganbarnes84@gmail.com. FAU - Fung, Adrienne AU - Fung A AD - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2540 Dole Street, Holmes Hall 240, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA. Electronic address: afung3@hawaii.edu. FAU - Goodell, Whitney AU - Goodell W AD - Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Management, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 1910 East West Road, Sherman 101, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA. FAU - Oliver, Thomas A AU - Oliver TA AD - Department of Oceanography, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST), 1000 Pope Road, Marine Sciences Building (MSB) Room 205, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA. Electronic address: thomas.andrew.oliver@gmail.com. FAU - Whittier, Robert AU - Whittier R AD - Water Resources Research Center, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2540 Dole Street, Holmes Hall 283, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA; Safe Drinking Water Branch, Department of Health, 1250 Punchbowl Street, Honolulu, HI, 96813, USA. Electronic address: whittier@hawaii.edu. FAU - Babcock, Roger AU - Babcock R AD - Water Resources Research Center, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2540 Dole Street, Holmes Hall 283, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Hawai'i at Manoa, 2540 Dole Street, Holmes Hall 240, Honolulu, HI, 96822, USA. Electronic address: roger.babcock@honolulu.gov. LA - eng PT - Journal Article DEP - 20230103 PL - England TA - J Environ Manage JT - Journal of environmental management JID - 0401664 RN - 0 (Drinking Water) SB - IM MH - *Drinking Water MH - *Groundwater MH - Hawaii MH - Policy Making MH - Sanitation MH - *Waste Management OTO - NOTNLM OT - Cesspools OT - Maui OT - On-site disposal systems OT - Structured decision making COIS- Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: Robert Whittier reports a relationship with Hawaii State Department of Health that includes: employment. EDAT- 2023/01/06 06:00 MHDA- 2023/02/02 06:00 CRDT- 2023/01/05 18:05 PHST- 2022/05/27 00:00 [received] PHST- 2022/11/05 00:00 [revised] PHST- 2022/11/20 00:00 [accepted] PHST- 2023/01/06 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2023/02/02 06:00 [medline] PHST- 2023/01/05 18:05 [entrez] AID - S0301-4797(22)02426-4 [pii] AID - 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116853 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - J Environ Manage. 2023 Mar 15;330:116853. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.116853. Epub 2023 Jan 3.