Martha Guzman heads up the Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9, covering the southwestern states as well as Pacific islands like Hawaiʻi and Guam.
The San Francisco-based office has been stepping up its presence in Hawaiʻi in response to the Red Hill water crisis and the Maui wildfires. Guzman visited Maui after meeting with state health officials in Honolulu last week.
The Conversation talked with her about this particular phase of assessing the infrastructure critical to building Maui back better.
She shared the latest progress on repairing or replacing the wastewater and drinking water pipes so families can start rebuilding Lahaina town.
"There is going to be the use of cesspools for some interim period, most likely. Now, we're going to do our best to make that as short as possible because, of course, that doesn't help anybody to have other sorts of contamination into the waterways and into the shoreline," Guzman told HPR.
She said the EPA awaits more congressional funding to install sewer lines for fire-impacted areas that have relied on cesspools.
This interview aired on The Conversation on May 20, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1.
