Kauai County, HI Water Use Rules: Leak Reporting Duty (2026)

Kaua'i County bills most sewer customers on volume, tying the wastewater charge to metered water consumption under Chapter 25, the Sewer Ordinance, in Title X, Public Works. That link becomes a problem when a pipe leaks, because the customer would otherwise pay sewer charges on water that never reached the sewer system. Section 25-13.5(e), Adjustment of Charges, addresses exactly this for customers billed under a flat-plus-volume rate: their sewer service charge may be adjusted due to excess water consumption resulting from a leak, with the adjustment based on the quantity of water the Department of Water approves as attributable to the leak.

The customer starts the process with a written request to the Division of Wastewater Management, and that request must include confirmation from the Water Department of the leak-attributable quantity, meaning the Water Department, not the sewer division, certifies how much of the spike was lost to the leak before Wastewater Management will adjust the bill. The same Section handles two related billing events in its neighboring subsections: suspension of charges for a demolished, vacant or unplumbed property, and charges for the first and last months of service tied to connection dates under § 25-2.1(a) and § 25-13.6.

Kaua'i's dual-meter rule elsewhere in Chapter 25 works in the customer's favor too: properties with a separate meter for water that never returns to the sewer, such as irrigation, are billed for wastewater purposes only on the meter that measures water returned to the public sewer (§ 25-1.4). On Kaua'i (Kaua'i County), a resident who discovers a leak should get Water Department sign-off on the lost-water volume before filing the adjustment request with Wastewater Management.