Kauai County, HI Water Use Rules: Recycled Water Rules (2026)

Kaua'i County treats recycled wastewater, called reuse water, as a metered utility product sold out of its sewage treatment plants rather than as a stand-alone conservation program. Section 25-1.4 defines "R-1 water" as recycled water that has been oxidized, filtered, and disinfected to meet the standards in Chapter 62 of Title 11 of the Hawai'i Administrative Rules (HAR), effective January 14, 2004, and "R-2 water" as recycled water that has only been oxidized and disinfected to that same HAR chapter. Both grades come out of County-operated sewage works under Chapter 25, the Sewer Ordinance, in Title X, Public Works.

Section 25-13.4, the Schedule of Rates section, fixes what the County charges reuse-water customers: subsection (e) sets R-2 water at a flat twenty cents ($0.20) per one thousand (1,000) gallons used, effective July 1, 2023 under Ordinance No. 1131 (September 12, 2022). R-1 water, the more thoroughly treated grade, is priced case-by-case: the rate is negotiated directly between the R-1 consumer and the County, capped so the cost per one thousand (1,000) gallons never exceeds what the consumer would pay for an alternative water source.

Billing and collection for both grades runs through the same Chapter 25 machinery as regular sewer charges: the Director of Finance or the Department of Water bills bimonthly, with the Division of Wastewater Management handling account-level questions (§ 25-13.5). On Kaua'i (Kaua'i County), a landscaper, golf course or agricultural operation buying reuse water from the County's treatment plants is billed under this schedule rather than under the potable-water rate structure the Department of Water uses for drinking water.