Published August 6, 2026
Yes — there is finally help with the cost. Hawaiʻi’s Cesspool Conversion Revolving Loan Program launches by the end of 2026, and because the City and County of Honolulu contributed to it, Oʻahu owners who apply before 2030 may qualify for a zero-percent loan. How to apply has not been published yet.
The cost is the objection. Almost nobody argues with the 2050 deadline once they understand it — they argue with the price tag, and fairly. A typical Oʻahu conversion runs $25,000 to $50,000, and until recently there was almost nothing to help with that.
That is changing. Here is where the funding picture actually stands as of August 2026, including the parts that have expired and the parts that have not passed.
The new state loan program
The Cesspool Conversion Revolving Loan Program is launching by the end of 2026. It is funded with $2 million in state funds plus $625,000 from the City and County of Honolulu.
That second number matters more than its size suggests. Because Honolulu contributed, Oʻahu owners applying before 2030 may qualify for zero-percent interest. A zero-interest loan on a $35,000 conversion is a fundamentally different proposition from a commercial loan on the same amount.
The application process has not been published yet. We will update this page when it is.
Where we fit, and where we do not
We want to be straight about this, because it saves everybody time.
Golden Penny Sanitation is a licensed sanitation contractor, not a lender. We do not run the loan program, we do not decide who qualifies, we do not fill out applications on your behalf, and we never handle your loan money. Eligibility, terms, and application status are decided by whichever agency ends up administering the fund — and that has not been announced yet, any more than the terms have. Nobody can give you a real answer on those today, ourselves included. We will name the right place to ask as soon as there is one.
What we do is the part that comes first. You cannot submit anything until your property has an actual system design behind it, and a design cannot be produced from the curb. The existing system has to be pumped so it can be opened up and evaluated, the lot and soil conditions assessed, and a system suited to your property drawn up by a licensed engineer.
We handle that whole sequence. We do the pumping and the evaluation, and the design is produced by the engineer we work with — so you are not left sourcing one yourself, or explaining your property to somebody who has never seen it. There is no route to funding that skips this step. What you submit is the finished design, and you submit it, not us.
So the honest order of operations is: get your property pumped, evaluated and designed, then take that to the funding. Not the other way round.
The first step costs you nothing. We come out, look at the property, tell you what conversion options are realistic for your lot, and quote the work in writing before anything begins.
Our Hawaiʻi contractor license is CT-39138.
The questions we get asked most
When does it open? By the end of 2026. The application process has not been published.
Who qualifies? That is set by the program, not by us, and the criteria are not public yet. If your property has a cesspool, you are inside the population the law targets — roughly 88,000 statewide and more than 11,000 on Oʻahu, per the Hawaiʻi Department of Health.
Is it really zero percent? For Oʻahu owners applying before 2030, possibly — that is tied to the City and County of Honolulu’s contribution to the fund. It is not guaranteed to every applicant, and we would not plan a budget around it until the terms are published.
How much will it cover? Unknown. The fund is $2.625 million total, which does not stretch across 88,000 conversions.
What do I need before I can apply? Expect to need a system design for your property. That means the existing system gets pumped and evaluated first, then a licensed engineer draws up a design from what is actually there. It is the step people underestimate, and it is the one that takes time — worth starting before the application window rather than after.
Do I have to find my own engineer? No. We work with one, and the design comes back through us.
Can you apply for me? No. We handle the assessment and the design; you submit it.
What has expired
Two programs are gone, and we still get asked about both:
- The $10,000 state tax credit ended in 2020.
- The $20,000 pilot grant program has expired.
If you read about either on an older page, that information is out of date.
What is proposed but not passed
A new tax credit covering 35% of conversion costs has been proposed. It has not passed, and we would not plan around it. If it does pass, it stacks with the loan program in a way that would make the late-2020s a genuinely good time to convert.
Why waiting is not free
The 2050 deadline is 24 years out, so the obvious move looks like waiting. Three things argue against it.
Hawaiʻi converts roughly 400 cesspools a year. There are about 88,000 in the state. At that pace the backlog does not clear this century — which means the pace has to increase, and the pressure with it.
Lawmakers keep proposing earlier deadlines of 2035 to 2040 for high-priority areas. If your property sits in one of those, your real deadline may not be 2050.
Funding is finite and first-come. A $2.6 million revolving fund does not cover 88,000 conversions. The owners who apply early are the ones who get the favorable terms.
What to do now
Start the assessment. We come out at no charge, look at the property, tell you what conversion options are realistic for your lot, and quote what the pumping, evaluation and design would involve.
If funding is what you are waiting on, do not wait for the application to open before you begin. The design is what you will be submitting, and it takes longer to produce than the form takes to fill in.
Call (808) 630-9966 to book a visit, or read the full Hawaiʻi cesspool conversion guide for the whole picture — options, costs, and the permit process end to end.
When you are ready to scope the job itself, that is cesspool conversion, and we handle it island-wide.