HONOLULU — Forty-nine city parks will get upgrades that will make them more energy efficient, Oahu officials announced Wednesday at a news conference.

What You Need To Know

  • Park improvements include 15,000 individual LED light upgrades, 1,000 efficient plumbing fixture installations, 14 on-site pool chlorine generation systems and 16 weather-based irrigation controls

  • Upgrades will help the environment by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, minimizing water and electricity usage and reducing the use of harmful pool chemicals

  • The project is expected to save taxpayers $97 million over 20 years

  • It will also create 400 local jobs

The multi-year park improvement project was created through a partnership between the Honolulu Department of Parks and Recreation and NORESCO, an engineering consultant company.

Improvements to the parks include retrofitting plumbing fixtures so that they consume less water, switching lights to LED, improving electric transformers, upgrading pool pumps to generate chlorine using salt conversion, installing weather-based irrigation controls to allow for more efficient water usage and eliminating water leaks through piping replacements.

These upgrades will benefit the environment and save taxpayers an estimated $97 million over 20 years, according to Nate Serota, the spokesperson for the Honolulu Department of Parks & Recreation, who spoke during the news conference.

The Deputy Director of the Department of Parks and Recreation Kēhaulani Puʻu said the improvements will ease the maintenance of parks for her staff. One example, she said, is that currently DPP staff insert chlorine into pumps daily for the parks’ pools. Now, NORESCO will install new pool pumps that will convert saltwater into chlorine.

“It's a much healthier, cleaner alternative to what we currently use,” said Puʻu.

The conversion of the pool pumps will reduce the amount of chlorine used by 156,000 gallons over 20 years, according to the Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency Deputy Director Nicola Hedge.

“Overall, this project is poised to save some 7,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to taking about 1,500 cars off the road or planting nearly 6,000 koa trees,” said Hedge while highlighting the project’s environmental benefits. “It's also going to help reduce water and energy use across the island … that includes saving nearly 4.3 million kilowatt hours of energy and conserving nearly 210 million gallons of water.”

Nicole Velasco, a NORESCO representative, said the project would also create many local jobs. 

“We're really excited to report for the construction period that we're in right now, 80% of our workforce is going to be kamaaina, so our local Hawaii residents,” said Velasco. “Through the economic impact and the activity of this project, we're gonna see about 400-plus jobs generated and supported throughout the City and County of Honolulu.” 

The first park that will receive improvements is Herbert K. Pililaau Community Park in Waianae.

The public can track when and where future park improvements are happening on this website, which was created by NORESCO.   

Michelle Broder Van Dyke covers the Hawaiian Islands for Spectrum News Hawaii.