Unattended Death and Biohazard Cleanup in Kilauea, HI

Kilauea is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Kauai County, Hawaii, on the northeastern shore of Kauai; the Census spelling is Kilauea, with the kahako as Kilauea in Hawaiian.

The 2020 census recorded a population of 3,014 in the Kilauea CDP, with 976 households according to the Hawaii Data Book 2023, which is based on the 2020 Census Redistricting Data, and the census also counted 1,093 housing units and 934 families.

The name Kilauea means spewing or much spreading in Hawaiian, and the community shares the name of the active Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii.

Kilauea is bordered to the west by Kalihiwai and to the north by the Pacific Ocean, and Hawaii Route 56 passes through the south side of the community, leading west 7 miles to Hanalei and east 6 miles to the Moloaa area.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the Kilauea CDP covers 5.27 square miles, of which 4.97 square miles are land and 0.30 square miles are water, and it sits at an elevation of 292 feet.

In January 1863, former American whaler Charles Titcomb purchased the approximately 3,016-acre Kilauea ahupuaa, and with partners Captain John Ross and E. P. Adams he formed the Kilauea Plantation, which began a sugar plantation in 1877 that was one of the smallest plantations in Hawaii operating its own sugar mill.

Kilauea Plantation opened its first railroad system in 1881, three miles of narrow-gauge track built to haul sugar cane, and the town of Kilauea grew up as the center of the plantation operation until the Kilauea Sugar Plantation closed in 1970.

The Kilauea School was founded in 1882 as an English School with 54 pupils, mostly children of plantation workers, and after a two-room school and teacher's cottage were built in 1894 on a two-acre parcel from the plantation, the present school site was purchased by Kauai County and the new school opened on September 11, 1922, and has been in use since that time.

The historic Kilauea Point Lighthouse was built in 1913 as a navigational aid for commercial shipping and was credited with saving the lives of countless sailors and of two fliers on a historic trans-Pacific flight.

The Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge surrounding the lighthouse was established in 1985 to preserve and enhance seabird nesting colonies and was expanded in 1988 to include Crater Hill and Mokolea Point.