HAWAII KAI, Hawaii -- Honolulu police are looking for the person who ran over a temporary sewage bypass pipe in Hawaii Kai early Sunday morning, causing raw sewage to spill into the ocean.

It happened in the 700-block of Lunalilo Home Road in Hawaii Kai, where private sewer company Hawaii American Water has a temporary sewage bypass line going down the middle of the street separated only by traffic cones.

A vehicle hit the sewer line about 2 a.m., dragging the line into a lane of traffic and then driving away without stopping, the company said.

"Apparently the car tried to go over our bypass line, and that's what caused the break. Please do report it to police. They're anxious to have information on this," said Lee Mansfield of Hawaii American Water.

The crash caused a break in the PVC pipe, sending about 2,500 gallons of untreated sewage into two storm drains then into the ocean.

At 2,500 gallons, the incident was a relatively small spill, with the raw sewage going in here to Kuapa Pond. However, it could have been a lot worse.

"I feel very lucky that this line was severed when it was not in use," Mansfield said.

This is the first sewage spill caused during four years of sewer work in Hawaii Kai, he said.

The company has coned off one lane of traffic for about a quarter-mile of Lunalilo Home Road. Workers are putting a liner in a corroded sewer pipe that was installed in the early 1960s. The work started three months ago and should end by December, Mansfield said.

"It's a difficult challenge because we don't have a lot of room to work in the street, and we are not interested in taking any additional lanes out of service," he said.

The company took water samples from Kuapa Pond that will be analyzed over the next few days and posted warning signs telling people to stay out of the water.