KAILUA-KONA — The county Department of Water Supply’s notice Wednesday that cautioned noncompliance with mandatory water usage restrictions in the region would likely lead to service disruptions caught some residents by surprise — and upset others. ADVERTISING KAILUA-KONA — The
KAILUA-KONA — The county Department of Water Supply’s notice Wednesday that cautioned noncompliance with mandatory water usage restrictions in the region would likely lead to service disruptions caught some residents by surprise — and upset others.
KAILUA-KONA — The county Department of Water Supply’s notice Wednesday that cautioned noncompliance with mandatory water usage restrictions in the region would likely lead to service disruptions caught some residents by surprise — and upset others.
Earl Mavis said he was caught off guard by the news that water availability was growing more scarce in his neighborhood.
“That kind of blows me away because I don’t see anybody over here using their sprinklers, and my sprinkler system is disabled for the backyard,” Mavis said. “It pisses me off more than anything.”
The water crisis in North Kona objectively became a glass half empty situation Wednesday when the storage tank at the Honokohau deep well site dipped below 50 percent capacity.
“Without everyone’s cooperation, there will be areas that will experience periodic loss of water service or lower water pressures,” the DWS notice read.
The service area in question is largely mauka, stretching from Makalei Fire Station to slightly south of Palani Junction in North Kona. It includes Makalei Estates, Palisades and Kaiminani Drive, as well as all of its side streets, to name a few.
DWS monitors tanks in North Kona, checking levels twice daily. The Honokohau and QLT tanks serve the area, but Honokohau is the department’s gauge.
Keith Okamoto, DWS manager and chief engineer, said the overflow height at Honokohau is between 15 and 20 feet. That’s the level at which the tank would typically top off under normal circumstances.
Those numbers change during a water shortage of this magnitude, but even under adjusted measurements, Okamoto said the trend his team has observed at Honokohau since Monday is troubling.
“When we’re doing well, it can get to about 12 feet. The last few days, we’ve been below 10 feet,” Okamoto said Thursday. “Every now and then, it will dip and then recover. But this one, over the last several days, has just been dropping and dropping without any bounce back.”
He added at the current rate of usage, the tank levels would be in danger of dropping to only a few feet by sometime next week. It’s at that point service would be disrupted in order to replenish water stores.
Repairs to deep wells at Hualalai and Palani are on track for completion by the weekend and early next week, respectively. Okamoto said the pump and motor, as well as some of the pipe, are already underground at Hualalai and installation at Palani was expected to begin as early as Thursday afternoon.
Other wells have been on the brink of return in the nine months since the county first enacted a mandatory 25 percent water usage restriction, only to be felled by faulty equipment or, in one case, a bad rig cable that sent a working pump and motor plummeting into the earth at Waiaha.
So, in the meantime, DWS employees are examining the potential for booster stations to push water from more southern wells in the North Kona region to the affected area.
“The last few weeks it’s been OK. We’ve had rain,” said Jeff Fear. “But it’s been dry all this week.”
Burt Matsuyama, owner of Matsuyama Food Mart, one of the few businesses in the area, said he hadn’t heard the news about the DWS warning but it was disconcerting. He said water disruptions would force him to close his kitchen and restrict access to public restrooms, adding it would hurt the business financially while inconveniencing the customers.
Fear admitted to doing some hand watering of plants Thursday despite the news from DWS, saying he had no choice because his plants would have died otherwise.
“They should have spare pumps for each well,” he said. “It’s a joke.”
Dennis and Evelyn Shimata also had some harsh words for DWS.
“The water department is passing the blame, turning the focus on the user,” Dennis Shimata said. “We changed our habits. They’re not changing theirs. We’re doing our jobs. They’re not doing theirs.”
Email Max Dible at mdible@westhawaiitoday.com.
