The state Department of Land and Natural Resources hopes to improve the long-ailing water infrastructure at Hapuna Beach.
In a statement Monday, the DLNR announced a pair of projects currently underway to permanently fix water service at the Hapuna Beach State Recreation Area, which has been without water since October. Water service at the park has been notoriously prone to leaks, and has only been intermittently available for the past several years.
“There have been 41 attempts at correcting issues with leaks,” David Arnado, Hawaii district superintendent for the DLNR’s State Parks Division, said in a statement. “Until last fall we cut around the leaks and spliced the pipes back together. Each fix would last a month or two before a new leak sprung. With the last leak that required the current, extended shutdown, the fix lasted two or three seconds.”
As a state park, Hapuna’s water supply is handled by DLNR, but it runs from a Hawaii County water line through DLNR piping into the park’s restroom facilities.
The two projects are a quick, short-term fix that should be complete within a few months, and a longer-term project unlikely to be completed before the end of 2024.
The short-term project will install new waterlines from the county waterline to the restrooms, although the DLNR statement noted that protecting those lines from the surf will pose some engineering challenges.
What the long-term project will entail is currently unknown. DLNR spokesman Dan Dennison said the engineering studies of the current system have not been completed and, without that data, the solution to the problem remains unclear.
“Engineers need to determine the mode of the waterline failure, remedies, and types of piping,” Arnado said. “We have to look at everything, so it doesn’t continue happening.”
However, the DLNR did receive about $3 million last year from the state Legislature for a reconstruction of the park’s entire water system.
The frequent interruptions in water service have been frustrating for visitors to one of the Big Island’s most popular beaches.
Cynthia Ho, who organizes beach cleanups through volunteer group Keep Puako Beautiful, said she doesn’t want to send groups to clean a beach where restrooms or drinkable water are unavailable.
“It’s a bee in everyone’s bonnet around here,” Ho said, adding that little has been done to address the problems — which included not just interruptions in service, but unsafe and unsanitary conditions around the park’s shower facilities — over the years
“We used to do a lot of cleanups over there, and then the water main broke,” Ho said. “And they said they couldn’t get the parts, or that they couldn’t get anyone competent to fix it. And so we had to cancel our cleanups.”
Ho noted that the county-run Spencer Beach Park, about three miles north, is in far better condition.
“We understand everyone’s frustration and I try to help them understand,” Arnado said. “I live in the community, and I hear from visitors and my neighbors. People want a fast fix and that makes it hard to understand the process.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
