KAILUA-KONA — After hours of testimony before a packed hearing room at the West Hawaii Civic Center, the state Commission on Water Resource Management on Tuesday denied the National Park Service’s petition to declare the Keauhou Aquifer system a state
KAILUA-KONA — After hours of testimony before a packed hearing room at the West Hawaii Civic Center, the state Commission on Water Resource Management on Tuesday denied the National Park Service’s petition to declare the Keauhou Aquifer system a state ground water management area.
The decision puts an end to a multi-year effort by the NPS to get stricter controls in place for groundwater usage in the aquifer system, which covers a region from Makalawena Beach to north of Kealakekua Bay and includes Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park.
Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park superintendent Tammy Duchesne called the commission’s decision to deny the petition “regrettable.”
“We truly believe that public trust measures are threatened and that the time to apply protective measures is now,” she said after the hearing.
The Park Service filed the petition in September 2013 out of concern that existing and planned wells mauka of Kaloko-Honokohau threaten the park’s ecosystems.
The park includes fishponds and anchialine pools that house species reliant on a balance of saltwater and freshwater that flows out of the aquifer.
Kaloko-Honokohau is home to several endangered species, including the Hawaiian damselfly, the Hawaiian coot and Hawaiian stilt.
Designating the aquifer a management area would have given the NPS the opportunity to weigh in on the potential impacts proposed wells could have on the park’s ecosystems.
But before designation, the state commission needed to consider several criteria.
That included making a determination about whether increased water use could cause withdrawals to exceed 90 percent of the determined sustainable yield, a figure that represents the maximum pump rate at which water can be withdrawn from its source without a reduction in quality.
The Keauhou Aquifer’s sustainable yield is about 38 million gallons per day.
Ultimately, the commission decided, the Park Service didn’t meet that burden.
“I think the National Park Service has absolutely asked the right question,” said commission chairperson Suzanne D. Case. “I just think the answer is ‘We’re not there yet.’”
The commission’s decision was near unanimous; Kamana Beamer was the sole member to vote against the motion.
But the multi-year effort wasn’t for nothing.
Earlier in the day, the Commission voted to approve the County of Hawaii Water Use and Development Plan Update Phase 2 for the Keauhou Aquifer System Area, which establishes a comprehensive plan for the use of water resources in the area.
Among other things, the update includes county plans to reduce reliance on wells lower in elevation and offset existing needs and future demand with more high-level sources of water.
Case specifically credited the National Park Service and its move to designate the aquifer system as a driving force behind the plan.
Although the commission denied the Park Service’s petition, they adopted several recommendations proposed in a report commission staff prepared in advance of Tuesday’s hearing.
In that report, staff recommended eight other measures, including better enforcement of water monitoring. Staff also recommended the referral of all well permit applications to the non-regulatory Aha Moku system for review and recommendations for the protection of traditional and customary practices that might be affected by the application in question.
To control the distribution of wells, the report proposed that if alternative water sources or high-level sources in the system’s southern area fail to materialize and the withdrawal rate goes above 45 percent of the system’s sustainable yield, the commission would start up public informational hearings.
Keith Okamoto from the county’s Department of Water Supply said that recommendation “keeps us accountable.”
Email Cameron Miculka at cmiculka@westhawaiitoday.com.
