More than four years after county officials broke ground, and more than a decade after Hawaiian Ocean View Estates residents began lobbying for it, the subdivision’s own well will open next week.
The Hawaiian Ocean View Estates well will formally open Thursday, with a ceremony that begins at 9 a.m. at the well site at the corner of Lehua Lane and Highway 11. But if the remaining tasks to complete the well are done early, the well will begin operation sooner, Water Supply spokeswoman Kanani Aton said.
“It was a long time coming,” Department of Water Supply Manager Quirino Antonio said. “I’m happy for everyone, not just us, the residents out there.”
The $6 million project, which combined state and county funding, creates a basic drinking water system that includes a well, storage tank, transmission pipeline and fill station for the Ocean View community. State legislators released funding for the well in 2006. The county broke ground in late 2007.
In the intervening years, DWS encountered unexpected voids in the ground where the well was being drilled, which needed to be filled. That slowed the completion process.
At the same time, Ocean View residents questioned plans for the storage reservoir and the number of spigots. County Councilman Guy Enriques spearheaded efforts to change the specifications for the reservoir and get more spigots. Enriques’ efforts secured an increase in the reservoir size from 100,000 to 300,000 gallons, which was smaller than the original 500,000-gallon-tank DWS said it would build.
The couple who owns the land adjoining the well site also voiced their concerns about how the project was designed, saying the site design gave well users a view into their home.
In 2010, the slow pace of completing the project led state Legislators, including Ka‘u’s representative, Robert Herkes, to call for an investigation into how the state funding was being spent. The Legislature’s investigative committee eventually found “major obstacles to the project have been resolved.”
The final obstacle involved problems with the compatibility of the well’s pump and the electricity voltage serving the site.
Antonio said Thursday that problem has also been resolved.
Now, all that’s left is to fill in the system and send a letter to the state Department of Health asking for final approval.
“It’s exciting,” Antonio said. “It’s just a matter of these bits and pieces being put together.”
Prior to the Ocean View well opening, residents of the area had a more than 40-mile round trip to the nearest county spigot.
