Barely two months after it opened, the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates well is partly out of commission.
Barely two months after it opened, the Hawaiian Ocean View Estates well is partly out of commission.
Department of Water Supply spokeswoman Kanani Aton told West Hawaii Today on Monday the well’s motor apparently broke early Monday morning. The exact cause of the motor failure was not immediately available. Aton said DWS crews were headed to the well to investigate.
As of 4:30 p.m., electrical tests gave inconclusive results, Aton said, and crews continued to look for the cause of the problem.
The break prompted DWS to close the commercial standpipe facility water haulers use to fill up before delivering water to area residents. Aton said the spigots for the public’s use would remain open while the well’s storage reservoir still had water inside. Commercial haulers were instructed to use the spigots in Naalehu or Honaunau until the Ocean View motor was repaired, Aton said.
Hawaiian Ocean View Estates residents spent more than a decade petitioning state and county officials for a well. In 2007, then Gov. Linda Lingle released $6 million for the project, to create a basic drinking water system including the well, storage tank, transmission pipeline and fill stations for the Ocean View community. 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 process.
At the same time, Ocean View residents questioned plans for the storage reservoir and the number of spigots. Former 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.
In 2010, the slow pace of completing the project led state legislators to investigate 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 voltage serving the site.