Faced with a petition for state management of water taken from the Keauhou aquifer, the Hawaii County Water Board is putting money into measures that would shore up its own monitoring of the resource.
Faced with a petition for state management of water taken from the Keauhou aquifer, the Hawaii County Water Board is putting money into measures that would shore up its own monitoring of the resource.
Water Board members on Tuesday approved $100,000 for a 12-month contract for a consultant to monitor water levels, drawdowns, recharge rates, temperature and other factors at six county wells in North Kona.
The study would help the Water Department determine the sustainability of the wells as the National Park Service proposes putting the aquifer under the oversight of the state Commission on Water Resource Management.
The county’s own monitoring equipment has deteriorated rapidly, and it’s not clear if there is more durable equipment the county could purchase, Department of Water Supply Manager Quirino Antonio told the board.
Board members also approved $50,000 to hire a consultant to update a portion of the county Water Use and Development Plan for West Hawaii. Deputy Manager Keith Okamoto said the plan should include new population projections, plus new sustainable yield projections for the water sources by the U.S. Geological Survey.
“One of the good things that have come out of the petition is that we need to look within ourselves at what information we need to update,” Okamoto said.
“We don’t just want to say it’s the state’s responsibility to understand the water,” Okamoto said. “We’re the ones who control the dispensing of the water.”
The National Park Service last fall proposed that the area served by the Keauhou aquifer be placed under a state water management area designation, citing concerns about the long-term viability of the aquifer and the county’s ability to control how much water is drawn from it. Projects in the area — stretching from Makalawena to Kealakekua and including Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park — would have to get state permission to draw water, under the designation. The state’s water commission is slated to take action on the petition in December.
The updates by the county water board were triggered by the NPS petition but also to provide the best information possible to planners of future development, Okamoto said.
“Our water levels are still okay,” Antonio said. “The request is to provide more consistent and continuous information on the water in our wells.”
The actions help the county be a better steward of the resource and assist the state by providing information about the area, said Department of Water Supply spokeswoman Kanani Aton.
“We’re saying we have good information we need to update into our plan, and that we also need to garner good information on our resource,” Aton said.
Tammy Duchesne, superintendent at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park, said she commended the water board’s efforts to update its plans and gather information on the hydrology of North Kona. But she noted that existing evidence is sufficient to support the NPS’s petition for the designation.
“There is enough research to support that the resource may be threatened,” said Duchesne after the meeting.
Riley Smith, CEO of Palani Ranch and Lanihau Properties — which together comprise some 10,000 acres in West Hawaii — said the claims are unsubstantiated.
“They have weak arguments on the water quality issues,” Smith said. “If they had irrefutable evidence on impacts to the aquifer, they would put that out there first.”
“The designation of the Keauhou aquifer would delay the planned growth of North Kona, which resulted from years of community input and collaboration,” Smith said.
Duchesne said the current practice by the county is to consider technical aspects of well construction but not where the well is placed.
“A water management area allows for careful placement of wells, and allows people a chance to comment,” she said.
Duchesne has taken the position that Hawaii County only controls 25 percent of permitted wells and new developments in the future could compete with the county and strain the resource.
Board members are in the process of drafting a letter to the state water commission opposing the designation. The letter will appear on the Department of Water Supply website once it is made public, Antonio said.