Well issues not out of the woods yet

KAILUA-KONA — After a tumultuous 2017, Hawaii County Department of Water Supply has 11 of 13 deep wells up and running in North Kona.

Yet a significant number of questions and roadblocks remain between the department’s current standing and full system functionality.

The questions begin at Waiaha Deep Well, where DWS Manager-Chief Engineer Keith Okamoto said Derrick’s Well Drilling and Pump Services LLC has started the process of extracting equipment it lost down the well after a cable snapped during an extraction last summer.

It’s still uncertain as to whether the equipment can be removed, and if it can be, if the integrity of the water source remains in tact. Okamoto told the Hawaii County Water Board on Tuesday at its monthly meeting that the department can’t provide a timetable or any guarantees.

“We hope that it will be extracted and that the well is still usable,” Okamoto said. “The main priority is to retain that source.”

Okamoto’s hope is that even if the integrity of the well is damaged, consulting with hydrogeologists might allow for Waiaha’s salvaging. If that’s not the case, however, he said financial responsibility will reside with the contractor.

“From our perspective, the responsibility is on the contractor because it was his rig that failed,” Okamoto told the board.

He added that if construction of a new well from scratch is required, the price tag could reach upward of $1 million.

Okamoto said DWS would do all it could to avoid putting Derrick’s in an entirely untenable financial position, as doing so could actually hurt the department in the long run.

“That’s something we really don’t want because that will leave us with just one (contractor), and then competition just goes out the window,” Okamoto said. “So we’re hoping these guys have insurance.”

Derrick’s, which is paying for the current extraction work out of its own pocket, frequently wins DWS contracts. The company most recently procured the rights to repair the Hualalai Deep Well and came in with a bid more than $200,000 lower than Beylik Drilling and Pump Service Inc. for repairs at Pi‘ihonua No. 1 Deep Well C in South Hilo.

DWS is already scouting potential sites if a new Waiaha water source is required, but there are several properties with archaeological significance in the region, which Okamoto said may complicate the process.

If a new site is constructed, the department plans to transition to a two-well system with reduced horsepower at each well — a plan DWS is likely to pursue with most, if not all, of its new construction after lessons learned from the North Kona water crisis last year.

“It just seems that there’s better redundancy opportunities if we use (700 gallons per minute) as a maximum,” Okamoto said of plans to replace the 1,400 GPM, one-well operation at Waiaha if that well can’t be salvaged. “The downside is a bigger property or two separate properties. But (that’s) better than having the situation we had last year.”

Getting vertical

The other North Kona site still inoperative is Hualalai. The deep well there tripped offline in early October and after an investigation, DWS suspects the problem may be related to improper storage of equipment.

Pumps and motors are meant to be stored vertically and rotated regularly, but as of now, that’s not an option for DWS.

“We don’t have any provisions to store them vertically,” Okamoto said.

The department is interested in developing a well asset management program, he continued, which might include vertical storage if that’s deemed the best practice.

Vertical storage is preferable to horizontal storage, but the North Kona Water Permitted Interaction Group — assembled last year to conduct an internal audit of the system and which includes members of the Water Board, DWS and the private sector — is also examining the possibility of ordering and storing backup equipment off island. They would then ship in ready-made, functional parts when wells inevitably require repairs.

Okamoto said the arrangement would require some sort of rental agreement with manufacturers. If that solution fails to prove feasible, he estimated between 8-10 vertical pits would need to be dug for storage on the island and DWS would have to hire someone to rotate them regularly.

Water Board Chair Craig Takamine, a member of the action group, said Tuesday the team has given itself a deadline of March 20 to finalize its report, which will be presented at the Water Board’s next meeting on March 27 in Hilo.

Problems in Ocean View

The sole water source serving Hawaiian Ocean View Estates and the Ranchos area in Ka‘u, known as the HOVE Deep Well, failed in mid-November. DWS repaired the well and began testing on Feb. 9 in preparation for bringing it back online. After four startups, however, the motor failed.

Clyde Young, lead mechanical engineer with DWS, told the Water Board Tuesday that the department conducted an electrical resistance test, which indicated the problem was downside and equipment would need to be extracted. The contractor is expected to begin the extraction as early as this weekend or at some point next week, he said.

“That indicates there is probably a short circuit somewhere,” Young explained. “So power is going somewhere, but not to the motor. Or maybe it went to the motor and it burned (out) the motor. We don’t know yet.”

Okamoto said DWS has suspended water hauler accounts at HOVE, as haulers have other options. But the department is still committed to providing water to the spigots — a process that comes with a cost to DWS, which has to truck water to the area to make that possible.

“For the general public, we felt it was our obligation to continue that,” Okamoto said.

He added the department is currently working with a professional service consultant to examine possible locations for a second deep well site in the region. The study for potential new sites has been funded through the state Legislature.