I am happy that the Environmental Protection Agency is presently conducting an “optimization” study of the Upcountry water system. As pointed out in the Jan. 20 editorial, such a study is long overdue.
Other than questions about supply, the Upcountry system as presently configured cannot be a sustainable system. Our intakes for theWaikamoi part of the system – the uppermost level, or tier 1 – are falling apart, and have been maintained by East Maui Irrigation Co., which does not collect or otherwise use water entering this upper tier so has little real incentive to see that as much water as possible is intercepted and carried into the uppermost system.
We need to reconfigure/rebuild/redesign most, if not all, of the upper intake system. The flumes often break even in light storms, and are inadequate in any case to capture much of the water that passes through – or under or over – them in storm events. The Department of Water Supply, Water Resources Division has asked for a study to redesign the flume system and needs to be made a real priority and dealt with in a timely fashion.
Then, of course, there are the Waikamoi reservoirs, which have lost substantial parts of their lining, are substantially filled with great amounts of silt and are simply used as transient reservoirs because of the losses they experience. It would make sense to have these reservoirs be more productive since one strong storm can nearly fill both the Waikamoi and Kahakapao reservoirs. If these are always kept nearly full, they cannot receive the abundance of storm waters washing down the mountain. But these waters should be used only in the upper tiers, and agriculture should be given preference in the allocation of future water resources. The folly of certain design aspects of the agricultural dual line must be dealt with separately.
If we can focus on the capture of rainfall waters into the upper tier, and augment our storage capacity, then we can begin to make the uppermost system somewhat more sustainable with less need for pumping up from the Piiholo second level or middle tier.
Again, we would want to hold as much water at head level in the Piiholo system for use in lower parts of this system, but not for areas below. More reservoirs in the system would allow greater flexibility and less reliance on pumping from the Kamaole Weir and the Wailoa Ditch in the bottom tier of the Upcountry system. Tremendous amounts of water pass along the Wailoa Ditch, and the county is taking between 5 million and 7 million gallons a day, significantly less than is allowed in the county’s agreement with Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.
The lower tier, as supplied from the Wailoa Ditch, probably would have made more sense as the source for the dual agricultural line since more untreated water is available here than anywhere else in the system. If more water from the Wailoa Ditch can be distributed without pumping to the areas it serves, more agriculture can be accommodated in the lower parts of the Kula system, such as Omaopio and Pulehu, which are closer to markets and have better year-round climates for crop production with supplemental irrigation.
Then it would make sense to reconfigure the “Kula Water Meter List,” separating all requests for meters as to the tiers or levels to which they belong and from which they would be receiving water. Hopefully, water allocation would be based on bona fide agricultural endeavors, immediate and genuine family subdivisions, and actually affordable housing, not for those priced for families with 160 percent of median income or more. More water would naturally be available for distribution into parts of Haiku, now either not presently served or underserved by the Department of Water Supply.
Michael Howden is a member of the Maui County Board of Water Supply. He lives and farms in Kula.
