No rain on horizon; water levels falling

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WAILUKU - With no signs of significant rainfall coming any time soon, Maui County water officials are concerned about more dry weather and falling water levels in Upcountry reservoirs.

"We are closely monitoring the Upcountry reservoirs and the Wailoa Ditch level," said Department of Water Supply Director Jeff Eng on Monday. "The sporadic rains have not been enough to offset demand, as we can see by the falling reservoir levels."

A healthy amount of rain is not expected soon, although there might be some showers Upcountry, said Glenn James, senior weather analyst at the Pacific Disaster Center in Kihei.

May and June are the driest months for the islands, and with trade winds not expected to return until next week, "I don't see anything on the weather horizon now that changes that much," he said Monday.

Upcountry reservoir water levels fell from a high of 170 million gallons March 10 to 125.9 million gallons Monday, the water department reported.

The department also began pumping water uphill from the Kamole Water Treatment Plant in Haliimaile to the lower Kula water system on May 6. Pumping water uphill is a costly exercise that is done only when necessary to replenish Upcountry reservoirs with water from the Wailoa Ditch. The ditch feeds the Kamole plant with water captured in ditches that reach deep into the East Maui watershed.

But even ditch water has been running low. From May 6 through Friday, the ditch never exceeded 40 percent of its capacity of nearly 200 million gallons per day.

Water officials also said they are watching Upcountry water consumption, which on Thursday spiked to 9.7 million gallons, by far the highest level of water demand for the region this year. On Monday, Upcountry water demand had dropped to 7.3 million gallons.

In the latter part of March, with rains filling up reservoirs in the Upcountry region, the water department lifted a drought watch that had been in effect since May 2008. Upcountry water consumers were asked to reduce their water use by 5 percent. No such requests for water cutbacks are in effect now. However, Eng urged water conservation.

"I ask our customers in all areas to be mindful of water usage during the summer months," he said. "We need to keep the good habits we developed this past winter when water usage was low."

James said the volcanic haze that shrouded Haleakala over the weekend was blown away by a weak cold front that made its way over Maui on Sunday night and early Monday morning. As of Monday afternoon, that cold front had moved south of the Big Island, and it didn't leave Maui much rain.

The cold front brought 3 inches of rain to Oahu and about an inch to Kauai, but "by the time it reached Maui, it was pretty much out of gas," James said.

It brought only about 0.43 inch to West Wailuaiki above Keanae and 0.33 inch to Hana, he said.

With the passing of the cold front, James said, he expects to see light, variable winds return with some hazy skies. Whether it will include volcanic haze will depend on the amount of drift from the southeast, where Kilauea continues its volcanic eruptions, he said.

Normal trade winds out of the north and east are not expected to return until Sunday or Monday, James said.

And that's unusual because May normally sees trade winds 86 percent of the time, he said. But so far this month, there have been two periods of light, variable winds.

* Brian Perry can be reached at citydesk@mauinews.com.