The Commission on Water Resource Management will be in Kailua-Kona next week to take up the petition to designate the Keauhou aquifer a state water management area.
The Commission on Water Resource Management will be in Kailua-Kona next week to take up the petition to designate the Keauhou aquifer a state water management area.
On tap are presentations from county water departments around the state, where similar designations have already taken place. The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Wednesday in the West Hawaii Civic Center Council Chambers.
The commission isn’t expected to make a decision on whether to place the Keauhou water under a state permitting system, because the parties involved still have until the end of the month to submit documents. Instead, commissioners will review progress made by the Hawaii County Department of Water Supply and the National Park Service in finding a solution short of designating the aquifer, among a list of updates.
The county is on the agenda to present a draft revision of its Water Use and Development Plan, which has not been updated since 2010.
The park petitioned for the state water management designation in fall 2013, claiming the county does not have adequate controls over pumping of the aquifer to assure that enough is left in the system to nourish the park in the future. The county has held that a state permitting process would make water availability a question mark and cripple development, and that current use is far from the maximum yield the aquifer can sustain.
The last time CWRM took up this issue in Kona, there were nine hours of testimony. This meeting has a lengthy agenda and could be another long one — although most of the items are presentations and briefings, and there is only one, unrelated, action item.
The information to be presented is part of a list of requirements with deadlines, handed down by the commission in December as it deferred making a decision until more information is gathered. The earliest the board may act is the beginning of next month.
Kanani Aton, spokeswoman for DWS, said the department is meeting CWRM’s requirements.
“According to our deadlines, we have met every requirement, we have met every deadline,” Aton said.
The Honolulu Board of Water Supply and the Maui Department of Water Supply will give information on how water use was impacted when aquifers on windward Oahu, Maui and Molokai were designated as state management areas.
“We’ll be very interested to hear that presentation,” said Keith Okamoto, deputy director of the DWS. “It sounds like another educational session for the commission and the new chair, (Suzanne Case).”
The National Park Service has until May 30 to present information on the amount of fresh water it needs to ensure the healthy continuation of cultural practices and natural resources like fish ponds at Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park.
By the same date, the county must present a plan for improving the delivery infrastructure for water pulled from the aquifer.
Email Bret Yager at byager@westhawaii today.com.