KAILUA-KONA — The county Department of Water Supply finished repairs on the recently downed Keahuolu deep well ahead of schedule and it was up and running as of Wednesday afternoon, according to an update issued by Hawaii County Civil Defense.
DWS also rolled back more stringent water restrictions for North Kona that it enacted last week after the Keahuolu well faltered.
However, a 25 percent mandatory water usage reduction that has been in effect for the region since January continues and likely will persist late into the year, despite another downed deep well at Waiaha scheduled to return to active service by the end of this month.
Keith Okamoto, manager and chief engineer with DWS, summed up the dire situation in simple terms Monday when asked via email how close North Kona was to disruptions in water service to its more than 11,000 accounts.
“This is the closest we’ve been,” he wrote.
How it happened
When the initial restrictions were announced in January, Robert Ravenscraft, water district supervisor in Kona, said they might only persist for a handful of weeks. At the time, four wells in North Kona were out of service. Only 13 wells serve the area.
The measures early this year were largely precautionary, as the well at Keahuolu was scheduled to return to service in March and was set to cut the number of inoperable wells from four to three. The well at Waiaha remained on track to return to functionality in late July, which officials said at the time would bring the number of inoperable wells down to just two, assuming any further interruptions were avoided.
Then in March, after Keahuolu was repaired, the deep well at Keopu went down. It was what Ravenscraft referred to then as “a zero sum game.” The number of downed wells remained at four and the 25 percent water usage reduction remained in effect.
The situation worsened in coming months, not because of more technical problems with DWS mechanisms, but because water restrictions were being ignored by the community at large.
In subsequent interviews, Okamoto and Ravenscraft noted tank levels and pumping history indicated compliance early on, but that compliance relaxed as weeks turned into months. They also said in recent days that some consumers remained vigilant in their efforts to conserve water, but such an approach didn’t appear to be a common thread throughout all of North Kona.
Last week, the newly installed motor at the Keahuolu well suffered a thrust bearing failure. It was a development Okamoto described only days before as being potentially “catastrophic” were it to occur.
The number of inoperable wells, which was expected to soon be at the more manageable number of three, instead jumped suddenly to five.
State Sen. Josh Green was moved to send a letter to Gov. David Ige last Friday asking him to declare a state of emergency to “prevent a potential catastrophe.” Ige was on Hawaii Island that day attending an event with the Kona-Kohala Chamber of Commerce where he spoke to West Hawaii Today about the issue.
“It was unusual that so many of the wells are going out at the same time, and so certainly we will try and get more information and see what we can do to provide support,” Ige said. “Obviously, so many of the wells going down is a big challenge.”
How to avoid
this in the future
Okamoto and Ravenscraft explained that unfortunate timing played a significant role in North Kona’s water situation. But neither denied DWS culpability for the widespread problems of well functionality.
“We have got to be better prepared and have the appropriate spare pumps and motors on hand,” Okamoto said last month.
Repair teams worked in double shifts during the Fourth of July holiday weekend to bring the well at Keahuolu back online only days after its failure. They were able to work so quickly because parts for that well, unlike parts for the others, were already on island and ready for installation.
Well repairs typically take at least 4-6 months, and usually longer. Pumps and motors are unique to each well based on specifications and are built to order. Mainland manufacturers of the equipment don’t stock them for that reason.
The cost of well repairs can range between $300,000 and $800,000 depending on the problems that exist and if electrical upgrades are required. Wells have an average life expectancy of roughly seven years, but can malfunction earlier or last several years longer than expected.
Okamoto said parts haven’t been ordered in advance because of cost and because warranties expire after one year, meaning if a well ran longer than expected, warranties might expire on pumps and motors while they sat in storage.
The plan moving forward is to order parts for crucial wells to avoid water problems in the future that mirror those in North Kona. Okamoto said it is a more expensive strategy but also proved to be a necessary safeguard.
DWS operations are funded solely from water bill revenues. The department might “rarely” receive state money for capital improvement projects, but it typically borrows money when necessary for such projects from the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Loan program, a federal-state partnership to help ensure safe drinking water, which it then pays back out of DWS revenues, Okamoto said.
“We’re able to accommodate several sets (of well parts) per year in our budget,” Okamoto wrote in an email Wednesday.
DWS also must administer bid processes for each well repair, which adds to the duration downed wells spend offline. In the future, Okamoto said, bids will be accepted and contracts awarded before wells falter to ensure an expedited repair process.
“We currently have a bid out for three sets of spare pumps and motors, one of which is for Honokohau Well,” Okamoto wrote. “Bid opening is July 13, 2017. Backup policy will be determined by priority and available system redundancy, which is unique to each of our 23 water systems.”
The mandatory 25 percent water usage reduction for North Kona remains in effect indefinitely. DWS also continues to monitor water use.
Email Max Dible at mdible@westhawaiitoday.com.
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State of the system
Across the island, Hawaii County DWS has 23 separate water systems and a total of 73 groundwater sources, including 64 wells, one shaft and eight springs.
It also has two surface water sources wells that are currently under the repair process.
Current inoperable wells in North Kona:
Waiaha Deepwell (Scheduled return: late July)
Palani Deepwell (Scheduled return: late October)
Hualalai Deepwell (Scheduled return: late November)
Keopu Deepwell (Scheduled return: late December)
Other repairs on Hawaii Island by system and well:
South Kona system – Keei C Deepwell and Keei B Deepwell
South Kohala system – Waimea Deepwell and Parker Ranch Deepwell
Kalapana system – Keauohana Deepwell B
Olaa-Mt.View system – Olaa #6 Deepwell
Lalamilo system – Lalamilo Deepwell D
