KAILUA-KONA — The Kohala Ranch Water Co. was hoping by Wednesday to have water running to the several developments it supplies exclusively. After suffering equipment issues, the new target date is sometime Saturday night.
KRWC operates two wells, aptly named Well 1 and Well 2. Each has the capacity to pump about 1 million gallons daily. Equipment problems at Well 2 derailed the goal of re-establishing running water by Wednesday, and KRWC has now turned its attention to Well 1.
“We are hopeful that we can have this well back in operation by Saturday,” Bill Moore, vice president of KRWC, said in a press release. “We will need this time to install the replacement equipment in the well and test the equipment to make sure it is operational.”
The company has implemented substantial water restrictions over the past week, following the well failures Sept. 14. Those restrictions have included bans on landscape irrigation, recreational uses like filling swimming pools, vehicle washing and watering livestock or irrigating commercial crops without written approval from KRWC.
An updated press release sent out Thursday afternoon held the restrictions in place with one minor adjustment — residents and businesses are now allowed “very limited hand watering” of personal plants. Sprinkler systems or other forms of irrigation remain prohibited. These restrictions have proved specifically problematic for one commercial operation located at Kohala Ranch, Palila Growers LLC.
Palila operates an orchard of 300 grapefruit trees, producing and selling more than 26,000 pounds of the fruit between the Big Island and Oahu. Owner Peter Eising said he’s been unable to water his trees, which has put his crop in jeopardy.
As it stands, Palila has been trucking in water three times a day at $400 per truckload and also has been forced to reorganize its plumbing to make irrigation viable. Eising said if the current timetable holds up, he expects the loss of water service will cost his company $10,000-$15,000, and that’s assuming the entire crop comes through.
“I’m hoping we’ve got them saved, but I’m not sure,” Eising said. “We could very well save the trees but have a much (smaller crop yield). We won’t know probably until into October, at least.”
Moore said he sympathizes with Eising’s concerns, but KRWC’s priority is drinking water for domestic needs.
Eising said a simple solution to avoid future problems would be to allow Palila to dig its own well. Property owners in Kohala Estates, one of the developments under KRWC’s purview, are allowed to dig wells. Those at Kohala Ranch are not.
Eising said despite Kohala Ranch being zoned for agricultural use, most agriculture conducted there isn’t commercial, aside from his business.
“For that reason, we feel that having a well for our situation is a reasonable thing to do,” Eising said.
Moore explained that Kohala Estates was developed before Kohala Ranch. The covenants, conditions and restrictions for Kohala Ranch include restrictions for drilling private wells.
But Eising sees no reason the CC&Rs can’t be amended and was skeptical as to the reasons why they haven’t been.
“The Kohala Ranch and the rules were developed by the developer,” Eising said. “And the developer owns the water company also, so there’s obvious reasons why he wants to keep selling water.”
Based on KRWC’s newest projections, water may be flowing freely from the company’s system by this weekend. But there has already been one setback, and using North Kona as an example, there are plenty of opportunities for things to go wrong.
An immediate concern that will remain until the water is turned back on is the threat of fires, both structure fires and brush fires, the latter of which can quickly span dozens or hundreds of acres.
How KRWC would proceed if a fire broke out on any of its developments — Kohala Ranch, Kohala Estates, Kohala by the Sea, Kohala Waterfront and Kohala Kai — remains unclear.
“I’m not going to speculate on that,” Moore said Thursday. “We’ll just deal with it as it comes up.”
He added if a fire did break out, KRWC would be linked in with Hawaii County Civil Defense and the Fire Department and would look to those entities for guidance.
KRWC is currently trucking 24 hours per day from a fire hydrant in Kawaihae to maintain domestic water services to its customers.
Moore said if a fire broke out and that water was necessary to fight it, the trucked water would be diverted and adjustments would be made to continue supplying the affected communities with water for domestic purposes.
