By Rod Thompson, Star-Bulletin
The Big Island's drought has forced people to drive
to get water. Barney Sheffield, a resident of Paradise
Park, uses a hose to fill a commercial fish cooler along
the Keaau-Pahoa Highway while Felix Padamada
of Orchidland waits his turn.

---

Bone dry
on Big Isle

Catchment systems are empty,
water bills are soaring and crop
production is down as the Big Island
struggles in a severe drought

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

HILO -- Part-time stone mason and tree trimmer Ama Tua can't afford to buy water for his family now that his rainwater catchment system has run dry, so he makes up to three trips a day to public water spigots on the Keaau-Pahoa Highway.

Hilo flower grower Harold Tanouye has kept his 20 acres of anthuriums growing, but his bimonthly water bill has jumped from $1,500 to $7,500.

Lance Yamashiro's production of daikon and other vegetables is down 80 percent at his farm in normally soaked Volcano. "It's like a big dust bowl up here," he said.

Drought has hit the Big Island like a blast of wind from the Sahara. Hilo rainfall for January was 0.14 inches compared to a normal average of 9.88 inches.

And it's going to get worse, even if rainfall improves, says Hawaii County Civil Defense director Harry Kim.

With El Nino causing the problem and no likelihood of a return to normal until summer, even gradually increasing rains won't be enough to resoak the ground right away, he predicted.

People like Tua, dependent on home rainwater catchment, may face months of hauling water from faucets attached to fire hydrants along highways.

Cars and trucks line up, waiting for their turn at the spigots. "Sometimes you've got to wait for an hour," said Puna resident Duane Apana, using a hose to fill a 55-gallon drum and two 30-gallon trash barrels in his pickup truck.

Residents can order several thousand gallons at a time from private haulers, but the waiting list is getting longer.

"Some are maybe four weeks behind," Apana said.

"A lot of people are getting scalped," said John McKay of Paradise Park subdivision.

While one hauler charges $60 for 3,700 gallons, another will charge $90 for 4,000, he said.

So far, most people take it in stride. The drought isn't nearly as bad as the two hurricanes that hit him when he lived on Kauai, Apana said.

People are polite.

A man filling a 300-gallon tank beckons another waiting in line and uses his hose to fill the stranger's 5-gallon container.

Financial losses are just beginning, Kim said. Crop losses have to total at least 35 percent of normal production before federal assistance will pay farmers for some of their economic losses, but that's three to six months away, said Lee Kunitake of U.S. Farm Service Agency.

The drought gives a temporary boost to some crops like macadamias. For Kona, this is the normal dry season anyway, he said.

That's small comfort for Yamashiro in Volcano. Two of his five employees have voluntarily taken one-week layoffs, he said.

Normally, morning dew alone will water his plants, he said. On morning walks in the fields, his pants would get soaked by dew.

Now, his feet sink into three inches of dust. "It's like walking in powder," he said.

Honolulu wholesalers are crying for his crops, he said. "The demand is there but the production is not."

While Yamashiro carries water to his crops in a 500-gallon tank pulled by tractor, the truck farmers of Waimea depend on a state irrigation system.

Water flowing into the system is now 600,000 gallons a day, but farmers are using 2 million gallons a day, said system manager Albert Kawabata. But the Puu Pulehu reservoir still has 80 million gallons in it, enough to last through March, he said.

The 23 water systems run by Hawaii County are also adequate for the moment, said Department of Water Supply head Milton Pavao. Lower elevation systems that depend on deep wells aren't a problem, but higher ones drawn from springs are showing a decrease, Pavao said.

He is putting a new well above Hilo into use a month ahead of schedule. At Papaikou north of Hilo, where one spring is drying up, he's laying pipe to another.

"We have enough at the moment to meet the needs with wise use of water," he said, meaning no watering of lawns or car washing.