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Water board
has supply for
Honokai Hale

A wagon will be available
while a valve is replaced to
stem chronic shutdowns

By Harold Morse
Star-Bulletin

Honolulu Board of Water Supply officials hope to provide relief to Honokai Hale subdivision residents from water service shutdowns.

Water to the subdivision will be shut off between 10 p.m. Friday and 6 a.m. Saturday so workers can replace a valve on the 24-inch transmission main along Farrington Highway. This main serves water customers from Barbers Point to Makaha.

The new valve will allow the Board of Water Supply to reroute water to the subdivision during future water shutdowns or other emergencies, thus providing a more reliable water service.

A water wagon will be at Paakai Street and Malahuna Loop to provide water to Honokai Hale residents during the shutdown. The Board of Water Supply asks residents to use water for only essential needs until full service is restored.

"The installation of this new valve will greatly alleviate water service outages that have affected residents of Honokai Hale in the recent years," said Denise DeCosta, Board of Water Supply spokeswoman.

"We have had chronic breaks in a 24-inch transmission main that normally supplies this community. The main is scheduled for replacement, but the valve installation will provide relief sooner."

"Honokai Hale is in a pocket, so they always ended up with no water because there was no way to get alternative water service to them. So this valve will enable us to give them some relief in case of a break in the line before we replace it, because we're going to replace that whole line," DeCosta said.

Faye Fujii, a Malahuna Loop resident, thought the board should be more active in notification.

"I understand what they have to do," she said. "What I would like ... would be to have the Board of Water Supply call us and let us know about the down time. Then we can plan around it," she said.

It is hoped the temporary outage will have minimal effect on residents, DeCosta said. "However, we will be doing whatever we can to get flyers out door to door," she said.

"It's good that they're making it permanent," said Eilene Estabilio, a Paakai Street resident. "It does have some disadvantages, though."

Also, the parked water wagon may affect traffic during the outage, she said.

Paradise Cove luau operations nearby will not be affected. They usually close at 9 p.m. anyway, a spokesman said.

Water will not be shut off at Hawaiian Electric's power plant at Kahe Point; normal operations will continue there, a HECO spokesman said.