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Hamakua
farmers plead
for water

They say things are desperate
and want the state to make repairs
to the ditch irrigation system

---

By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

HONOKAA, Hawaii -- Big Island farmers on the Hamakua Coast, desperate for water, are pleading with the state to make emergency repairs to the Lower Hamakua Ditch irrigation system.

The state Department of Agriculture official in charge said he has no money for such repairs and the department has no plans to ask for money from the Legislature.

"The lack of water in the irrigation system has led to a wholesale failure of agriculture in the irrigation district," wrote Walker Sanders, president of the Hamakua/North Hilo Agricultural Cooperative.

Sanders made the statement in a Jan. 9 letter to to James Nakatani, chairman of the state Department of Agriculture.

"A state of emergency must be immediately declared," Sanders wrote. He also asked for a fund to buy repair material for the ditch.

Within the department, the Agricultural Resource Management Division has responsibility for the ditch.

Division head Paul Matsuo said such a money source would amount to a "slush fund."

He said irrigation districts are required by law to be self-supporting, and he doesn't know if his division has the authority to set up such a fund. "I don't know where to begin with that one," he said.

Matsuo said the department could theoretically ask for money from the Legislature but doesn't plan to do so.

The 24-mile "ditch" is actually a complex system of tunnels through cliffs of Waipio Valley, wood and pipe flumes across gullies, and concrete-lined ditches across fields.

It was built in 1910 to carry water to sugar plantation fields. The plantation closed in 1994.

Efforts followed to turn part of the sugar land into farm land. The agricultural cooperative subleased state land to about 90 farms in four areas, Sanders said. Only about 20 farmers remain.

The reason is that the ditch is falling apart. "A legion of problems" has included "potentially catastrophic breakdowns," Sanders said, including the collapse of flumes and the tumbling into Waipio Valley of part of the ditch tunnel.

Some farmers have had no water since November, others since June, Sanders said.

Cattle feedlot operator Gene Aguiar says he hasn't had any ditch water for a year. He gets the bare minimum he needs from an expensive well.

Georgia Sartoris with her partner, Elroy Juan, grows awa, Hawaiian gourds, chili peppers, hearts of palm, and coffee. In their best year during the past six years, they made $8,000. Now they have a cumulative loss of $25,000.

They've had no water for more than three months. "We are just about to be ruined," Sartoris said.

Meanwhile, the state bills them for water they don't receive. Sanders said he received two bills for hundreds of dollars of water he never got.

Matsuo said in the absence of water meters, the bills are estimates. If people didn't receive water, they should advise the state, he said.

He said the state needs to collect money so its contractor, Wai Engineering, can make the repairs people want.

Sartoris said the contract with Wai Engineering pays the company to manage the system but provides no money for repair materials.

Aguiar said the system needs temporary repairs until a federally funded project can be done. "We need Band-Aids like fast," he said.

The first phase of $10.6 million in permanent repairs is digging a new tunnel inside the Waipio Valley cliff behind the portion that collapsed.

It was supposed to cost about $1.5 million and to allow some water to continue flowing while the work was under way.

But the state disqualified three potential bidders, leaving only James W. Glover Ltd. to bid.

Sartoris said one of the potential bidders was told he lacked sufficient experience in the state, although he had been a project manager with Glover for three years.

With Glover as the sole bidder, the price jumped to about $3 million. Matsuo said the exact amount is under negotiation.

Glover also said it would not do the work with water flowing. Water might be off for four to five months.

"Four to five months for a lot of these farmers will be terminal," said Aguiar.

Matsuo said tunneling might get under way in early summer.

An emergency meeting of the farmers and state officials will be held at the cooperative's office in Paauhau tomorrow at 4 p.m.