Molokai
seeks emergency
drought aid

Arid winters push farms and
jobs onto shakier ground, and
pump costs are rising

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By Gary T. Kubota
Star-Bulletin

MOLOKAI FARMER Steven Arce and his two brothers have been forced to reduce their alfalfa crop to 30 acres from 125 acres because of a nagging drought in the past three years.

"We don't have enough work to keep us full time," Arce said. "We need rain."

The lack of rain and adequate reservoir levels have forced farmers to reduce irrigation and put on hold plans for expansion on an island already reeling from an unemployment rate of 15.4 percent in February -- the highest in the state.

Maui County Mayor James "Kimo" Apana is calling for Gov. Ben Cayetano to declare a drought emergency on Molokai, where the main reservoir feeding farmlands has been reaching its lowest levels.

The declaration will enable the state to use emergency funds to pay for the electricity needed to pump well water and deliver it to the 1.4 billion-gallon reservoir at Kualapuu in central Molokai.

State Sen. Jan Buen (D, North/West Maui-Molokai-Lanai) has introduced some legislative bills calling for more equipment, personnel and money, including $600,000 for pumping enough water to bring the reservoir level to 40 feet.

"The whole system is broken," she said. "It's really sad when they have to cut back on their plantings."

Since early March, when an electrical failure halted pumping for two weeks and reduced the reservoir level to 4 feet, some 243 farmers and Hawaiian homesteaders have reduced their water use by about 30 percent.

Mycogen Seeds official David Gilliland said his business, which employs 27 people, is considering expanding its operation on 140 acres of planting land.

But Gilliland said the drought and problems with a lack of reservoir water create an atmosphere of uncertainty.

"This climate does make our parent company proceed with caution," he said.

The National Weather Service said the last three winters on Molokai have been dry, with one rain gauge in Kamalo showing about half of normal rainfall in the past 12 months.

Kaunakakai received 0.08 inches of rain in February, or only 3 percent of normal rainfall.

Roy Matsuda, a lead forecaster with the Weather Service, said the cause of the drought stemmed from a periodic failure of any kind of substantial cold front or Kona-type storms, except for heavy rains in early November.

The drought for farmers took a turn for the worse in early March when a cave-in occurred in the Waikolu water tunnel, damaging the electrical system and stopping power to well pumps for about two weeks.

Molokai Irrigation System Manager Tom Matayoshi said that for about the last couple of weeks, the well pumps have been operating at maximum sustainable yield, and the electrical cost has increased to more than $20,000 from $10,000 a month.

Matayoshi said he has increased the pumping in anticipation of the drought declaration by the governor, and also knowing what might happen to some 300 farmers.

"If we run out of water, it would be devastating for the people of Molokai," Matayoshi said.

Adolph Helm, a Hawaiian homesteader and project manager at Mycogen Seeds, said that in the long term, the state needs to invest more money in repairing and maintaining the irrigation system -- something it has not done enough of in the past.

"That contributed to the water levels being where we have them today," Helm said.