Health official favors
state control of Maui water

Increased salinity in 2 sources
raise future development issues

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By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

WAILUKU >> State Health Director Bruce Anderson said he is in favor of the state taking control of two groundwater sources serving central Maui if county water officials do not come up with an appropriate plan to lessen salinity of the water.

Anderson said aquifers at Iao and Waihee are becoming increasingly salty and losing storage capacity, although the county is pumping below the estimated sustainable yield.

He said if the state Commission on Water Resource Management took control of the aquifers, it might consider putting a moratorium on new allocations of water, affecting development in south and central Maui.

Anderson, a commission member, said the moratorium might continue until the withdrawals were shown not to adversely affect the groundwater supply.

The county Board of Water Supply is scheduled to meet tomorrow to discuss the proposed takeover.

The meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. at the David Trask Jr. Office Building in Wailuku.

State water officials are holding a public hearing on the proposed takeover at 7 p.m. on Jan. 9 at the Wailuku Community Center.

The groundwater at Iao and Waihee serves residents of Central Maui, including Waiehu, Kahului, Wailuku and South Maui.

The commission voted last month in favor of considering the state takeover proposed by the Maui Meadows Homeowner Association.

Association official Jim Williamson said his group was worried about the increasing salinity of the water and proposals for new developments in South Maui that would increase the demand for water from Iao and Waihee.

"We felt somebody had to do something about this," Williamson said.

County water officials say they can pump up to 28 million gallons a day of water from Iao and Waihee sources without depleting them. They have been pumping an average of about 17.5 million gallons a day at Iao and about 4 million gallons a day at Waihee.

But federal officials say the underground water level at Iao and Waihee is continuing to decline and the salinity is rising.

Gordon Tribble, a U.S. Geological Survey official, said the county may have to spread the wells farther from each other to reduce the concentration of pumping and updraft of salt water.

Tribble said the depletion of the aquifers could be caused by a number of factors, including prolonged dry weather, the reduction in recharge from less sugar cane furrow irrigation and the increase in water demand.

County Water Director David Craddick said the county has complied with conditions set by the commission when it first considered taking control of the Iao ground water in 1997.

Craddick said that for several years, his water department has been spreading the location of pumping sites.

He said county drinking water does not exceed federal standards in salinity.