Damage to Big Isle ditches still unknown
Problems with accessing agricultural water are growing
HAWI, Hawaii » Since the Oct. 15 earthquakes, North Kohala crayfish and prawn farmer Lance Caspary had a trickle of water restored to his farm for about three days this week.
It was enough to flush his toilet but not enough to run his 5-acre aquaculture operation.
Yesterday, the trickle stopped.
"I don't know what to think or what to do," Caspary said.
Caspary is one of a growing number of farmers and ranchers with problems using three agricultural water sources at the northern end of the Big Island.
Government and private officials have not been able to learn the extent of the damage to the three water systems yet, let alone what needs to be done to fix them.
State Agricultural Resource Management Division head Brian Kau estimates that $12 million will be needed to fix the 24-mile Hamakua Ditch and the 15-mile Waimea Ditch.
He also admits that the number could be way off the mark if there is unseen damage inside the tunnels that form part of the two ditch systems.
The third system is the private, 22.5-mile Kohala Ditch owned by Surety Kohala Corp. That is the one that served Caspary's farm until the Oct. 15 earthquakes.
Surety Kohala official Mike Gomes said he has almost no idea what repairs to the ditch will cost -- possibly as much as $1 million.
The problem is that all three ditches carry water from streams high in the Kohala Mountains. Helicopter flights have shown landslides covering the ditches, but no one knows if they have been crushed or are just full of dirt.
In some areas the only way to get to the landslides is by helicopter or hiking, Gomes said. Parts of the ditches and tunnels run along cliff faces that fall a half-mile nearly straight down. Wind, rain and aftershocks make hiking or landing a helicopter on unstable ground too dangerous at present, he said.
Meanwhile, Caspary has lost 60,000 prawns. "I may have to go out of business," he said.
Gomes is trying to get water from two new wells that have no pumps yet.
The Kohala Ditch used to carry up to 12 million gallons of water per day. Gomes hopes to get maybe 1 million gallons per day from the two wells.
His company never made money off selling water, only on a concession to a company that let tourists paddle canoes down the ditch. The company died the moment the earthquakes hit and the ditch went nearly dry. Repairing the ditch might not be worth the money, Gomes said.
Farmers and ranchers getting water from the Waimea and Hamakua ditches are better off because they have access to water stored in reservoirs. There is about a 30-day supply in Waimea, said Lorie Farrell, of the Big Island Farm Bureau. Others are going dry much faster, said state Rep. Dwight Takamine.
On Tuesday the U.S. Farm Service Agency counted 20 cases of major agricultural damage and 25 of minor damage. Reports have been slow to come in because the phone lines were so busy, Farrell said.
And many farmers will not have damage assessments until after that 30-day water supply runs out. "It's going to be a long process to assess the damage," she said.
Officials are still trying. Another helicopter flight, the third or fourth so far, will go over the Kohala Mountains today, said Civil Defense head Troy Kindred.
That information will be used when federal, state and county officials meet with farmers and ranchers in Kapaau at 4 p.m. tomorrow, he said.
