Hahaione Valley line break leaves 22 homes without water

Twenty-two Hahaione Valley homes near Hawaii Kai were without water yesterday after a 12-inch water main broke on Ainapo Street near Kulani Street. The break occurred about 1 p.m. and no homes were damaged, said Water Supply spokeswoman Moani Wright-Van Alst.

Firefighters used salvage covers (square sheets of water-resistant material) and borrowed sand bags and cinder blocks from a neighbor to divert water runoff near a house into a storm drain, said Honolulu fire Capt. Terry Seelig.

The Board of Water Supply dispatched a water wagon to the area for residents.

Company picked to clear big isle military debris

Environet has been granted a five-year, $70 million contract to remove unexploded artillery ordnance from the Big Island's 100,000-acre former Waikoloa Maneuver Area on the western side of the island, which includes the communities of Waikoloa and Waimea.

The cleanup is expected to cost more than $600 million. Over the past seven years, $82 million has been spent to remove more than 2,100 munitions or explosive items and 260 tons of military debris.

The U.S. Navy acquired the site in 1943 for use as a military training camp and artillery range. Portions were used for maneuvers and intensive live-fire training with hand grenades and high-explosive shells.

Former shuttle commander to speak

Retired Cmdr. John Bennett Herrington, who was part of the seven-member shuttle Endeavour crew that flew to the International Space Station in 2002, will speak at the Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford Island on Oct. 5.

Tickets for the event, which will begin at 7 p.m., are $14 for adults and $7 for children. Kamaaina and military admission rates are $10 for adults and $5 for children. For more information, visit http://www.PacificAviationMuseum.org. The event is free to Hawaii teachers and museum members.

Herrington's appearance is part of the museum's “;Aerospace in Hawaii Week,”; which will run Oct. 4-10.

Herrington was part of the 16th American flight to the space station. Herrington, a registered Chickasaw, carried a Chickasaw Nation flag on his 11-day trip. The flag had been presented to him by Chickasaw Nation Gov. Bill Anoatubby. Herrington's maternal great-grandmother was of Chickasaw descent.

Reservations are required to drive on to Ford Island for the event. The shuttle will not be running after 5 p.m. Call the museum at (808) 441-1008 or e-mail .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) by Oct. 1 to secure access.

Utah school ring recovered on Maui

OGDEN, Utah » Sixty years after losing his Morgan High School class ring, Fred Ulrich has it back, thanks to the curiosity of a Mormon missionary who found the ring in Hawaii.

Ulrich lost the ring while at the University of Utah in 1949. Seth Embleton found it in a box of lost items at a church on Maui while serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Embleton wore the ring, which bears the year 1948 and Ulrich's initials. But then with the help of his mission leader, Embleton searched the Internet to find its owner. They found more than one Morgan High, but matched an emblem on the ring to the Utah school's Trojan mascot.

After a telephone call, the school district linked the ring to Ulrich in Ogden.

Embleton, of Fairway, returned from his mission in August and recently returned the heirloom.

NEIGHBOR ISLANDS

Federal grant aids energy plant studies

The U.S. Department of Energy is giving $600,000 to a company seeking to start an ocean thermal energy conversion plant on Kauai, U.S. Sens. Daniel Inouye and Daniel Akaka announced in a news release.

Ocean Engineering and Energy Systems International will use the federal funds to conduct studies of a proposed OTEC site in Port Allen.

Ocean thermal energy conversion uses the difference in temperature between the warm surface water of the ocean and the cold water in depths below 2,000 feet to generate electricity. An experimental 210-kilowatt, open-cycle OTEC plant operated intermittently between 1992 and 1998 at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii at Keahole Point on the Big Island.