At a meeting held in Waimea in June, members of the Water Commission were briefed by staff on isotopic evidence that suggests that the Waimea and adjacent \u2018Anaeho\u2018omalu aquifers are connected. Groundwater program manager Roy Hardy told the commission that his agency and \u201ca group of professionals\u201d \u2014 including hydrologists and representatives from the state Department of Health, the U.S. Geological Survey, the University of Hawai\u2018i\u2019s Water Resource Research Center, and consultants who work in the area, among others \u2014 are proposing to combine the two aquifers into one. \u201cIt appears more consistent with hydrogeologic data and it\u2019s a simple management change to address a perceived threat to the Waimea area,\u201d he said, according to minutes of the meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Merging the aquifers would result in a\nsustainable yield of 46 mgd.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Screenshot-2019-09-28-12.42.03.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nCommissioner Neil Hannahs asked\nHardy whether merging the aquifers might\nmask the need to temper growth or optimize\nrecharge.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt might,\u201d Hardy replied, but added that was more of a concern for Hawai\u2018i County\u2019s\nLeeward Planning Commission.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commissioner Kamana Beamer noted that only a single isotope study was being offered as justification for the merger and also expressed concern about \u201ctreating water like a bank account, and I\u2019m just going to borrow from our neighbor next door, \u2018Anaeho\u2018omalu, without thinking of these larger issues like [groundwater management area] designation, planning, and prioritizing.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hardy explained that those were \u201cend\nof the pipe\u201d issues, which are separate from\ncharacterizing the aquifer. He added that\nwater levels in the Waimea aquifer have\nbeen steady, suggesting that it is not at risk\nof overuse.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Beamer suggested that Hardy get input from people who have lived in the area on how the climate has changed. \u201cMy great-grandparents were seeing the misty rain come into Waimea almost daily around this time; it has changed where we have periods of drought and some intense periods,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hardy said he thought the commission\u2019s low recharge estimates for Waimea reflect some of those changes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
CWRM chair Suzanne Case suggested that rather than merging the aquifers, Hardy might consider just adding a little cushion to the Waimea SY number and monitoring it. \u201c[I]t seems like if you\u2019re close to over-pumping in one area, you don\u2019t want to pump more because it might not be a sustainable number,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hardy acknowledged that was a concern,\nbut cited data provided in 2015 by hydrologist\nTom Nance that indicates the proposed 16\nmgd sustainable yield for Waimea did not\ntake into account about 10 mgd of possible\nrecharge from the Kohala mountains.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Case then asked whether the merger proposal originated with CWRM staff or was a request from the county or developers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hardy replied that others had proposed\nto modify the aquifer boundaries, \u201cbut the\njustification for that is … it\u2019s an opinion.\nCWRM has combined aquifers in the past.\u201d\nIn 1993, to address similar concerns, the \u2018Ewa\nand Kunia aquifer boundaries on O\u2018ahu\nwere combined, as were the Waipahu and\nWaiawa aquifer boundaries, a commission\nreport states.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At its July meeting, the Water Commission was asked to approve the WRPP update, which maintained the 16 mgd SY for Waimea and a 30 mgd SY for \u2018Anaeho\u2018omalu. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, a two-sentence footnote in the plan indicates that commission staff is \u201cconsidering amending the boundaries of the Mahukona, Waimea, and \u2018Anaeho\u2018omalu Aquifer System Areas based on observed behavior of existing wells within those areas. Changes in boundary conditions amongst these areas will affect and change recharge analysis and quantities; therefore, the SY estimates in this version of the plan are preliminary until further confirmation.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the staff submittal to the commission did not ask for an immediate decision on the boundary merger, it included as background information comment letters on the draft plan from hydrologists and the Hawai\u2018i County Department of Water Supply (DWS) that supported the boundary merger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a March letter, the DWS asked the commission to refrain from reducing the Waimea aquifer\u2019s sustainable yield to 16 until the aquifer boundary changes are ready to be adopted. \u201cDWS believes that adopting new SY numbers without incorporating potential boundary changes at the same time could result in an unnecessarily misleading outlook on resource capacity and that it would be better to include all the pertinent information available to provide the most accurate determinations for sustainable yield,\u201d wrote the department\u2019s manager and chief engineer Keith Okamoto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Don Thomas of the Hawai\u2018i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology stated in a May 12 comment on the plan that results of a drilling project in the Humu\u2018ula Saddle of the island, between Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, have led him to believe that the boundary line between the Waimea and \u2018Anaeho\u2018omalu aquifers doesn\u2019t serve its intended purpose. \u201cI … am strongly of the opinion that water flow across currently designated aquifer boundaries is far more common than has been generally recognized: this would include the Kohala\/Waimea aquifer boundary as well\nas the \u2018Anaeho\u2018omalu\/Hualalai boundary\nand many others where aquifer boundaries\nreflect the intersection of volcanic deposits\nof younger volcanoes covering their older\nsister volcanoes,\u201d he wrote.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the July meeting, Beamer said he thought it would be premature to vote on any aquifer boundary changes given the short briefing at the commission\u2019s previous meeting. Commission staffer Lenore Ohye assured him that any changes to the sustainable yields for either aquifer would be done in a separate action. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The commission unanimously approved\nthe plan, with a few amendments not related\nto the proposed aquifer merger. A hearing\non that proposal, however, was scheduled\nfor October 3 in Waimea. Commission\nstaff set a deadline for public comments of\nNovember 3, and planned to bring the matter\nto the commission for decision making on\nDecember 17.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sparse Reporting\n<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Water Commission staff can tell a lot about the health of aquifers from deep monitoring wells, which allow for the tracking of water and chloride levels. But knowing how much water is actually being pumped from an aquifer helps managers understand what\u2019s going on underground, as well. What\u2019s more, \u201cwhen actual ground water withdrawals or authorized planned uses may cause the maximum rate of withdrawal to exceed 90 percent of the aquifer\u2019s sustainable yield, CWRM may designate the area as a water management area and regulate water use through the issuance of water use permits,\u201d the WRPP states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The commission, however, has never had\na good grasp of how much water is actually\nbeing pumped from wells throughout the\nstate, even though well owners and operators\nare required to provide pumping data to the\nWater Commission.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A chart in the plan shows that groundwater use is well below the sustainable yields of each major island, but that conclusion is based mainly on reported pumpage. And according to the plan, only 46.4 percent of well owners or operators comply with the requirement to report their monthly water use. Of the 2,699 production wells statewide, the commission has water use reports for only 1,251 of them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Screenshot-2019-09-28-15.56.31.jpg\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\nStill, county water departments are able\nto provide considerable information on\ngroundwater use. Data on surface water,\nhowever, is lacking, the plan states.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Owners and\/or operators of stream\ndiversions are also required to report their\nmonthly water use, but often don\u2019t. The\nonly surface water use data in the plan is\na 12-month moving average for 2016 for\neach island, and it clearly does not reflect\nwhat\u2019s actually being diverted from streams.\nReported surface water use for Moloka\u2018i,\nfor example, was zero. But according to a\npetition filed with the commission in July\nby Earthjustice, on behalf of Moloka\u2018i No\nKa Heke, Moloka\u2018i Ranch diverts about a\nhalf-million gallons of water a day from four\nstreams on the island.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The petition estimates the ranch could\nhave accrued more than $23 million in fines\nfor failing for more than a decade to report\nits water use.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The WRPP suggests a number of ways the commission can improve reporting, including the use of the Civil Resource Violation System established for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, to which the commission is administratively attached. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wet Water\nFor DHHL\n<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
In its deliberations on whether to approve the WRPP update, Jonathan Scheuer, a consultant for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL), asked the commission to ensure that the plan explain how the department\u2019s water reservations will be developed, since it is \u201cthe keystone document\u201d in the Hawai\u2018i Water Plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under state law, the DHHL is allowed to reserve water in systems under the Water Commission\u2019s jurisdiction to meet the needs of its beneficiaries. To date, the department has reservations totaling nearly 30 million gallons a day across more than two dozen hydrologic units statewide. The vast majority of those reservations were made in September 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But DHHL officials and representatives, including Scheuer, have complained in recent years that they have improperly faced resistance from government agencies when trying to make use of its reservations. Rather than treating the DHHL like any other municipal customer and providing water through county water systems, some county water departments believe the DHHL should develop its own water. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The updated WRPP presented to the commission did state that existing and future needs of DHHL protected through water reservations, as well as those identified in the State Water Projects Plan (SWPP), \u201cmust be incorporated and recognized in the components of the Hawai\u2018i Water Plan. Additional reservations for DHHL are planned based on the 2017 SWPP future demands.\u201d And the Water Use and Development Plans (WUDP) prepared by each county are also components of the Hawai\u2018i Water Plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even so, Scheuer wanted the plans to include more direction from the commission. The county water plans need to agree with the WRPP, and \u201cit\u2019s not enough for Water Use and Development Plans to say DHHL has this reservation,\u201d he said, arguing that the plan must also explain how those reservations will be developed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said he understood that the commission was treating the WRPP as a living document that could be amended at any time. However, he added, \u201cwe don\u2019t have a sense of what the triggers are,\u201d which is worrisome since it took ten years to update the plan. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commission deputy director Lenore Ohye suggested that it might be more appropriate to include the kind of language Scheuer was asking for in the commission\u2019s framework for updating the Hawai\u2018i Water Plan, rather than in the WRPP. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However it\u2019s done, Scheuer told the commission, \u201cCounties are subdivisions of state. Just as every other state agency is obligated to help fulfill the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, counties are as well.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGetting from paper water to wet water is part of the public trust. It\u2019s about us setting policies to enable that,\u201d commissioner Kamana Beamer added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s a big statement. Certainly bigger than this meeting,\u201d commission chair Suzanne Case said. Some commissioners also expressed skepticism about the duties being ascribed to them. Still, Case said the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which she also heads, is trying to do what it can to facilitate delivery of water to the DHHL. \u201cI do support that. … How it fits into the legal framework is a bigger discussion,\u201d she said. \u2014Teresa Dawson <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Waimea, ‘Anaeho‘omalu Aquifers Remain Separate in Updated Water Resources Plan After more than a decade, the Commission on Water Resource Management finally updated its Water Resources Protection Plan (WRPP) earlier this year. As adopted, the plan seems to put the … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[459],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11811","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-october-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11811","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11811"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11811\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11811"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11811"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11811"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}