\u201cWe\u2019re bringing coals to Newcastle.\u201d That\u2019s how Don Thomas, a geochemist with the University of Hawai`i\u2019s Department of Geology and Geophysics, described recent findings in a presentation to the state Commission on Water Resource Management last March.<\/p>\n
Thomas\u2019 Hawai`i Scientific Drilling Project, which began boring a 11,541-foot-deep hole into the ground near the Hilo airport in the late 1990s, has discovered that despite current ideas about island aquifers, freshwater can be found in artesian aquifers and pillow lavas far, far below sea level, deeper than 10,000 feet.<\/p>\n
\tWhile this discovery doesn\u2019t save the day for rainy Hilo, which has \u201cgot all the water it needs,\u201d Thomas said, the find is causing scientists to rethink a long-accepted paradigm of freshwater recharge on islands.<\/p>\n
As most textbooks would explain it, freshwater is stored in perched aquifers, dikes, or basal aquifers, and in those basal aquifers, freshwater extends slightly below sea level until, eventually, it transitions into salt water.<\/p>\n
\tBut according to Thomas, that\u2019s not the whole story.<\/p>\n
\tUsing a cookie-cutter bit tipped with tiny diamond chips, the team drilled through a thin layer of Mauna Loa lava down to lava from its older sister volcano, Mauna Kea. The purpose of the hole was to allow scientists to better examine the volcanism that produced Hawai`i, since it is not well understood, Thomas said. The project team wanted to explore the deep structure of the Big Island and, among many other things, characterize its water resources.<\/p>\n
From the core left by the drill, similar to the ice cores taken from polar regions, scientists sampled rocks and water, made geophysical measurements, and discovered some astonishing things. For one, the Hilo side of the island is sitting on a 1,500-foot layer of gravel and sand. \u201cNot very comforting,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n
But more important, at least to hydrologists, is that there are multiple layers of freshwater and salt water below sea level. At the Hilo bore hole, fresh water extends from 300 to 500 meters, he said, and below that, down to 1,500 meters, lies cold salt water. But deeper still, artesian aquifers were found and an old Mauna Kea soil and ash layer was found to be discharging one billion gallons of freshwater a day into the ocean. Pillow lavas at the greatest depths also contained fresh water, he said.<\/p>\n
\t\u201cThere is ten times more freshwater in Mauna Kea than current models would have predicted,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat the hole shows is that there are different mechanisms for storing water.\u201d What\u2019s more, the deep soil and ash aquifer isn\u2019t just a receptacle for old, stored water that was slowly buried as the island subsided. It\u2019s being recharged by rainfall.<\/p>\n
\tSpurred by the results from Hawai`i island, the project team plans to drill a similar hole through Haleakala where east and west Maui intersect to discover any hidden water sources there. While Hilo doesn\u2019t need the extra water, Maui \u2013 where fights over freshwater have plagued the island for decades \u2013 does. But at the March meeting, to prevent anyone from jumping to conclusions, Thomas warned that Haleakala is older than Hawai`i\u2019s volcanoes and has undergone more weathering, which may affect runoff and percolation on the island.<\/p>\n
\tWhat was found at the Hilo bore hole \u201cdoesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s all kinds of [underground] water on Maui. At this point, we don\u2019t understand the hydrology of any of the islands,\u201d which is why he and his colleagues want to continue their work, Thomas said. \u201cI don\u2019t want to say we are going to \u2026 find what we found at Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. I can only say that [island hydrology is] not what we thought it was.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018What does it mean?\u2019<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n
Roy Hardy, hydrology program director for the Water Commission, says while the presence of deep freshwater has been common knowledge for some time, the implications for water resource management are taking longer to understand.<\/p>\n
CWRM first became involved with the Hilo project because staff worried about the drill going too deep and hitting a geothermal layer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put in a lot of conditions for mitigating that,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\tOver the years, the project has sent a number of reports to the commission and \u201cwe knew about these things in 2003, but it was kind of like, \u2018What does it mean?\u2019 From 2003 until now, they\u2019ve been analyzing [the cores]. It\u2019s one of those long academic studies and they\u2019re now coming out with a better conceptual model [on the hydrology],\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Hardy says the commission plans to mention the Hilo findings in the Water Resources Protection Plan, which it is preparing as one of the components of the state Water Plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere may be other areas where big mountains butt against each other. It would appear that water from the lower aquifer is not ancient water. It looks like it\u2019s actively getting recharge. We have to rethink how much recharge is getting into the upper aquifer as opposed to the lower. Right now, we only have the recharge going into upper aquifer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cIt seemed kind of mundane until you all burst into applause,\u201d Water Commission chair Laura Thielen said after its vote March 13 to designate the West Maui watersheds known as Na Wai `Eha as a surface water management area, the first such designation since the Water Code was passed in 1987.<\/p>\n \tIn 2006, Earthjustice, representing Hui o Na Wai Eha and Maui Tomorrow Foundation, Inc. filed a petition requesting that the commission either recognize the watersheds of Waihe`e, Waiehu, `Iao, and Waikapu Streams (collectively, Na Wai `Eha) as part of the `Iao Ground Water Management Area, or designate the four watersheds as a surface water management area. At its March meeting, the commission determined that because there are \u201cserious disputes\u201d over the surface water resources, it should designate Na Wai `Eha as a surface water management area.<\/p>\n Whether for ground or surface water, designation as a water management area requires all users of water from that area \u2013 except for people or entities with appurtenant rights, for domestic water use by individuals and those using catchment systems \u2013to have a permit from the Water Commission.<\/p>\n To get one of those permits, they must show the use meets several criteria:<\/p>\n \u2022\tThe use can be accommodated by the source.<\/p>\n \u2022\tIt is a reasonable-beneficial use.<\/p>\n \u2022\tIt will not interfere with any existing legal use of water.<\/p>\n \u2022\tIt is consistent with the public interest; land use designations, as well as county general and land use plans and policies.<\/p>\n \u2022\tIt will not interfere with the rights of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.<\/p>\n Within one year of the published notice that the area has been designated, all existing users of Na Wai `Eha water who want to continue their use must file a permit application with the Commission on Water Resource Management. While new use applications can be submitted at any time, any existing user who fails to meet the one-year deadline will be considered a new user. New uses will only be accommodated once all the needs of existing users have been met.<\/p>\n While Thielen called it an historic decision, she quickly added, \u201cBeing the state, you can be assured it\u2019s not going to be quick.\u201d The Legislature had just announced the DLNR\u2019s budget, which includes a significant number of cuts in positions at its Division of Aquatic Resources and at the Commission.<\/p>\n \tAt the commission\u2019s March meeting, attorneys for Hui o Na Wai `Eha and Maui Tomorrow, for the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and for County of Maui all testified in support of the designation, as well as several members of the community and activist groups. Attorneys representing Alexander & Baldwin\/Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar and Wailuku Water Company, as well as staff from both companies, attended the meeting, but did not testify.<\/p>\n \tAfter the commission\u2019s vote, Maui County corporation counsel Jane Lovell asked how the commission would deal with the fact that one party \u2013 Wailuku Water Company \u2013 controls the diversion system that currently provides the county with water for its municipal system. When the `Iao aquifer was designated as a groundwater management area, the county and a housing developer both applied for water from the same source, Shaft 33, which was located on land owned by the developer. Because the permit application had required signatures from both entities, the county\u2019s existing use application — which lacked the developer\u2019s signature — was rejected and the county was lumped in with the new use applicants. While the `Iao aquifer was able to accommodate the county\u2019s use, Lovell seemed worried about how the Na Wai `Eha permitting process would play out, since it would seem that some existing water use applicants would need to obtain signatures from WWC.<\/p>\n \t\u201cWe don\u2019t want every user to have to get a signature from the diverter,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Earthjustice attorney Kapua Sproat also raised the signature issue at the commission\u2019s April meeting during a discussion of a new draft permit application for existing uses.<\/p>\n While the draft permit application was a non-action item on the agenda and the commission did not vote on whether or not the landowner signature would be required, Hardy says that the commission had taken a position on the matter when it decided the dispute over Shaft 33.<\/p>\n \u201cThe result was, hey, the commission requires it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n Even so, the commission plans to consult with its attorney on the matter.<\/p>\n \u201cThe commission doesn\u2019t want to encourage disputes,\u201d Hardy says. \u201cWe have some ideas. We may make a change [but] have to clear it with the AG [attorney general].\u201d<\/p>\n With regard to the ongoing contested case hearing on a petition by the Maui Tomorrow Foundation and Hui o Na Wai `Eha to amend the interim instream flow standards of Na Wai `Eha, hearing officer and commission member Lawrence Miike is expected to complete his recommendations to the commission some time this summer. Commission stream program manager Ed Sakoda said at the March meeting that if the flow standards are not amended before the Na Wai `Eha surface water use permits are issued, interim permits might be issued instead. The commission would then have five years from the time the use applications were filed to amend its flow standards and issue final permits.<\/p>\n — Teresa Dawson<\/p>\n Volume 18, Number 11 May 2008<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “We’re bringing coals to Newcastle.” That’s how Don Thomas, a geochemist with the University of Hawai`i’s Department of Geology and Geophysics, described recent findings in a presentation to the state Commission on Water Resource Management last March. Thomas’ Hawai`i Scientific … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[162,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-may-2008","category-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290","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=1290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1290\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nCommission Tightens Grip
\nOn Waters of Central Maui<\/div>\n