By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau
KEKAHA, Kaua‘i — Amfac/JMB will walk away Wednesday from the pumps that keep the Kekaha-Mana plain dry, but state officials hope to select a new operator tomorrow.
That’s cutting it close, but that’s been the pattern since Amfac late last year announced it was closing its Lihu‘e and Kekaha sugar plantations.
"It’s going to be our headache on Wednesday," said Alfredo Lee, executive director of the state’s Agribusiness Development Corp., which is trying to preserve the state’s agricultural options on the old plantation lands.
A group of potential users already has begun the process of taking over parts of the Lihu‘e irrigation ditch system, but the Kekaha situation is in some ways more complicated and more critical.
State officials concluded they could deal later with the issue of who gets to grow what on the land. First there is the public health and safety issue associated with the potential flooding if pumping were to cease, and the possibility that if systems are allowed to deteriorate, it may no longer be economically feasible to re-establish reservoirs, ditch systems, hydroelectric plants and the rest.
"It’s just coming up so fast. We said, ‘Time is short. Let’s take care of the drainage system and talk later,’ " Lee said.
The Kekaha Committee of the Agribusiness Development Corp. will meet in Honolulu tomorrow to select a contractor to run the Kekaha-Mana systems.
The Mana plain, once nearly 1,000 acres of marsh and open ponds, has been pumped dry to allow sugar cultivation. The pumps continue to run 24 hours a day while fresh irrigation water is used to prevent brackish groundwater from seeping up.
Lee said two firms with interest in leasing former Kekaha sugar lands also are the two candidates for running the pumps, drainage ditches and irrigation systems. They are the Sunkiss marine shrimp operation run by Ceatech USA, and the Gay & Robinson sugar plantation.
"Those guys are on the land, have employees from Amfac and they know the systems," Lee said.
He expects that whichever company is selected, it will hire at least some of the Amfac workers who will be laid off Wednesday from maintaining the system.
No one knows just how much it will cost to run the systems. Lee said the major costs are the power to run the big pumps, the labor to keep ditches open and equipment maintenance. He said the contract to run the system will be short-term, both to protect the contractor and state from unexpected costs.
"The numbers are not really accurate at this point. We will find out in about six months what the actual cost is," he said.
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