O'ahu wells drying up fast

By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

The Honolulu Board of Water Supply is asking its customers to cut back on water use and is seeking a 10 percent voluntary cut from its 100 biggest users, including city and state agencies, Hawaiian Electric Co., hotels, golf courses and high schools, as Hawai'i struggles through its longest drought recorded.

	Top 10 monthly water users
	Top 10 water users	Average monthly use (in thousands of gallons)
1.	Marine Corps Base Hawai'i	75,561
2.	Chevron USA Inc.	49,370
3.	Dept. of Transportation, Aolele Street	24,012
4.	Tesoro	19,493
5.	Hale Koa*	19,420
6.	University of Hawai'i	19,293
7.	Hilton*	12,973 + 5,982=18,955
8.	Hawai'i Kai Golf Course	14,239
9.	DOT, Paiea Street	13,974
10.	HECO*	13,650
	May 2000-April 2001, Board of Water Supply
	* Combined meter totals

And troubling signals continue. In the worst weeks this summer, water use has been up as much as 8 million gallons more over 2000 figures.

The water level in five of Honolulu's seven main monitoring stations has fallen so low that officials list them in the "alert" stage — and the remaining two are soon to follow.

Water officials on O'ahu can't figure out why water users are not responding, despite their public service announcements calling for conservation and the widely reported news that the island is in a fourth straight year of drought.

And they worry that continued dry weather and high water use could trigger a return to the mandatory rationing days of 1984.

"In the past, people have always complied when we've asked them to voluntarily cut back," said Chester Lao, head of the water board's hydrology-geology section. "I don't know why we're not getting as much cooperation as we're seeking."

Officials speculate that people are using more water to coax their dying plants and dry, brown lawns back to life. Or perhaps the regular mist in places such as Nu'uanu Valley and Manoa Valley makes it hard for them to realize that Hawai'i is in a drought.

Some customers are using more water on an annual basis, including the Ala Wai Golf Course, up 19 percent, and United Laundry Service, up 28 percent over last year. Others, such as Halawa Prison, down 13 percent, and the Honolulu Zoo, down 44 percent, are using less this year compared with last year.

A lot of water users are like Kristine Newmann, who didn't get the message that the Honolulu Board of Water Supply wants her help.

"I'm not really that aware that there's a problem," said Newmann, a mother of two and a medical transcriptionist who works out of her home in Kapolei.

As she looks around her street, Newmann believes she's hardly alone.

"Some of the neighbors just water like crazy," she said. "I can see them with the hose every evening. I don't think they're aware of the request to cut back either, or else they just don't care."

The forecast for an El Nino winter offers little hope the drought will end soon.

"We're looking at a tendency toward drier conditions in the upcoming winter," said Roger Lukas, a University of Hawai'i oceanography professor. "That means we're now in our fourth year, with a fifth year of drought likely. The best hope is that my forecast for an El Nino would be wrong and that ... we return to more normal conditions. Unfortunately, we aren't predicting that yet."

Based on Honolulu's population growth and rate of water consumption, water officials worry that by 2020, Honolulu will pump more water from its underground water supply than the rain puts back in. The change would knock the system out of balance and possibly cause salt water to flow from city wells.

	Tips for water conservation
•	Examine faucets for drips, inspect pipes and irrigation systems for seepage and make sure that toilets shut off after flushing.
•	Ensure that sprinkler timers function properly. Fix any sprinkler heads that are misdirected.
•	Take short showers instead of baths. Run water only to wet down and rinse off.
•	Attach a nozzle spray to garden hoses to water lawns or wash cars instead of letting water run down into the sewer.
•	Water during cooler times of day to avoid wasting water through evaporation.
•	Retrofit older homes with low-flow showerheads, faucets and toilets. Older toilets can be cheaply converted to save water by simply bending the ball-cock assembly in the toilet tank so the flow shuts off sooner. Or a brick or mayonnaise jar filled with water can be placed into the tank to reduce the amount of water needed.

The Kaimuki, Beretania, Halawa and Moanalua monitoring stations, as well as the Waihe'e Tunnel, all have gone from the caution stage to alert status this summer.

"There's no question that Kalihi and Kalauao will follow," Lao said. "Then all seven will be on alert."

In early July, the Punalu'u station even went into "critical" condition for a while.

"We can't do this endlessly," Lao said. "We've got to have some respite and give the system a chance to relax."

Water officials insist that Honolulu will never run out of water. They continue to look for new sources, including a project to convert ocean water to fresh water at two new salt-water wells in Kapolei, and are saving drinking water by spraying golf courses and lawns with reclaimed water.

Continued stress on the water system, however, could cause problems at the three oldest pumping stations: Kaimuki, Beretania and Kalihi.

If the level drops to 18 feet above sea level at the three stations, Lao said, the antiquated pumps would not be able to lift the water anymore.

"In the worst-case scenario, we'd lose these three stations and see even more stations getting brackish," Lao said.

In just three years, the water level at the Beretania station alone has fallen more than four feet. It's now 19.8 feet above sea level — less than two feet above the danger zone.

The trend toward greater consumption will only get worse as more of O'ahu is paved over.

Agriculture, and especially O'ahu's dead sugar industry, once used millions of gallons of water every day. Although the rate of consumption was incredible, water flowed back through the soil and returned to the water table.

By contrast, much of the water pumped out of the aquifers and into homes is lost. It's consumed by people, washed down driveways, flushed through pipes and then simply heads out to sea.

Tom Giambelluca, a University of Hawai'i geography professor, studied O'ahu's conversion from sugar to homes in 1983. He calculated that the amount of water going in and out of the system can remain balanced as long as only 65 percent of irrigated sugar land is converted to medium-density urban use.

Anything more than 65 percent development would stress the system and cause more water to come out than goes back in, Giambelluca said. (Honolulu water officials don't have an exact number on how much sugar land has been developed.)

"If you were to replace all of the sugar and pineapple land with people, then you'd really end up with a negative situation," Giambelluca said.

The situation is similar on some of the Neighbor Islands.

Some wells are at record lows on Maui and Kaua'i, where water officials have asked for voluntary conservation.

On the Big Island, mandatory conservation measures have been phased in for portions of the eastern side of the island.

For now Mac McFeeley, a chemistry teacher at Maryknoll High School, tries to instill his sophomores with a sense of responsibility when it comes to using water.

He hasn't washed his car in a year. When he pours water down the sink at school, McFeeley's students tell him "Mr. Mac, malama ka 'aina. You shouldn't waste water."

All of which makes McFeeley bothered that some people would use even more water than normal during a drought.

"That's the real travesty," McFeeley said. "I think government is banking on the goodwill of the people to understand and act accordingly. Maybe they're putting more faith in people than is deserved."

You can reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8085.

Correction: The chart on water users should list Chevron USA Inc. as O'ahu's second biggest monthly water user, not Crosspointe Community Association. A previous version of this story had an erroneous chart.