Big Island cooperative seeks new irrigation wells
By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HONOMALINO, Hawai'i — After suffering through two decades of abnormally low rainfall, farmers and landowners in South Kona have joined together in seeking federal assistance to develop deep wells to provide water for cattle, macadamia nuts and avocado groves.
The 65-member Honomalino Irrigation Cooperative is putting up half of the $12 million cost to drill at least six wells, with the other half expected to come from the National Resource Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Ellen Mehos of the Hawai'i Farm Bureau and president of the cooperative, describes the venture as a "survive or perish" effort.
The irrigation project would provide water for nearly 15,000 acres from the Miloli'i junction south to Manuka Natural Area Reserve near the Ka'u District boundary. Wells would draw fresh water from the 800- to 3,000-foot elevation, with distribution via gravity feed, avoiding additional costs for pumping.
Hilary Brown, orchard manager for MacFarms of Hawai'i and cooperative treasurer, said the Honomalino project would permit the continued existence of agriculture and a rural lifestyle on the south slope of Mauna Loa, and perhaps encourage new crops.
It also would stabilize the 3,900 acres of macadamia trees MacFarms owns, Brown said. Over the past 13 years, the company has been pumping water from two lower elevation sites, but use of those wells is limited because the water is brackish.
In addition to its own orchards, the company purchases nuts from 600 other producers.
Another major player in the cooperative is the 1,570-acre cattle ranch known as Ho'omau, formerly owned by the late actor Jimmy Stewart.
A three-member federal team from Davis, Calif., visited the area this past summer to evaluate the potential for well drilling.
Team leader and engineer Mark Cocke said a final written analysis of the project is being prepared.
A key to the cost analysis, he said, is that pumping would be restricted to 14 hours a day during the "off-peak hours" when cheaper surplus electricity would be used under a special contract with Hawai'i Electric Light Co.
