State sets Maui water limits
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau
WAILUKU, Maui — The state Commission on Water Resource Management yesterday stopped short of taking over management of the 'Iao and North Waihe'e aquifers, key sources of drinking water on Maui.
Instead, the commission imposed new management requirements on Maui County that some predicted would lead to designation of the aquifers as state groundwater management areas anyway.
Bypassing its staff's recommendation to designate groundwater management areas, as well as Chairman Gil Coloma-Agaran's motion to do so, the commission decided to establish limits that, if exceeded, will trigger outright designation.
Those limits include pumping from 'Iao no more than 18 million gallons a day, which is 90 percent of the aquifer's estimated sustainable yield. In addition, the midpoint of the Waiehu Deep Monitor Well transition zone — between fresh and salt water — must be kept below minus-680 feet.
Maui County Department of Water Supply officials said that the requirements would be difficult to meet, but that they would try their best. Statistical trends indicate that the trigger levels will be reached in a few years.
Ellen Kraftsow, water department program manager, said the agency will have to reduce pumping, expedite conservation efforts, tap into surface water and other new sources, and take other steps.
Designating groundwater management areas allows the state to better monitor the amount of water taken from aquifers to ensure that sustainable yields are not exceeded. The entire islands of O'ahu and Moloka'i are state groundwater management areas.
Former state Sen. Avery Chumbley, president of Wailuku Agribusiness, said the transition-zone requirement would make designation inevitable, because chloride levels keep rising.
Maui Board of Water Supply member Jonathan Starr agreed, saying the trigger points would be reached within three or four years. But he also said the process faces an uncertain future with Linda Lingle as governor. Lingle opposed state groundwater designation when she was Maui mayor and she also has suggested doing away with the commission.
State Health Director Bruce Anderson made the motion to establish the triggers, saying he wanted to give county officials another chance at managing the aquifers now that voters chose to put the Department of Water Supply under the control of the mayor and County Council.
On a motion by Anderson, the commission also voted to require that the county enter into a contract within 60 days to create a numeric water model that will provide more accurate figures about how much water exists in the 'Iao and North Waihe'e aquifers. The estimated cost of such a model is $1 million.
Starr, who has been advocating designation, said that while he's disappointed the state won't be offering its management expertise, he's happy that the commission required the numeric model, another item he's been pushing for.
"At least there will be some management," he said.
During the daylong meeting in Wailuku, environmentalists and other slow-growth advocates urged the commission to take over management of the aquifer to ensure that the source of water for most of Central and South Maui is not compromised.
The commission's staff recommended designation, in part because approvals for future development already indicate that demand will exceed sustainable yields.
But Kraftsow and others questioned that assertion, saying community plan approvals come with no guarantees that residents will receive water meters.
