O'ahu residents asked to limit water use

By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer

O'ahu aquifer levels have dropped so low after five years of below-normal rainfall that the Board of Water Supply has asked customers to adhere to a conservation schedule.

Compliance will be voluntary at first, said Cliff Jamile, manager and chief engineer for water supply. But stricter conservation efforts could follow.

"We're looking for a 10 percent reduction in demand," Jamile said. "If we don't get it, we'll make it mandatory."

The conservation effort will apply to all customers, Jamile said: "residents, businesses, the military — everyone."

Jamile asked water users to cut back by restricting lawn and garden irrigation to Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays before 10 a.m. or after 6 p.m. The city Department of Parks and Recreation will stop watering at 10:30 a.m.

All employees of the water board, from meter readers to office staff, will keep an eye out for violations. Customers who do not abide by the irrigation restrictions will be reached by telephone and asked to comply.

The board will monitor water use for three to four weeks, Jamile said. If it has not dropped sufficiently at that point, a mandatory policy will be enforced. A decision on whether voluntary measures have been sufficient would be made in late August.

Customers who do not abide by the mandatory reductions would have a flow restrictor placed on water lines leading to their house, Jamile said.

Low average rainfall over the past five years has induced customers to use more water for irrigation, Jamile said.

Water levels in aquifers across the island have dropped 2 feet from the levels the same time last year, but water use by customers has continued to rise.

The five-year average for water production in July is 165 million gallons per day, according to Jamile. He said the all-time high consumption period was set this year at the beginning of June. That was 180 million gallons per day, a rate that the water levels and equipment cannot sustain.

Allowing water supplies to continue to drop would result in a poor-quality water. Excessive pumping to meet higher customer demand could cause salt water to shoot up through the layers of brackish and fresh water and into the pumps.

"We're asking people not to push us to that point," he said. "Before we would allow that to happen, we would make the restrictions mandatory."

Mandatory water rationing was last imposed in December of 1984.

"That was a nasty one, Jamile said. "A very hectic time. We really had to police the system."

Residents and businesses were restricted to 90 percent of their previous overall water use; large area irrigators, such as parks, military bases, golf courses and agricultural areas, were restricted to 75 percent of their previous water use.

Reach Karen Blakeman at 535-2430 or kblakeman@honoluluadvertiser.com