Hawai'i endures spotty drought
By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Staff Writer
Officials on three islands are calling for water conservation, fire has scorched thousands of acres of brush and summer is barely a third of the way through.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Is it dry out there or what?
Jennie Peterson, environmental education O'ahu program manager of the Hawai'i Nature Center, walks in what should be knee-high to thigh-high water of the Moleka Stream. The bridge is part of the DLNR's Na Ala Hele Trail & Access System.
Well, it depends on where you are.
"That's the interesting thing about this drought," said Stephen Anthony, assistant district chief of water programs with the U.S. Geological Survey in Honolulu. "Some locations are feeling it more than others."
For example, many areas on Kaua'i experienced above-average rainfall in the first half of this year, according to the National Weather Service. And reservoirs in Upcountry Maui are more than 90 percent full thanks to July rains.
But those instances appear to be the exception rather than the rule, according to the federal government's Climate Prediction Center, which lists all the islands except Kaua'i and Ni'ihau as being in drought — with no significant relief expected until at least November.
With demand on the rise, water officials are pushing hard for water conservation. On Maui, officials last week asked for voluntary cutbacks in Central Maui. On the Big Island, officials are calling for water conservation measures in North and South Kona and Ka'u. Mayor Harry Kim signed a drought emergency covering the entire island on June 30.
On O'ahu, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply is stepping up its annual summer water conservation campaign after water use hit record levels early in the summer.
"With five years of lower-than-normal rainfall, we do want to emphasize the point this year," said Donna Fay Kiyosaki, deputy manager.
Board spokeswoman Denise DeCosta said managers are closely monitoring water levels and weighing the possibility of recommending mandatory restrictions on irrigation if water use doesn't decline.
"We'd like to get through the summer without restrictions," DeCosta said.
Meanwhile, dry conditions have sparked an upsurge in wildland fires. The problem exploded earlier this month when firefighters battled blazes on five different islands, including one fire that consumed 10,000 acres of parched landscape near South Point on the Big Island.
State protection forester Wayne F. Ching said it's "very unusual" to have multiple fires raging across the state. He said four years of dry weather may be catching up to Hawai'i and creating more opportunities for wildland fires.
Ching said he is worried that the demand on state fire crews will grow. In the next couple of weeks, he said, staffers will be evaluating whether any state lands should be closed to the public because of the dry conditions.
"At this point, we're on the borderline," he said.
Elsewhere, the National Park Service describes the fire danger of its Hawai'i parks as "very high to extreme," the same label given to parks in 13 other western states enduring severe drought.
Hawai'i's dry weather is reflected in the latest U.S. Geological Survey hydrology report, issued this month:
O'ahu got a bit of relief with thundershowers over the weekend, but July still is below average for rainfall. Below average rainfall was noted over the past year at Poamoho, near the crest of the Ko'olau Range. The 12-month period ending in June had the lowest yearly rainfall total — 115 inches — since records were first kept in 1967.
Average stream flow in the past year at Kalihi Stream has been lower only twice since 1914, during 1984-85 and 1954.
Groundwater levels near Pearl Harbor in June were near the lowest on record (since 1966) for the month of June.
On Maui, the Honopou Stream was flowing over the past year at 59 percent of the yearly median, which is its lowest average stream flow since 1985.
Even relatively wet Kaua'i recorded some dry-weather lows: During the year that ended in June, rainfall was about 70 percent of average on Wai'ale'ale, which is the lowest total yearly rainfall (277 inches) since 1993.
And groundwater levels in the Lihu'e Basin and near Hanapepe were the lowest on record over the past year through June.
