Should the state Commission on Water Resource Management consider putting only a portion of the Keauhou aquifer under its control?
That question will be at the center of discussions next week on a petition by the National Park Service to designate the aquifer a state water management area. The designation would give CWRM oversight of permits to pump from the North Kona source.
The water commission will meet in Kailua-Kona at 9 a.m. Monday at the West Hawaii Civic Center for what is likely to be a full day of talks surrounding the aquifer. A decision on the petition for designation itself, filed in late 2013, is not expected.
Instead, the commission will mull another petition by the park service asking CWRM whether a state management area could be made up of only the basal groundwater system, or coastal freshwater lens. The petition also asked the commission to determine whether a management area could be defined within an ahupuaa, or historic land division.
Officials with the Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park have said the petition is in keeping with CWRM’s December order for NPS and the DWS to explore options other than designation for the aquifer. Public testimony will be taken on the matter.
Also on tap for discussion: a request for a time extension by the Hawaii County Department of Water Supply for completing an update of the county’s Water Use and Development Plan; and a request by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for reservation of 3.4 million gallons a day from the aquifer.
NPS is chiefly concerned with ensuring that fresh groundwater in the park remains at a level that can sustain park ecosystems and cultural practices surrounding them. CWRM has asked NPS to quantify how much water it needs for those purposes — along with other requirements and marching orders for the DWS as well. DWS opposes a system of state permits, saying it is doing a good job managing the water and that state involvement will slow the permitting process and cripple emerging North Kona developments.
CWRM has designated multiple aquifers around the state as water management areas but has never before designated only a portion of an aquifer.