KAILUA-KONA — Waiting for a resolution to the Keauhou aquifer controversy?
Don’t hold your breath.
The last major decision on whether control of the water should be placed in state hands happened last August. That was when the state Commission on Water Resource Management declined a National Park Service request to create a smaller water use management area within the larger aquifer.
Since then, the war over water has gone quiet.
Peter Young — a former chairman of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources who is now a consultant opposing the designation — said that no news in good news.
“It’s not over, which is relatively good, because in the beginning there was a push to get it done fast,” Young said at a meeting last week in Kailua-Kona.
Jonathan Scheuer, a consultant for NPS on the aquifer designation, said on Tuesday that it took nearly 20 years for the Iao aquifer on Maui to be designated a state water management area. The designation places control of pumping and permits in the hands of CWRM rather than the county departments of water supply.
“The first attempt to bring (Iao) aquifer under regulatory control by the state predates the water code, which passed in 1987,” Scheuer said in an email. “Iao was finally designated in 2003, when almost all the water was being used, chlorides were rising in wells, and after the state had to continually revise downward the sustainable yield estimate in light of better hydrological data.”
Theoretically, the commission is tasked with approving or denying a 2013 petition by the National Park Service to designate Keauhou. The Park Service claims the state is better equipped to safeguard the resource on which park ecosystems and cultural practices depend. But the county has heavily opposed the petition, saying state control would smother development under red tape.
Most importantly, opponents claim, the aquifer is only being pumped at half of its sustainable yield, so there is no need to bring in CWRM. Iao, by comparison, was pumping at 90 percent of sustained yield when it was designated for state oversight.
The West Hawaii business community and most local, state and federal lawmakers have expressed opposition to the designation, saying it is premature and would open up the water permitting process to crippling lawsuits.
“Under designation, NPS could contest every well, every permit,” said Bo Kahui, executive director of Laiopua 2020. “They could drag this out in court.”
Whether that would happen or not is unclear; it’s been debated both ways. Jonathan Starr, a water commissioner from Maui, has pointed out repeatedly that similar designations have not slowed development elsewhere, where 10 areas on Oahu, Maui and Molokai are managed by the state. On the other hand, Milton Pavao, a commissioner from the Big Island, has made clear his opposition to the petition.
So CWRM doesn’t appear to be anywhere near a decision. The body normally schedules its meetings in Kailua-Kona when it’s ready to discuss the aquifer in depth. And while this could change, there are no scheduled meetings for Kona on the horizon.
Additionally, mediation between the county Department of Water Supply and NPS appears to be over, following two meetings last year. CWRM mandated in December of 2014 that the parties get together to try to hammer out their differences and discuss alternatives to designation, but did not specify how many times the two should meet.
The DWS continues to update its Water Use and Development Plan per CWRM’s request, but no further meetings with NPS have been scheduled, said DWS spokeswoman Kanani Aton.
“Although we continue to maintain dialog with CWRM, we don’t have any indication that there will be formal action on the petition anytime soon,” Aton said.
The NPS has submitted all of the documents requested by CWRM and continues to stay in touch with the commission, said Tammy Duchesne, superintendent of Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park.
The Keauhou aquifer’s boundaries extend from Kealakekua to north of Kona International Airport and from the seashore past the summit of Hualalai.
CWRM has requested information about how much water NPS needs to sustain its ecosystems and cultural practices, and how the county plans for future uses.
“One of the good things is that it is going to mean there are more monitoring wells that are going to go in whether we designate or not,” Young said. “It’s going to be good for all of us. We are going to know more.”