Keith Okamoto, manager and chief engineer with the Department of Water Supply on Hawaii Island, knows he can expect a teeth kicking tonight.
Figuratively, of course, but rightfully so.
The fact that North Kona was in a water emergency because five of its 13 wells were broken at once simply can’t happen. There’s no other way to put it.
So far, Okamoto hasn’t dodged the heat. He’s taken full responsibility.
“Basically,” he told County Council members who had called him to the carpet during a meeting Monday, “the situation we’re in is all on us.”
West Hawaii’s County Council representatives scheduled the meeting, it seemed, to get testimony on record where fault lies for the water debacle, and the chief engineer didn’t point the finger anywhere but the mirror.
So Okamoto and his team know what’s in store when they meet with the public during a forum on the water situation at 6 p.m. at the West Hawaii Civic Center.
Meanwhile, they’ve already pledged changes in the department to reduce any chances of this snafu from happening again.
Keeping custom-made spare parts in stock for the major wells is one of those promises. That means, if equipment breaks, backups will be on hand, which should expedite the replacement process. The old way was to wait until the part was broken before filling out the restock order, which had to be built on the mainland and shipped here.
Another is to send bids out proactively, prior to a breakdown, for the labor needed to contract repair work. That will navigate the tedious, red-taped request-for-proposal process early, before crisis mode hits.
But we’re not out of the woods yet.
North Kona has been under a 25 percent water restriction since January. For one dire week, it was under stricter restrictions after the recently repaired fifth well, Keahuolu, went down again. After it was fixed a second time, the restrictions were rolled back to the familiar 25 percent mark.
But restrictions are expected to be in place until three of the four wells are replaced. That means the water supply won’t be normal until around Thanksgiving.
Nearly a calendar year — assuming everything stays the course — North Kona is expected to conserve.
That’s terrible business.
Part of the ire the Department of Water Supply team should be prepared to experience tonight will be deeper than simply the annoyance one feels when amenities are inconvenienced. This, to some, is much more disrespectful than that — it’s personal, even.
Fair or not, West Hawaii pays a bulk of Hawaii Island’s property taxes — around 70 percent. North Kona is vital to that, making up nearly 33 percent of the island’s total. Simply but crudely put, it pays the bills.
And it can’t get the water it wants from the government it financially supports?
Water, police, schools, roads — those are the core basics government is there to provide. Because of bad luck and a lack of planning, North Kona’s sacrificing one of them. It certainly didn’t help the temperature of the room when one public reminder to observe the restrictions from officials came off as a scolding. In it, Mayor Harry Kim pointed out that most people waste water and if normal usage kept up, “we’re inviting problems” — sounding as if it were the public’s fault.
Forget biting the hand that feeds you, it felt like a chomp that took the arm clean at the elbow.
We are not calling for an island divide. This isn’t us versus them. Working together will make it easier to get through, we know that. But we understand why the frustration runs deep on this one.
“Vital infrastructure that is poorly administered is a public hazard. When it’s our water system, that hazard is not to be taken lightly.”
That quote was from a West Hawaii Today editorial on Thursday, Dec. 23, 2004, after North Kona was under a 10 percent restriction for around three months because a pair of wells were broken and backup parts had to be shipped from Oahu.
Funny how puny those numbers seem now.
Nevertheless, we look forward.
It would be inexplicable if the department doesn’t implement major changes when all this is said and done.