KAILUA-KONA — The North Kona water system is down another deep well, bringing the number of inoperative water sources in the 13-source system back up to three.
The Honokohau Deep Well failed on March 9, according to a release from the Hawaii County Department of Water Supply. There is no timeline yet for Honokohau’s repair, but residents who live nearby say trucks equipped with cranes arrived on site earlier this week. To their knowledge, contractors had not initiated any work as of Friday morning.
The department continues to ask North Kona customers to participate in its 10 percent voluntary conservation effort, but Nyssa Kushi, DWS information and education specialist, said no water restriction is in effect as of Friday. According to the release, however, that may be subject to change.
“The Department of Water Supply has been monitoring tank levels on a daily basis and making the necessary adjustments to ensure water supply to our customers remains unaffected,” said Kawika Uyehara, DWS deputy.
Honokohau is a high-capacity deep well, known as an “anchor well,” and is crucial to the health of the North Kona system, as its location and 1 million-gallon capacity allow it to pump substantial amounts of water both north and south throughout the region.
It has also proven a problem for the department, failing most recently in August of last year. It was subsequently repaired and ran for several months before malfunctioning again earlier this month.
The well failed at least one other time in the past few years, according to a WHT report from December of 2015 indicating it was down and expected to be repaired at some point in early 2016.
Deep wells at Hualalai and Waiaha also remain inoperative. Hualalai was constructed in 1997 and has fallen out of service five times prior to its most recent failure in October. The bid process for its current repair opened Feb. 15.
In its nearly 12-year existence, Waiaha has only been repaired once prior to its most recent failure last summer.
During that incident, contractor Derrick’s Drilling and Pump Services, LLC lost deep well equipment it was hoisting out of the earth after a cable snapped during extraction. It remains unclear if the well can be salvaged but work is ongoing. There is no timeline for its return.
Meanwhile, in Kau, the HOVE Deep Well was repaired in early February with the installation of a new motor. However, the motor tested unsuccessfully shortly after start-up.
DWS said it is currently pursuing options for repair. Access to the HOVE drinking water spigots remain unaffected, in addition to the other spigot locations in Hookena and Waiohinu.
DWS released some positive news in March, announcing it plans to activate Kau No. 2 Well, a new North Kona water source that will serve the Makalei, Puukala and Kaiminani areas.
The water source was approved by the Department of Health and has cleared federal and state water quality requirements. According to the release, it will be activated “in the near future.”
“Customers who receive water from Kau #2 … may notice aesthetic differences in the water since it is a basal freshwater source,” the release read.