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Archives for March 2015

(Kona) Residents sound off on water issues

March 28, 2015

28 March 2015, By Bret Yager, West Hawaii Today

The state Commission on Water Resource Management is chiefly concerned with how much water is available and how those quantities should be managed.

But West Hawaii residents are just as worried about threats to water quality, judging from a scoping meeting held by CWRM in Kailua-Kona on Tuesday evening.

Residents expressed concern about the lack of information on just how much of the precious resource is available under the surface. How to keep pesticides and sewage pollution out of drinking water, and how to make management decisions based on incomplete science — but with significant human impacts — were other issues raised by about 70 people who packed a workshop with CWRM at the West Hawaii Civic Center.

The input was designed to help CWRM draft a Water Resource Protection Plan update that will focus on better assessment of the water available around the state, water shortage planning, water conservation and improved monitoring data. The last update was in 2008.

Water Program Manager Roy Hardy acknowledged that data on water volume is limited and better reporting on well pumping is needed. But statistics already available from stream gauges statewide point to declining flows likely because of climate change, he said.

“All of the stream levels are going down,” he said. “That’s an issue we’re looking at.”

See the rest of the article…

A summary of the Water Resource Protection Plan Update can be found at files.hawaii.gov/dlnr/cwrm/planning/wrpp2014update/WRPP-2014UpdateFactSheet.pdf.

Comments on the water issues important to you can be emailed to: Jeremy Kimura (Jeremy.l.kimura@hawaii.gov) or Sherri Hiraoka (sherihiraoka@townscapeinc.com).

A water workshop will be held in Hilo from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Monday (30 March) at the Aupuni Center.

Public hearings on the draft water management plan will follow the release of the public draft in late 2015 or 2016.

Filed Under: Climate Change, Groundwater, Water Conservation

Fresh Water: the World’s Most Neglected Resource (March Brown Bag Lunch)

March 22, 2015

March 5 @ 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm

Topic: Fresh Water:  the World’s Most Neglected Resource

Fresh Water Briefing:  The briefing will present the current state of fresh water reserves in the world/US and its increasing scarcity.  It will also go over a new report which discusses the state of Hawaii’s fresh water supplies concentrated on Oahu’s reserves and what individuals and businesses can do to deal with the coming shortages…

Speaker: Larry Kobayashi

Private consultant on water resource issues and runs his own think tank–Hawaii First Water–which is focused exclusively on Hawaii’s fresh water issues.

 

Filed Under: Groundwater, Water Conservation

Conserving water will save more money, under proposed rate plan

March 22, 2015

March 2015,

By Nancy Cook Lauer
West Hawaii Today:

Time to fix those leaky faucets. The less water you use, the more you’ll save, under a five-year rate plan to be considered Tuesday by the Hawaii County Water Board.

The board will consider a water rate study that has no water rate increases for those in the smallest usage categories for the first year, with larger increases for larger users through 2020. The board will also consider a $53.17 million annual budget, a 2 percent increase over this year, proposed by the Department of Water Supply.

“The rate increases being proposed are moderate and allow the department to accommodate infrastructure needs islandwide over the next five years,” said Finance Division Head Richard Sumada. “The proposed budget incorporates the proposed rate increase and factors in anticipated salary increases and standard operational expenses.”

See the rest of the article here…

 

Filed Under: Groundwater, Water Conservation, Water Economics

New database a tool in groundwater, geothermal discussions

March 8, 2015

20150306-DSC_2307

5 March 2015

By Bret YagerWest Hawaii Today, byager@westhawaiitoday.com

In a dry land with the highest utility rates in the country, conflicts over water and power generation are never far from hand.  Now, residents who want to wade into these sometimes hot waters — or simply understand where they live — have a new database at their disposal.  The University of Hawaii at Manoa this week announced the creation of the Hawaii Groundwater &Geothermal Resource Center, an online clearing house of data on island — and state — water wells and also the volcanic hotspots where new geothermal ventures could be added to the often controversial existing ones.

See the story here on West Hawaii Today.

 

The HGGRC on the Web: higp.hawaii.edu/hggrc

Filed Under: Groundwater, Water Economics

About Hawaii First Water

This blog focuses on shaping water strategies for the Hawaiian Islands.

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