Hawaii First Water

Archives for August 2015

Hawaii’s resorts say visitors take Waikiki beach closures in stride

(Editor Note:  Much of Waikiki Beach reopened for business on 26 August after water quality tests proved negative.  A few areas off the beaches remain closed on southern Oahu)

By Darin Moriki, Pacific Business News, 26 August 2015

Hawaii may be best known for its balmy weather, warm Pacific Ocean waters and relatively clean beaches, but the stormy weather this week, a sewage spill near Ala Moana Center that closed Waikiki Beach showed visitors a different side of the Aloha State.

“We got a call the minute it happened down by the (Hawaii) Convention Center, so we were very fortunate to have that kind of communication,” Hawaii Tourism Authority President and CEO George Szigeti told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday in the city’s Department of Emergency Management. “The health, safety and welfare of our visitors and locals alike is No. 1, so we immediately informed all of our hotels and they took appropriate safety mechanisms in place to ensure that all visitors were adhering to the (warning) signs.”

See the rest of the article here

Funds for Water Infrastructure Improvements Go Unspent

August 10, 2015 – 9:49am

 HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii is at risk of losing federal water infrastructure improvement funds if the state doesn’t start lending the money to counties more efficiently.

The state projects repair costs over the next 20 years at about $1 billion, while about $100 million in federally matched funds went unspent by the end of last year, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported (http://bit.ly/1UyKx5c ).

Water mains break almost daily, wasting millions of gallons of drinking water and leaking enough to shut down traffic on Oahu streets.

Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 water division director Michael Montgomery said it’s a lost economic opportunity when the state fails to allocate federal dollars that it automatically gets.

“If they can’t, frankly, get it together and begin running the program in a way that’s making good use of the money, then we have the capability of taking money back and giving it to another state,” he said.

An EPA review found the fund wasn’t adequately staffed by the Department of Health, and Montgomery says the state ranks among the worst nationally in utilizing the money.

The health department is working to retain funding by implementing EPA-approved corrective actions over the next two years.

Joanna Seto heads the Health Department’s Safe Drinking Water Branch and says the agency plans to expand the eight loans that were finalized last year to 11 worth $69.8 million in 2016.

Hawaii Community Foundation Releases Fresh Water “Blueprint for Action” for Hawai’i

Hawai‘i has been blessed with consistent rainfall, advantageous geology, and high-quality drinking water stores for centuries. Recent findings, however, have raised concern about long-term fresh water security for our Islands. University of Hawai‘i and other scientists have documented troubling trends including reduced rainfall, higher evaporation rates, and declining stream flows in recent decades. These findings, coupled with the demand of an ever-increasing population, suggest that Hawai‘i is entering an era of fresh water uncertainty.

The Hawai‘i Fresh Water Initiative (Initiative) was launched in 2013 to bring multiple, diverse parties together to develop a forward-thinking and consensus-based strategy to increase water security for the Hawaiian Islands. Organized by the independent, nonprofit Hawai‘i Community Foundation (HCF), the Initiative relied on a blue ribbon advisory panel of individuals (Hawai‘i Fresh Water Council or Council) with deep knowledge of water and a collaborative spirit to articulate a vision for a more secure and sustainable water future based on shared values, and shared sacrifice. This Blueprint is the result of their work, and provides Hawai‘i policy and decision-makers with a set of solutions that have broad, multi-sector support in the fresh water community that should be adopted over the next three years to put Hawai‘i on a path toward water security. The Blueprint also builds on the good work, findings, and recommendations over the years by preceding stewards of Hawai‘i’s most important resource.

To achieve the ambitious goal of 100 mgd in additional fresh water capacity, the group outlined three aggressive water strategy areas and individual targets that the public and private sectors must work together to achieve by 2030:

 

  • Conservation: Improve the efficiency of our population’s total daily fresh groundwater water use rate by 8% from the current 330 gallons per day/person to 305 gallons per day/person.1 By 2030, this goal will provide 40 mgd in increased water availability.

 

  • Recharge: Increase Hawai‘i’s ability to capture rainwater in key aquifer areas by improving storm water capture and nearly doubling the size of our actively protected watershed areas.2 By 2030, this goal will provide 30 mgd in increased water availability.

 

  • Reuse: More than double the amount of wastewater currently being reused in the Islands to 50 mgd.3 By 2030, this goal will provide an additional 30 mgd in increased water availability.

The Fresh Water Council distilled nearly two years of research and analysis into a single goal: creating 100 million gallons per day (mgd) in additional, reliable fresh water capacity for our islands by 2030.

 

Read the HFC’s  Blueprint for Action here…