By HARRY EAGAR
Staff Writer
WAILUKU -- When the Department of Health inspected Honokohau Valley in West Maui, it found more water users than Department of Water Supply records showed.
The difference -- 37 vs. 24 -- is small, but the consequences could be large.
A small water system, with fewer than 25 customers, is a ``noncommunity system'' and does not have to meet the same standards as other county systems.
Water Supply Director David Craddick told the Board of Water Supply Tuesday it would cost a minimum of $280,000 to upgrade the system to be in compliance. A more complete fix might cost $1.7 million.
``Our research does not show the numbers (of users) the Department of Health gave us . . . we have to do a complete inventory.''
Craddick told the board it had two choices. It could spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to upgrade the Honokohau system, which has 11 recorded meters, three of them not in use.
Or it could reduce the users, thus becoming a noncommunity system.
The penalty for doing nothing could be fines of $25,000 a day against the department.
Honokohau farmers have been complaining for years that they don't get enough water from the stream. A million gallons a day, at least, is passed through a ``taro gate'' for loi downstream.
Maui Pineapple Co. takes most of the stream water, uses some, delivers some to the county's Mahinahina treatment plant. If any is left over (which is the case about half the time), it passes to Pioneer Mill for irrigation.
But the problem Craddick identified concerns piped, not stream, water.
It is illegal, under water department rules, to deliver metered water to another lot. But the practice may exist other places than Honokohau.
In fact, during another part of Tuesday's meeting, the department was told of a similar situation at Kanaio in East Maui.
Dorothy Uwekoolani, who applied for a meter 20 years ago, was asking again. Her situation was complicated because three lots are involved, one of which she does not own.
Uwekoolani, apparently unaware that taking metered water across a property line is illegal, described such a case by another property owner in her neighborhood. That caught Craddick's attention, and he indicated an inspection would be in order.
(Uwekoolani was denied a meter, on the grounds that the local system is inadequate. The storage tank is only 12,000 gallons.)
The water department has authority to remove meters being used illegally. If a county inspection confirms the line crossing, ``I would expect it will result in removal of the meter,'' said Craddick.
But the evidence so far is not conclusive.
The Department of Health found 16 users on one Honokohau meter where the Department of Water Supply thought there were only four. However, the amount of water being sold through that meter is typical for a single-family house, according to billing records.
On the other hand, one or more valley residents alerted health inspectors to the illegal users in the first place. Another resident says he believes one meter is being used for five houses -- not illegal in itself unless they are separate lots.
Craddick told the board that the department has a compliance order to meet with the Health Department next spring, so the matter must be resolved by then.
``If it is a (community) system, we don't have much choice.''
If inspections find illegal connections, the meter holder would have the right to appeal to the board if the department removed the meter.
Craddick said it might be possible to hook Honokohau up to a community source, such as Kapalua's. Or he said there might have to be a court determination of whether Honokohau is or is not a community system.
Craddick asked the board if it wanted to continue to ``have this declared a noncommunity system,'' or move forward with an expensive upgrade.
Board member Leslie Smith made a motion directing Craddick to continue investigating how many users there are and to recommend a least expensive way of dealing with the problem. It passed unanimously.
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Psy 412 Miami University. Last revised: . This document has been accessed times since July 15, 1997. Comments & Questions to R. Sherman .