[Map used with permission of Maui Weather Today]
Hawaii's Constant Water Problem
Wendi Hauck, Ehren Hines, Denise Sobieski & John Ward
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Although the current El Niņo is expected to cause a drought in Hawaii as past El Niņos have done, this would not be the first time Hawaii has had trouble with its water supply. Specifically speaking for the island of Maui, the water shortage is cyclical, matching closely the annual precipitation levels. For example, if the island has two to three years of below average rainfall along with the typical increase in population, the water problem, turns into a crisis as it did in both 1973 and 1996. In both cases, crops died and agricultural land turned into useless desert. Ranchers had to sell all of their cattle, and meters were no longer issued. It often takes more than just a couple of months of good rain to solve these crisis situations.
[Map used with permission of Maui Weather Today]
The island of Maui's water system is divided into three parts: Upcountry, Central/South Maui, and West Maui. Upcountry relies on surface water runoff that is stored in a number of reservoirs and the Wailoa Ditch. The majority of their water supply goes to the agriculture rather than residents. However, farmers receive lower water rates, while the residents usually pay the bulk of the cost for improvements to the system. There is talk of building two new reservoirs to prevent future crisis, but there is no money set aside for it yet.
Central/South Maui depends upon ground water pumped from the Iao Aquifer. It is harder to tell when a water crisis has been reached since it is an underground source, but the safe level of water withdrawal per day or the maximum sustainable pumping rate is estimated at 20 million gallons of water per day. Anything over this amount reduces the fresh water supply and the salt water at the bottom of the wells begins to rise. In almost every month since mid-1991, the amount pumped from the aquifer has been more than 90% of the estimated sustainable yield. If nothing changes, it is estimated that within forty years the salt water will reach the wells.
There are plans to build more wells and to also work on decreasing the amount of withdrawal per day through conservation and reuse of wastewater for agriculture (more than half of the demand on the aquifer is for irrigation) to 18 million gallons per day. El Niņo makes many nervous since drought greatly affects the aquifer which depends on rainfall to refill itself. During drought years, little water is returned to the aquifer.
West Maui receives its water supply from surface sources in the West Maui Mountain Watershed. Drought affects their supplies, but their main concern is usually bacterial contamination of their water since it is an older system.
A sufficient rainy season from November through March usually restores levels of water in all three areas, but with the increase in population and tourism, Maui can quickly enter a crisis state when there is a loss of rainfall. Hotels are large consumers of water. One hotel can use as much as a half of million gallons of water a day. For example, the Grand Wailea Hotel was able to conserve 27,000 gallons of water daily by limiting its washing of guests' towels and sheets. However, this only represented 5% of the hotel's total daily consumption of water (5/100=27000/x), total consumption estimated at 540,000 gallons. Especially with El Niņo coming, Hawaii is in need of conservation methods to preserve this precious common resource.
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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 . Also See: Social Psychology at Miami University