Army gets water to Kunia Village, farms

The 600 residents of Kunia Village and the farms around the Central Oahu community have drinking and irrigation water once again after the U.S. Army came to the rescue.

“These guys saved our tails,” Dave Robichaux, president of the Kunia Village Title Holding Corp., said Tuesday.

Gov. David Ige, the state Department of Health and the Honolulu Board of Water Supply also played key roles in the crisis as both of the pumps that serve wells that provide drinking and irrigation water to the Kunia Village area failed, one about 30 days ago followed by the backup on Oct. 20.

“All of a sudden there was no water,” Robichaux said, remembering “the sad day” the final pump went down.

Residents were asked to take emergency water conservation and rationing measures, but it wasn’t enough to keep the village’s 3,000-gallon drinking water reservoir from drying up about a week ago.

Also affected were some 5,000 acres of agricultural land worked by Monsanto, Syngenta and Fat Law’s Farm and a 2.4 million-gallon agricultural reservoir.

After the second pump failed, Robichaux called state Board of Agriculture Chairman Scott Enright, who informed Ige, who promptly asked the U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii for help.

Meanwhile, the Board of Water Supply also came to the rescue, providing 300-gallon water wagons to temporarily serve parched Kunia Village residents, who filled up their own containers for about a week ending Monday. In all, the residents consumed about 2,000 gallons of water, which the company will have to pay for, Robichaux said.

The Army used its emergency authority in support of civil authorities to provide both drinking and irrigation water from facilities at Schofield Barracks.

“We’re very happy to be available to help our neighbors in their time of need and grateful we have the resources and ability to respond quickly for them,” Col. Stephen Dawson, U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii commander, said in a news release.

Following quick work to hook up the Schofield water system to the Kunia Village system, the Army began pumping drinking water at the rate of 250 gallons per minute starting Saturday. The village reservoir was expected to be full by Tuesday afternoon.

“As of yesterday the pipes were connected and the emergency passed,” Robichaux said.

The Army, with emergency permission from the state Department of Health’s Wastewater Branch, was also able to provide irrigation water from the Wheeler Army Airfield recycled-water system.

The Kunia Village Title Holding Corp., a subsidiary of the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center, must now seek permits for the new hookup.

Robichaux said the connection was long overdue because the company has been talking about hooking up to the recycled-water system for years. He said Kunia Village and the neighboring agricultural companies will save money in the long run.

It’s a different story for the drinking water pumps. The company is facing a repair bill of roughly $500,000 apiece. He said officials are still evaluating how they intend to proceed.

Through all of this the employees of the Kunia Water Association, the nonprofit that provides the water, have been working 24 hours a day.

“They deserve a vacation,” Robichaux said. “They haven’t slept in a week.”

Kunia Village is the former plantation camp that served Del Monte Fresh Produce. After Del Monte closed in 2007, the Hawaii Agricultural Research Center took over the village and now maintains 121 affordable houses available to agricultural workers who earn less than 80 percent of the average median income.