Kalaheo water meeting

Chief Engineer Kirk Saiki & Mayor Carvalho

I attended the community meeting about the water outage here: not a lot of new information but it was good to meet and get everyone together.

Repairs are expected to take about six weeks: most of that delay is time to get a replacement for the part that broke which must be custom made to order. Until repairs are completed all of Kalaheo is asked to voluntarily minimize water usage.

A lot of talk about people who do have water pressure being unaware of the restriction and over consuming. There are two holding tanks on each side of the highway and if you are near the bottom of the area served by a tank you have the best chance of getting water - on the high side if the tank goes empty you are first to lose service. Clearly the meeting was heavily attended by people who had lost water but it's the other folks who need to get the word.

"Connect-CTY" is the county's automated communications system they want everyone to sign up for. Lots of people who heard about it were unable to figure out the web site and it is hard to find and use. To sign up, click this and then click the "Add my contact info" button. You will have to fill out a form and go through another page (called CAPCHA). One problem I have had is that the system sends the same notice three times - by email, by recorded phone message, by SMS text - which is quite annoying.

While it is fine to ask people to signup for this notification service, this incident demonstrates it is not widely used. I would like to know how long this system has been deployed and how many signups they have. I suspect without more aggressively getting people to register it will be hard to reach everyone.

• Latest press release
• News coverage video

The unfortunate background of this problem came out a bit at the meeting that suggests that this may have been avoidable. January 29 the primary well failed and an emergency procurement request was prepared and approved by the water board in February but somehow work did not begin promptly. When questioned about the delay a county attorney responded explaining that "contract and bonding" issues resulted in a delay, and also mentioned that the contractor took "three weeks" to execute the contract and suggested the paperwork was not properly done. Nearly four months went by with no work on the well and then the backup well failed last week. Somehow once the second failure occurred the paperwork got sped up and within a couple days work on the primary well began. Exactly what happened was not revealed: possibly the months-old contracting delay just happened to resolve coincidentally or (what seems more likely to me) with increased urgency a fire was lit under whoever was slowing down the process. This meeting was not the time or place for investigating exactly what happened but in time we deserve to be told why nearly four months was insufficient to repair the primary while we still had backup, completely avoiding all of this.

There are voluntary restrictions being asked to limit water consumption to "essential uses" but I wonder how effective they are. Since they read meters monthly the department will get water usage numbers for Kalaheo residents and should be able to see on a customer basis. I would rather see a suggested amount of water rather than permitted and disallowed usages. If I use less water taking a short shower and washing some clothes that's better than using more water taking a bath. The county directive specifies "limiting" laundry but I don't know quite what that means. At the presentation they suggested using coin laundries in neighboring towns but I doubt they have the capacity for over a thousand households on top of the existing customer base.

What I was hoping to hear but did not was anything the department would do differently in future to avoid repetitions. 

• Faster procurement, approval, funding, contracting for emergency repairs.
• Better information about water outage and restrictions on use to mitigate the problem.

It was very heartening to hear several citizens politely thank the department for their efforts and urge the community to "pull together" and overall a good spirit of aloha was in force.

Kalaheo water supply update

The recent 48 hour water service failure has provided a window in the operation of the Kauai Department of Water in providing clean, safe drinking water - a service too easy to take for granted. Since yesterday afternoon water service has been working for me here so that's real progress.

This part of Kalaheo gets water from who wells near the golf course area at the top of the hill makai of the highway.

Four months ago on January 29 the main well failed and the department responded by requesting a contractor to perform necessary repairs[1]. The emergency procurement request states specifically that the contractor, Oasis Water System, commits to mobilize their rig "same day" the department orders the job. The next mention of this emergency request I could find was two months later[2] contract #581 was awarded as requested (the date of Notice to Proceed is not listed but presumably is before April 24). So repair on the primary well should have been underway at least a month ago.

Then the backup well failed last weekend. "The Department was executing a contract for the repairs to Well no. 1, but before the contractor got started, Well no. 2 was damaged on Sunday, May 25, 2014. "[3]

The latest timeline: "DOW estimates 4-6 weeks to fully restore Kalaheo well damage; Temporary measures should improve water service by early next week"[4] It's unclear if this means repairing the backup well or also the primary well. Temporary pipe was put in across the highway last night which I suppose allows water from the mauka reservoir to be shared with the rest of Kalaheo.

Open questions include:

• Why did it take one to two months to approve an emergency repair request?
• Did the contract indeed start work "same day" and what is the status of that work?

[1] Water board minutes of February 14, 2014: page 51-53.
[2] Water board minutes of April 24, 2014: page 158.
[3] Water department reply to comment on Kauai DOW facebook page.
[4] Water department announcement on Kauai DOW facebook post.

Currently the mainland is facing severe drought conditions in much of the southwest and south central regions. This is a much bigger problem than fixing a couple of broken wells. In the map below the black, red, and orange areas represent exceptional, extreme, and severe drought conditions, respectively. The past two days have demonstrated to me personally that running low on water very quickly impacts daily life. What we can do is raise awareness and act to address these challenges. What we mustn't do is ignore the situation and continue taking our water supply for granted.

No Water in Kalaheo

The water has been off here in Kalaheo since yesterday afternoon. The Kauai Department of Water is providing non-potable water tanks for residents to use at these locations:

• at the Kalaheo neighborhood center
• opposite the Kukuiolono golf course entrance, at Papalina & Puu Road

Apparently this area is served by two wells and both are broken. There is no estimate how long it will take to restore service.

Latest details are posted here.

UPDATE (Thursday 5/29/14 AM): Still no water on third day - that's zero water. If we had any water pressure at any point the toilet tank would have filled to the shutoff and it has not.

This morning saw Department of Water truck working along the road just across the street. The word from neighbors is that there was a leaky valve apparently that someone reported when they saw water gushing out. So it seems that even though they have been trucking water to fill the holding tanks uphill only a little was reaching the most downhill homes here and most of it was being wasted. This would explain why we haven't seen even a drop.

The good news is that with people out to collect water and observe repairs, curious about what's being done to alleviate our shared problem, I've met more of the neighbors. It seems it takes something like this to get people out of the houses where you have a chance to commiserate.

Note to Department of Water: for safety please label the water tanks provided as potable or non-potable. From the updates, both types are being set out and since there has already been one correction as to location of which it would be reassuring to know without doubt whether it is safe to drink the water provided at a given location. Also, it would be good to have authoritative information on how to safely store and use potable water. Here's the CDC's advice for water storage and use ... it begins with washing containers with soap and (safe) water so if you didn't have that prepared ahead one is kind of stuck.

FINAL UPDATE (Thursday 5/29/14 AM): Water is back on after 48 hours! Pressure seems a little low but it's plenty. The Department of Water left a case of bottled water on the porch with a letter of apology. The letter states that they hope to have a plan and timeline for repair "by the end of this week".

I have never experienced long-term water outage before and I certainly learned how important fresh water is to comfortable everyday life and we totally take it for granted. Losing electricity is inconvenient, but I would gladly chose that over no running water.

Perhaps in a small way I can being to imagine how 780 million people live without access to fresh water. Unlike all these people I could drive in my car on paved roads to fetch water, get a shower at a friend's place, and borrow a washing machine, and still it was a big impact.

Mars landing test

NASA is gearing up for a test of a payload landing system for an upcoming Mars mission on Kauai.
Tentative test dates are scheduled for the first half of June. The test will be done at PMRF on the west side. No mention of public viewing opportunity unfortunately.

For full details see coverage on the NASA site.

Learn about the Low-density Supersonic Decelerator project.

Geckos

Geckos may be the nicest of the invasive species that have come to thrive in Hawaii. They like to hang around houses and eat bugs and usually stay out of the way. We see both bright green (at right) and more plain looking brown ones (below).

They seem to like hanging out on our lanai and so far they have stayed outside the house. Mid-morning we often see them running along the back edge of the lanai. Usually they are headed for a specific spot where they sit a while and then leap onto the nearby bush and disappear.

The males are very territorial (I have read) and will do little "pushup" routines where they go up and down and often inflate their throats. For some reason gecko seem to run in spurts going a few feet and then stopping often doing "pushup" display before continuing on.

In the day we tend to seem them on scurrying around on the ground and hiding. At night is when we see them using their Spiderman skills and crawl up high on walls or often walk upside down on the lanai ceiling. They especially like the corner between wall and ceiling. Again usually only at night we hear them vocalizing, a surprisingly loud for their size repeated screech.

Geckos feel a little like pets that you don't have to buy, feed, or take care of: they just show up and eat bugs.

Kauaʻi County Council race begins

While politics may be of little interest to many readers, the outcome of this process very much effects the future of this island. 

In the USA I think we tend to take elections for granted, even after the 2000 election raised some very serious issues with the process. Kauaʻi is small enough that I wanted to look into the process behind the election itself.

Candidates are still filing for the primary election ballot for county council seats but here is an early look at the official uncertified preliminary status as of 9 May. The follow lists candidates who have applied for nomination papers to be returned with 15 (thatʻs all) signatures of voters to get on the ballot along with a filing fee. Until all papers are in and signatures checked we won't know the final list but the following is a reasonable approximation of who will be in the running for seven seats.

According to the candidate's manual, each candidate chooses whether or not to comply with campaign spending limits and if so a viable candidate can receive funding from the state (taken from state income tax revenue) for the campaign. The spending limit is $1.40 per registered voter (from the last election) or about $56,000. Candidates must independently collect at least $3,000 to be considered eligible for funding.

Candidates are listed alphabetically with their city of residence; incumbents marked "(i)". Link to best web link I found relevant to candidacy:

1. Arthur Brun - Kekaha, works for Syngenta (biotechnology corporation)
2. Tim L. Bynum (i) - Kapaʻa, recently won settlement to lawsuit against the county in court
3. Felicia E. Cowden - Kilauea, prominent local radio personality
4. J. Furfaro (i) - Princeville, current chair of the council
5. Joanne Georgi - Eleele, ran for state senate unsuccessfully in 2010
6. Eva Hoopii - Kapaʻa
7. Gary L. Hooser (i) - Kapaʻa
8. Ronald J. Horoshko - Kalaheo
9. Joseph H. Kaauwai, Jr. - Anahola
10. Ross K. Kagawa (i) - Lihue
11. Ernest L. Kanekoa, Jr. - Kalaheo, police commission member
12. Arryl J. Kaneshiro - Lihue
13. Kipukai L.P. Kuaalii - Anahola
14. Darryl D. Perry - Lihue, chief of police
15. Melvin F. Rapozo (i) - Kapaʻa
16. JoAnn A. Yukimura (i) - Lihue

The only incumbent not listed is Mason K. Chock, Sr., recently appointed to fill an open seat.

While I don't want to overestimate the power of the internet, it's notable that only incumbents (and not all of them) have campaign web sites. Of those most are fairly barebones. A couple of new candidates got short interviews in the local paper which I did link to. That said, signs in people's yards may be more powerful that web sites, and I have seen several signs for candidates that don't have web sites, or at least sites I could find via searching.

Election year

This is an election year and in the past few weeks signs have been popping up along the road or in front of homes and businesses in support of candidates. Less than two months remain to register to vote.

• Primary election is August 9, 2014
• General election is November 4, 2014

County mayor, council, and prosecuting attorney will be on the ballot in addition to governor and state representative. The county council members are "at-large" meaning each serves the entire island rather than having regional seats. The top 14 vote getters in the primary vie for the 7 seats going to the top 7 vote getters in the general election.

By far the strongest early showing on the streets is our incumbent mayor Bernard Carvalho: not just signs but he has people waving his signs by the highway. Last election he won easily and I have heard folks here opine that he doesn't have any serious competition this year. It's too early to tell as there are a few weeks left for candidate filings so the process has just begun.

So many people I have asked about local government shake their heads and complain. There certainly have been reasons to worry, but one easy improvement that is very doable is better voter turnout. In 2012 general election voter turnout was 62.9% (25,617 of 40,738 registered voters).

For politics, I realize this is a rather bland opinion-free posting, but I am just beginning to learn about all this so will wait until I actually have some insight before sharing my critical thoughts on candidates.

Official county elections information is available at kauai.gov/elections or see state elections where results will be posted.

Dennis Kamakahi

Slack key performer and composer Dennis Kamakahi passed last week. Originally scheduled to
perform at the recent NTBG concert, he was too ill at this point but the performers honored him by playing several of his songs as a tribute. The organizer made a great gesture by getting him on the phone from on stage and let us all send our applause as support to him and his family.

He wrote one of my favorite Hawaiian songs that just happens to be about this island: Kokeʻe.
Take a few minutes to enjoy this recent video of Dennis performing the song live a few years ago.

Charter amendment amendment

More changes to the county charter are being considered. In another proposed amendment to the county charter, the Kauaʻi County Charter Review Commission held a hearing about upping the number of required signatures for amending the charter by the public from 5% to 20% of voters (based on number of votes in the last general election).

The stated motivation for changing the charter amendment signature requirement is that it should be higher than the requirement for placing a proposition (creating legislation) which is currently also 5%. Charter amendments certainly are changing a more fundamental layer of the legal system yet it seems that if anything the number of votes required for passage should be higher. Quite obviously, making it harder to put amendments on the ballot is hardly the same.

A summary of the percentage of vote signatures required by the major islands is instructive:

• Kauaʻi county charter [link] 5% (72 pages)
• Oahu  (City of Honolulu) charter [link] 10%
• Maui county charter [PDF] 10% (62 pages)
• Hawaii county charter [PDF] 20% (61 pages)

True, Kauaʻi does have the lowest bar for signatures to place proposed amendments on the ballot, yet do we want to jump to match the highest requirement? Since we are talking about effort to place amendments on the ballot a key consideration is if there are frivolous amendment proposals that the lower requirement is allowing that did not belong on the ballot in the first place or not. 

To support this I would like to see more of a justification, specifically where is the evidence that the 5% requirement is too easy? Have we had a problem with frivolous amendments get on the ballot? (Obviously some amendments will fail to pass, that doesn't mean they should never have been on the ballot.) On the other hand if we have had lots of amendments that only garnered 5% of the vote or something like that, I can see that as justification to raise the bar. In the 2012 election [results], nothing like that seemed to happen, so what's the motive? 

The real problem the county has been having with charter amendments is that they don't stand up in court: "For the second time in six years, a Hawaii court has invalidated a voter-initiated amendment to the charter". Due to a 2012 amendment the county attorney reviews amendments including "alteration or change in the form or language or any restatement of the text of the proposed amendments" (though the exact process is unclear).

My take on all this is that people are very rightfully frustrated with government. Many people here feel that this place is special, yet there is so much state and federal control on top of everything it often makes it difficult. 

This possible amendment seems unrelated, at least directly, to the effort to place an amendment to the county charter about GMO regulation. Even if both garner support they would appear together on the ballot later this year. 

The Fifth County

There is one more county in the state of Hawaii located in a remote part of Molokaʻi. Kalawao county (map), with a population under 100, is a special case with no elected officials. Maui county government supports Kalawao county as well as administer the rest of the island. Kalawao may be the least populous county in the United States (source). For obvious reasons their charter provisions isn't going to be comparable to the other counties, and actually I was unable to even find the document or even a web site for the county online.