LIHUE — The Kauai County Department of Water is recommending the county suspend its proposed Kahili Horizontal Directional Drilled Well project. In a letter submitted to the Board of Water Supply, Keith Aoki, project manager and engineer, said DOW is
LIHUE — The Kauai County Department of Water is recommending the county suspend its proposed Kahili Horizontal Directional Drilled Well project.
In a letter submitted to the Board of Water Supply, Keith Aoki, project manager and engineer, said DOW is too short staffed to pull off the undertaking and it’s unsure whether the project would yield the results that would make moving forward a no-brainer.
“The Department is short staffed and does not have the staffing to effectively complete this project, in addition to the other projects that need to be done,” wrote Aoki in the letter also signed by Kirk Saiki, acting manager and chief engineer, requesting the county hold off on the project indefinitely.
The letter also says that it’s possible the well wouldn’t save as much money as an earlier cost-savings analysis predicted.
“It is possible that the well may have a better cost benefit than the study suggests and conversely, the well may turn out to have a negative cost benefit than other alternatives,” Aoki wrote.
The letter doesn’t mention the controversy that’s surrounded the proposed project as a reason for possibly shelving it.
The estimated $60 million project proposes drilling a 12,000-foot-long, high-elevation well in one of four locations near Mount Kahili. DOW has said previously the project would allow the department to access high-level water, and that the cost of doing so would be made up in savings over the next 25 years.
But neighbors have been very vocal in their opposition to any drilling. In January, a group of about 100 residents yelled and spoke out against the project so feverishly, it forced organizers to shut down an informational meeting in Kapaa early.
Mears Group, Inc. out of Houston was awarded a $1.9 million contract for phase 1 work, including helping prepare the cost-study analysis for the project.
The company’s engineering manager, Jim Williams, said in letter that the group was disappointed in the department’s recommendation. The department should continue moving forward and not focus on a vocal minority, he said.
The DOW “should continue the democratic process and allow public review of the project,” Williams wrote. “Thus far, public meetings have been dominated by fringe members of the public who stage public tantrums and rely on intimidation and disruption to achieve their goals.”
Williams recommended DOW complete the water resource study as well as prepare a technical feasibility study for more information before deciding on the well’s fate.
Mears’ cost-analysis study said DOW could save $1 million a year with a completed well. DOW, however, said that study was the best-case outcome, and that by keeping other water sources open, savings could dip to $500,000 a year.
“It will be difficult to start the project again and many years will have been lost,” Williams wrote about suspending the project. “KDOW will have to start from the beginning.”
Mears has billed $531,212 out of the phase 1 contract, leaving about $1.3 million worth of work. Just over 27 percent of the work has been complete. DOW would be assessed a termination fee should it break the contract, according to Mears, but that amount wasn’t available Sunday.
DOW, which couldn’t be reached Sunday, didn’t specify in its letter how many workers it has, or how many more it would need to make the project more manageable. It said the department has been short staffed for years and recently lost an engineer for non-work related reasons.
DOW’s recommendation to adopt the cost-analysis study but suspend the project will go before the county’s Board of Water Supply at 10 a.m. Thursday at DOW’s building, 4398 Pua Loke Street in Lihue.
• Tom Hasslinger, managing editor, can be reached at 245-0427 or thasslinger@thegardenisland.com.
