![]() ![]() The one at Alakahi Stream has to be repaired. Some farmers along the remaining seven-mile stretch get some county water from wells, normally intended for household use.ĭitch water comes from three intakes high up in the back of Waipio Valley. Water from the Lower Hamakua Ditch reaches only about seven miles before sinking into the ground after leaving tunnels in Waipio Valley. It's not coming," said Waipio farmer Kekena Lo at a recent water meeting. "Last month there was no water in the falls. Linda Lingle kept the Lalakea Ditch and reservoir open, but Waipio Valley farmers complain they lack water. The Lalakea Ditch and reservoir were supposed to be abandoned so water could follow its natural course over Hiilawe Falls into Waipio Valley where it would serve a small number of farmers.Īn emergency proclamation by Gov. Some water gets into the ditch from the small Lalakea Ditch and reservoir to serve the main body of farmers down the coast. I don't know how we've survived," he said.Īt the Lower Hamakua Ditch in the Honokaa area, the quake blocked water from intakes upslope at the back of Waipio Valley and opened old wounds. "Even with the high dollar prices, coffee is just barely worth the work you put into it," he said. Then he rushes containers to catch as much as he can, maybe 200 gallons.Ĭaspary gets enough to maintain a few waist-high tanks where he raises crawfish and prawn broodstock.īut his five 1-acre ponds, where he used to grow the creatures to full size, have been dry for a year.Ĭaspary supplements his aquaculture by growing a small patch of coffee, but that's not enough. He keeps a spigot slightly open in case a momentary surge of water comes through the ditch system from the Hawaii County system. Lance Caspary, owner of Kohala Crawfish Farm, gets even less water. ![]() ![]() "It's been one nightmare after another," he said. "That mountain is still sliding," Gomes said.ĭownstream, customers get a small amount of water from a Surety well, keeping businesses like Kohala Nursery going and providing drinking water through a recent drought for Ed Boteilho's 1,500 dairy cattle.īut Boteilho had no water to irrigate pastures, so he had to buy feed. The ditch is entirely gravity-fed, but debris upstream is preventing any flow at present. The ditch company spent $375,000 rebuilding the 131-foot Flume No. Creation of the ditch company as a Surety subsidiary ensures that repair money will not be mingled with Surety money, Gomes said.Ĭurrent funding includes $2 million in federal money, $500,000 from the state, $500,000 from Hawaii County, $342,000 from Kamehameha Schools, and $100,000 from AT&T. Gomes is certain another company will resume kayaking once the ditch is repaired, expected early next year.Ī major difficulty was getting public money to repair a private system. Repairs to the flume, damaged in last year's earthquake, were completed two weeks ago. 16 in a field near Waikaolapala Valley in North Kohala. RICHARD WALKER / Gomes, president of Kohala Ditch Co., stands amid damaged parts of water Flume No. The kayak company immediately went out of business when the quakes cut water to zero. The moneymaker from the ditch was not agriculture but Flumin' Da Ditch, a tourism company that paid $180,000 a year to Surety to let tourists paddle the ditch in kayaks, compared with $60,000 per year in water sales. which owns a new subsidiary called the Kohala Ditch Co. Gradually, portions of the 22.5-mile system of tunnels, flumes, pipes and the ditch itself were abandoned, reducing the system to 15 miles, said Mike Gomes, head of Surety Kohala Corp. went out of business in 1975, the ditch serving it was also unprofitable. Even there, the recovery has been due to temporary repairs. Only at the Upper Hamakua Ditch in the Waimea area has service to farmers been completely restored, said state agriculture official Brian Kau. The jolts cut off water in an hour, and farmers are still waiting for millions of dollars worth of new repairs. In the nearby Hamakua District, years of repairing the Lower Hamakua Ditch had finally brought water to the entire 24-mile length of the system before the Oct. 16 of the Kohala Ditch on the Big Island was completed two weeks ago, a major step in repairing the earthquake-damaged irrigation system and a major step in saving agriculture in North Kohala. ![]()
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