Kekaha Sugar system will be turned off
BY LESTER CHANG
TGI Staff Writer
The Kaua’i County Water
Department is proposing to connect six water users in Kekaka to its system when
the Kekaha Sugar Co. water line serving the users shuts down.
The action is
needed with the official closure of Lihu’e Plantation, an Amfac subsidiary,
last week following 151 years in operation.
The state Department of Land
and Natural Resources owns most of the land and water systems formerly leased
and maintained by Amfac Sugar Kaua’i for its former Kekaha Sugar
operations.
The proposed action was discussed during a county Water Board
meeting Monday.
The Water Department is in discussions with DLNR, which
owns the well that feeds water through the old plantation water pipe system, to
acquire the well through an executive order, according to deputy county water
manager Ed Tschupp.
The well that is connected to the plantation system
is located on the mountainside overlooking Kekaha.
“We would have to do a
lot of work on the well to bring it up to department standards,” Tschupp said.
When the old plantation system shuts down service to the six users, valves
connecting the department’s and the old plantation water system can be opened
to bring water to them, Tschupp said.
Tschupp said he wasn’t sure when
Amfac would shut off the water to the users, “but we want to make sure nobody
goes without water.”
Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at
245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net
