LIHU‘E — Despite some locally heavy rainfall Sunday, Kaua‘i has struggled with a severe drought this spring, official sources said. With the normal Hawaiian dry season fast approaching, the prospects for meaningful drought relief are fading for leeward areas in
LIHU‘E — Despite some locally heavy rainfall Sunday, Kaua‘i has struggled with a severe drought this spring, official sources said.
With the normal Hawaiian dry season fast approaching, the prospects for meaningful drought relief are fading for leeward areas in the state and could worsen during the warmer and drier summer months, according to the National Weather Service.
“Kaua‘i has been portrayed as the wettest spot in the world for decades,” said Don Heacock, district aquatic biologist for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. “That’s true when it’s raining, but it’s not.”
Rainfall has dropped “well below normal” and Hawai‘i has encountered conditions ranging from abnormally dry to an “unprecedented” exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
The state is having “some of the worst conditions in the country,” according to an April 19 DLNR news release.
El Niño is to blame for an uncommonly dry winter season, the release says, noting that dry conditions are expected to continue through spring.
Impact on agriculture
Agricultural producers are feeling the impacts of drastically reduced rainfall, DLNR officials said.
The most significant impact Pioneer Hi-Bred International has had on its crops has been an increasing population of “corn thrips” — as reported in the April 4 TGI article “Seed companies: Corn virus under control” — which are contributing to the spread of a corn virus, said Pioneer’s Business and Community Outreach Manager Cindy Goldstein.
Maize chlorotic mottle virus typically occurs when rainfall is lacking, as the insects “often drown when we have rain,” she said.
Aside from the virus, “Pioneer has not been impacted to any extent,” she said.
While exact figures for the amount of water used each day at the Westside seed company were not available, Pioneer does utilize drip irrigation tubing to reduce the quantity, Goldstein said.
“Drip irrigation allows water to be delivered to the plants close to the roots, and this helps conserve water because less evaporates and water is delivered more effectively,” she said.
The irrigated water used is non-potable, but “some of our sources (wells) could possibly be treated and used as a potable source,” she said.
The seed company is currently working on developing drought tolerant corn hybrids to “maximize productivity in water stress conditions,” Goldstein added.
“This becomes increasingly important because, according to the United Nations, agricultural output will need to double and food production will need to increase by 70 percent by 2050 to adequately feed the expected global population of 9 billion people,” she said. “Sustainable, increased productivity will need to occur with a greater need for production in arid dryland environments.”
The current global population is nearly 7 billion, according to The World Bank.
Ranchers in the windward areas of Kaua‘i have reported improved moisture conditions but pasture recovery has been slowed by cool temperatures and strong winds, according to the National Weather Service.
Impact on
drinking water
“There would need to be many years of drought to have an effect on the ground water,” according to county Department of Water officials.
For each foot of fresh water above sea level, there exists around 40 feet below sea level, similar to an ice berg, according to the DOW. Only some wells in Moloa‘a are “perched” from above sea level, while “most of our water is ground water.”
The DOW did not respond to questions regarding population carrying capacity, rainfall and the amount of water used daily on agricultural crops, seed companies and golf courses.
Heacock said he estimates some 50 percent of the island’s ground water is utilized on lawns and golf courses in Lihu‘e.
Approximately half of household water is “attributed to outdoor uses,” such as irrigating lawns, according to the DLNR.
Protecting the natural resource is necessary, especially as Kaua‘i’s population increases, Heacock said.
Impact on home and community gardens
Backyard and community gardeners have yet to experience much of an impact from drought conditions, said Glenn Hontz, director of the Food and Agriculture Career Pathways program at Kaua‘i Community College.
“To my knowledge, we have not had a problem in any of the gardens I work,” he said last week. “However, many of them use a commercial irrigation system (i.e. a sprinkler).”
University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture & Human Resources Associate Extension Agent Richard Ebesu concurred.
With fewer Department of Agriculture staff on island and throughout the state, updated statistics are difficult to come by, he said. It is “hard to say without some kind of data” how crops have ultimately been affected.
Visit http://hawaii.gov/dlnr/drought/preparedness.htm#waterconservation for more information on ways to preserve water.
The National Weather Service’s next drought information statement will be issued Thursday. Visit www.weather.gov/data/HFO/DGTHFO for more information.
• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.
