Deputy director briefs commission on first‑generation Keauhou adaptive management plan; community speakers press for immediate designation

Deputy Director Kira Kahovane briefed the Commission on the first‑generation adaptive management plan (AMP) for the Keauhou (Keauhou/Keahou) Aquifer System area and described a multi‑stage effort to set indicators, select sentinel monitoring sites, develop an initial conceptual model and assess funding needs for a longer‑term monitoring and management program.

Kahovane said the AMP is intended as an iterative “first generation” that will be strengthened over subsequent iterations. The initial plan will establish an inventory of groundwater‑dependent features, an initial set of monitoring indicators and sentinel sites, and draft monitoring procedures. The AMP will not direct land use or set sustainable yields in this first generation; rather, staff said the plan is meant to identify data gaps, propose research to fill them, and create a monitoring program that can feed the Water Resource Protection Plan and county water use and development planning.

Kahovane described structural changes to the outreach and advisory process: separate expert groups (hydrology, indicators/species,…