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Hawaii County Department of Water Supply launches public online water-availability map
Summary
The Department of Water Supply demonstrated an online GIS tool created under Resolution 137-25 that shows general water availability, active water commitments and developer agreements by parcel. Officials said the site will go live later the same day and asked for public feedback as a work in progress.
HILO, Hawaii — The Hawaii County Department of Water Supply unveiled an online, GIS-based water-availability map on Sept. 2 that displays general water availability by parcel, active water commitments and developer agreements, officials told the Communication Reports and Council Oversight Committee.
Deputy Kavika Uyehara said the tool implements direction in Resolution 137-25 and will allow users to search by tax map key (TMK) or address to see an area'wide "general water availability," commitments tied to specific land-use applications, and developer agreements that cover well or other infrastructure development.
The department presented a live view of the interface and explained how the three toggleable map layers work. "So the next feature that we added to this map ... is the water commitments," Uyehara said, demonstrating that commitments appear in blue and include the application, number of units and expiration date. Ryan Quitoriano, who walked committee members through the map, said the display includes a short, parcel-level water-availability guideline dialog and a step-by-step help link.
Why it matters: County Council members said the map gives greater transparency about how many "water units" remain in given service areas and how developer agreements and commitments affect availability. Council member Sharon Gilbert asked whether planning used this information for scenario planning and was told that planning did not use the parcel-level map in the general-plan scenarios.
DWS and council members clarified terminology: the department defines 1 water unit as 400 gallons per day; a paid commitment is effectively a credit tied to a land-use application; and developer agreements are used when a development must add a new source or system upgrades (for example, well development) to supply additional units. Officials noted the map shows DWS service areas and will not include areas where DWS does not provide service or where no credits exist.
The department said the mapping tool is a first release and invited the public and other county departments to review it after it goes live. "We plan to put this live on our DWS website later today," Uyehara said, urging users to try the map and provide feedback.
The committee voted to close the file on Communication 444 after the presentation.
What's next: DWS asked for and welcomed suggestions and said staff will maintain and expand the tool over time, including user instructions and possible future integration with outage or system-status layers.
