Hawaii County committee backs online water-availability dashboard, requests Department of Water Supply to build tool

The Hawaii County Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural Resource Management voted to forward Resolution 137-25 to the full council with a favorable recommendation, asking the Department of Water Supply to develop and maintain an online system that displays countywide water availability, the number of water units, active commitments and developer agreements.

Councilmember Inaba, the resolution’s sponsor, told the committee the measure is “pretty straightforward,” aiming to give the public continual access to where water availability and commitments exist rather than requiring project-by-project requests. “We really would like to see the Department of Water Supply provide water availability maps,” Inaba said, arguing the tool would make commitments, developer agreements and locked-in water credits more transparent for planning and housing decisions.

Why it matters: Members said the tool could help determine the feasibility of housing and community projects by showing where water units and commitments already exist. Chair Rebecca Villegas emphasized the tool’s potential local impact, noting ongoing development pressure in West Hawaii and highlighting $4,000,000 recently secured from the state legislature for a Keahou Aquifer study that could inform county planning.

Department response and timeline: Keith Okamoto, manager and chief engineer for the Department of Water Supply, said the department supports posting the requested information and described a GIS-based dashboard searchable by parcel. “We can create a product at least for testing within the next 2 months, I would say,” Okamoto said, adding that finer details and additional data layers would be refined after a beta release and user testing. Okamoto also said the department expects to host the tool on its website and can share GIS layers with planning and other agencies.

Scope and limits: Committee members and the department repeatedly distinguished the resolution’s focus on county-owned system data from broader water issues. Inaba clarified the measure does not address well siting, private well water quality, or other responsibilities reserved to the State Water Board. Public testifier Chuck Flaherty of the Hawaii Island Group of the Sierra Club supported the resolution but asked whether the measure would address backup pumps, updated analyses for individual wells and reporting for private wells, citing past pump failures and increasing salinity in some systems. Okamoto said the department will post its own commitments and pumping information but cannot publish private-well pumping data it does not control; he also cautioned against publishing exact source locations for security reasons.

Data and planning coordination: Councilmembers asked whether the tool could incorporate climate impacts, aquifer boundaries and state data. Okamoto said aquifer boundaries and sustainable-yield information could be added, and that the department has been coordinating with the State Commission on Water Resource Management as the commission revises statewide water code and planning frameworks. He noted the county paused finalizing its water-use-and-development plan after state-level changes were announced but has been following strategies from its prefinal draft.

Next steps: After discussion, Councilmember Inaba moved to forward Resolution 137-25 to the full council with a favorable recommendation; Councilmember Eustace seconded the motion. The clerk recorded nine ayes and the committee adjourned. The timeline presented to the committee envisions a beta test of the online tool within months and a more polished product before the end of the year, subject to departmental staffing, GIS work and further coordination with planning and state agencies.

What remains unresolved: The committee did not direct the department to include private-well reporting or to publish exact source locations; both remain constrained by data availability, jurisdictional limits and security considerations. Committee members also requested that cultural and traditional-practice concerns tied to local aquifer systems — issues Chair Villegas raised for the Keahou Aquifer — be taken into account as the county and state plan and study water resources.