Dry weather brings more water use

WAILUKU — The return of the trade winds on Friday helped to push rain clouds over the watersheds in East and West Maui, but weeks of dry weather took a toll in increased water use, Water Director Jeff Eng reported.

Water consumption increased in all districts during the period of March 6 to 12, while water flows in the Wailoa Ditch — an indicator of the condition of the East Maui watershed — slumped to a low of 33.7 million gallons a day on Thursday. The ditch has a capacity of nearly 200 million gallons a day.

“Our concern is that the average daily demand for the week exceeded the average daily demand for March of last year,” Eng said.

Drought conditions through most of 2007 led to restrictions on water use on the county’s biggest water systems. A mandatory water use restriction was ordered for the Upcountry system in June while the department appealed for voluntary 10 percent cutbacks on the Central Maui system in August.

According to the weekly data, water use in the Central Maui system, which serves the area from Paia to Waihee to Makena, edged up to 23.61 mgd, compared to a March 2007 average of 23.49 mgd. Demand on the Upcountry system was up to 7.06 mgd, compared to 7.01 mgd in March 2007.

After nearly two weeks of light winds and clear skies, a high-pressure system moved back into a more normal position 1,200 miles northeast of the islands on Thursday, restoring the trade winds that generate cloud cover over the watersheds.

The result was showers in the watersheds, with the Puu Kukui rain gauge on West Maui showing 0.3 inches of rain on Friday and the West Wailua Iki rain gauge in the East Maui watershed recording 0.34 inches. During the previous two weeks, both gauges had recorded less than an inch — well below normal rainfall rates. For March as a whole, normal rainfall at Puu Kukui is 14.3 inches while for West Wailua Iki, it is 11 inches.

Flows in the Wailoa Ditch and into Upcountry reservoirs had been steadily falling since early February and the department reported water storage was down to 106.5 million gallons on Friday, while demand peaked at 7.9 mgd.

“With the continuing dry weather and increasing demands, we ask our customers to control their discretionary water use,” Eng said. “In order to avoid any future mandatory restrictions, everyone needs to conserve water now.”