Some populated areas of Maui are looking at months or even years before their water systems are fully and safely restored following the wildfires that devastated the island last month
Maggie T. Sutrov showered, drank treated tap water and watered her garden before she learned that she shouldn’t be using the water in her home on Maui after wildfires devastated the island. Concerned about others making the same mistake, she quickly created a flier on water contamination from guidance she’d found on the county’s website and worked with a pop-up community center to get the word out.
But experts and history suggest it could take months or years before the worst of the damaged areas have safe water fully restored.The county first told people in Upper Kula and Lahaina not to use their water on Aug. 11 shortly after fire damaged water pipes as it sped across the land. So far, one water quality test on the northwest edge of Lahaina showed low levels of benzene, a chemical known to cause cancer, but it was within federal safety limits.
Where homes and other structures burned, so did their interior pipes, along with shallow-buried exterior ones that connected them to the public water line, and the water meters, Stufflebean said. The utility’s networks of reservoirs, pumps, wells and treatment plants on Maui weren’t affected, and it’s unlikely that main lines — thick pipes buried more deeply — burned, he said.
Kurt Kowar, director of public works and utilities in Louisville, Colorado, said it took just a week to get parts of the water system there back online after the Marshall Fire. But in more severe burn areas, it took months to assess the damage, including where contamination had occurred, and flush it from the system. The city distributed bottled water and set up refill stations to hold residents over.
“It was very emotional to see all that again,” he said of the damage. “It was kind of healing to be able to give our knowledge back and help them move faster or give them an idea of what’s coming in the future.” The county-run utility is stretched thin trying to restore the water system and doesn’t have a lot of time for outreach, said Chris Shuler, a hydrologist at the University of Hawaii at Mānoa, who lives on Maui. To try to fill the information gap, he’s part of a team from the university’s Water Resources Research Center that has set up a“People want to know what’s in their water, but at the same time they just want to have information and help them navigate through this difficult time,” he said.
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