In early April, the state Department of Transportation informed tenants on and near the Army's Dillingham Airfield that they would likely no longer have access to water after July 5.
The DOT has operated the Dillingham Public Water System for years, but Federal Aviation Administration funding regulation says the department cannot continue to do so. The Army said it will not take over the water system.
One of the entities on the water system is the YMCA of Honolulu's 20-acre Camp Erdman. The sleepaway camp hosts about 250 kids a day in the summer. Like any camp, it provides meals, showers and drinking water.
YMCA President and CEO Greg Waibel said they want more time to figure out a solution.
"We're the largest water user of the system. The airport and its users, I think, are the second, but there's another almost 20 additional users on the water line. We all need to be involved in the conversation, as well as the right solutions that make sense for all parties involved," Waibel said.
Also on the system is the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, whose divisions have a nearby plant nursery and a spigot at the entrance to Kaʻena Point. There are also private homes still on the system.
"This land used to be originally not part of the federal government. The federal government took over in the '20s and really cut off the water supply, which used to come from the mountains. And so there wasn't kind of this, you look at historically, there wasn't a need for these water systems," Waibel said.
The YMCA and other stakeholders on the water system spoke with the DOT and the Army at a Tuesday meeting arranged by state Rep. Amy Perruso. Waibel said the path forward is “very unclear.”
He said the DOT proposed that the stakeholders take over ownership of the water system as a "community cooperative."
"There's some broad variety of questions about what would that look like and how would that work, especially with some state entities as users of that," Waibel said. "They don't know if they can be part of the cooperative or not."
But even if they agree on a cooperative, Waibel said it won't be ready by the July shut-off date.
Perruso has asked the DOT to push back the water shut-off date. Waibel said Perruso expects to have a response from the DOT and the Army by their meeting next week.
Waibel said the YMCA is "feverishly" working on a backup plan, such as buying a large water tank and retrofitting a distribution system.
This interview aired on The Conversation on April 24, 2024. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. on HPR-1. Sophia McCullough adapted this story for the web.
