Kalaupapa's main drinking water system went down earlier this month.
Nancy Holman, superintendent of Kalaupapa National Historical Park, said what happened next was a case of really bad timing.
“We were working on the primary system issue when our secondary system had a failure,” Holman told HPR.
Ultimately, the state Department of Health said it had to temporarily relocate Kalaupapa patient residents to the department's care home on Oʻahu. DOH staff and most NPS employees also had to leave the settlement.
“When that primary system issue occurred, we put in water restrictions across all the Kalaupapa residents, and then we hit a point where we could no longer sustain water within the system to support those residential houses is when we moved people out, starting last Friday,” explained Holman.
Progress on repairs is underway, she said.
“We're continuing through that diagnostic and repair cycle on a variety of components.”
She hoped for repairs to be done early next week, though that estimate was subject to change.
“Part of that has to do with the isolation and remote nature of the site means that getting specialized equipment and personnel on site and parts can often take a longer period of time,” she said.
About 40 years ago, NPS changed how Kalaupapa gets its water.
“In 1985, the National Park Service installed a well-based system that replaced the system that was pulling water out of Waikolu Stream,” Holman said. “The system went from essentially a surface system into a well-based system, and that allows for consistency of water quality and sourcing.”
Holman said this is the first time both the primary and secondary systems have failed, despite regular maintenance.
It's also the first time that residents have had to leave the peninsula for this long.
While the number fluctuates, the average population of Kalaupapa is around 60. Most of them have left the settlement during this time, except for staff working on the water system.
“Knowing that we were looking at an extended timeframe, that wasn't going to be possible just to keep people in place during this repair window,” she said.
Aside from continuing routine parts replacement and maintenance, Holman said it's hard to do more to prevent a similar situation from happening, as there's not an option for a tertiary system or another water source.
After the water system is back up, patients and staff can return to the settlement.
