Next Monday will mark the final meeting of the Honolulu Board of Water Supply for 2025.
Hawaiʻi has had issues with drought and the threat of wildfires across the islands, and Oʻahu is still dealing with the aftermath of fuel-contaminated water from Red Hill.
BWS Chief Engineer Ernie Lau joined The Conversation to talk about the current state of the island's water supply.
Interview highlights
On Oʻahu water conservation
ERNIE LAU: I'd like to let everybody know we need to save water. Conserve water. It's been really dry. In fact, in the last 18 months, only five months were above average rainfall, so that's really dry. And then in October, it was only 18% of normal. When we look at use over the last 18 months, it's higher than it was the year before, that period before, and it went as high as 153 million gallons a day. I'm glad to report that through a little bit more rain in November, and with water conservation, it's dropped to 145 million gallons a day. … We need to treat our freshwater resources, which all of it originates as rain, as gifts from Ke Akua. So, like anything else, you don't want to abuse this gift and waste it, but you want to treat it with care and treat it as precious as life itself.
On sewer rates
LAU: Board of Water Supply does billing for the Department of Environmental Services, so the sewer charges are also on the water bill. Everybody should remember that when you pay the water portion of the bill, that money goes to the Board of Water Supply, but when you pay for the sewer charges on that same bill, that goes to the Department of Environmental Services. So yes, those rates are going up. So we want to encourage everybody to use less water, and you can save money that way.
On Red Hill fuel contamination in 2021
LAU: Just a few days after Thanksgiving, marked the fourth, I don't call it an anniversary, but the fourth year of remembrance of a tragedy. It was the contamination of the water system at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, with fuel and other components, and thousands of people were made sick. I think that was a real wake-up call for all of us that our precious water resources are very vulnerable, that a facility like this is going to leave a lasting legacy that will survive my generation and and it'll leave the generations to come to deal with it, the cleanup of the mess of leaks over its 80 year history, including the leaks that occurred last four years ago in May and November of 2021.
On freshwater resources
LAU: I just want to point out that all our freshwater resources in the state of Hawaiʻi are what they call public trust resources. They don't belong to the military. They don't belong to the Board of Water Supply or any private individual, but it's held in trust for the people of Hawaiʻi, for the generations of today and for tomorrow. And we have a mandate to protect those resources so that future generations will benefit from it. The contamination that occurred over its 80-year history and in 2021 left damages to this resource, this sole source aquifer, that both the Navy and the Board of Water Supply depend on. So where that contamination is? What is that contamination? How is it moving underground in the aquifer? Will it get to the Board of Water Supply wells that are to the west or to the east eventually? And will we have to deal with it? I do want to point out that the Board of Water Supply, we're financially self-sufficient. So mahalo everybody for paying your water bill. The water portion of it pays for the operation, maintenance of the island-wide water system, and also the renewal of that water system.
On the lawsuit filed to recoup money from the military
LAU: Tomorrow's the first hearing in federal court, so we're going to be looking at some of the motions that the Department of Justice, on behalf of the Navy, have filed trying to separate or eliminate parts of our claim, so we'll see how it goes tomorrow. I am very hopeful that we will come out ahead. We will continue to fight hard on that issue, and it's really on behalf of our customers, because we're asking for money that if it wasn't for the Red Hill situation, we would not have to spend, but that is money to replace our three wells that are shut down, about $1.2 billion.
On efforts to track water contamination in Red Hill area
LAU: Right now, there is an active investigation being done at Red Hill on the property where the Red Hill fuel facility is located, and where Red Hill shaft, their drinking water source is located, and they're finding PFAS (Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), and they're finding some pretty significant levels of PFAS contamination. We also see it maybe spreading across Hālawa Valley, because now we're detecting PFAS also in our Hālawa shaft, which is shut off. … I do want to point out, at the same time, the Navy has been installing temporary and permanent water treatment systems at their ʻAiea Hālawa shaft. There's a temporary system there, 12 tanks of activated carbon and ion exchange resin. And they also recently, with the reauthorization of government, the reopening of government, in the camp military construction budget, there was $141,650,000 put there for a water treatment system at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.
This story aired on The Conversation on Dec. 8, 2025. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this interview for the web.
