![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/wastewater-pump-station-768x1024.jpg\")
<\/a>Punalu\u2018u Water and Sanitation\u2019s wastewater pump station inundated with mud after Hurricane Lala. (Photo courtesy: Jeff Silva)<\/p>\n\u201cThis situation has resulted in a total loss of service to affected residents and poses a serious public health and safety concern,\u201d Mizikar stated. \u201cGiven the severity and duration of the outage, I respectfully request that the Commission compel the system\u2019s owners to initiate immediate restoration efforts and provide a clear timeline for resuming service.\u201d<\/p>\n
John and Tammy O\u2019Banion sent a letter to the commission on Sept. 20 expressing their \u201cextreme concern and frustration at the unresponsive and irresponsible behavior of Punalu\u2018u Water and Sanitation.\u201d<\/p>\n
The letter added: \u201cThis has rendered our homes uninhabitable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Five days after Lala struck, Silva said he used his personal credit card to buy two 1,500-gallon tanks and get them set up in the 76-unit Colony I, near Punalu\u02bbu Black Sand Beach, and 20-unit Kalana Estates. Most of the units are vacation rentals, but residents live their, too.<\/p>\n
Silva said the water in the tanks he provided was not drinking water, but provided prople with access to water for bathing and doing dishes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn theory, they can boil it for cooking, but most people were just using gallon bottles of drinking water for that,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n
The commission staff and Commissioner Naomi Kuwaye visited the Ka\u2018\u016b District on Aug. 28 and observed the lack of access to drinking water and wastewater services for Punalu\u2018u Water and Sanitation customers. <\/p>\n
At that time, Kuwaye verbally directed the utility operator to provide the commission with near-term and long-term plans for resuming essential services as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 1, the commission filed a copy of an email it sent to Sakumoto indicating that Punalu\u02bbu Water and Sanitation had not yet provided information on those near-term and long-term plans to restore service.<\/p>\n
The commission is working to schedule a public meeting as soon as possible and hopes to hold this meeting by the end of October, if not sooner.<\/p>\n
Sakumoto did file a response to the Public Utilities Commission for another request. This one asked for the water utility\u2019s plan to prepare for Hurricane Nolo and how they planned to protect their equipment.<\/p>\n
During Lala, the utility\u2019s maintenance shed, wastewater plant and lift station were flooded. To prevent further flooding, the utility created berms around the plant that were successful in keeping the majority of water out during Nolo, the response said. <\/p>\n
Sakumoto said Punalu\u2018u Water and Sanitation was required to file with the Hawai\u2018i Department of Health Safe Water Drinking Branch a notice that water services would not be provided on a temporary but ongoing basis.<\/p>\n
The water utility was also required to submit notice to the state department\u2019s Wastewater Branch.<\/p>\n
Sakumoto said the priority is to get the wastewater plant repowered.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is currently an electrical issue, namely the water in the conduits, the electrical conduits, that is preventing Hawaiian Electric from turning it back on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After Lala, Sakumoto said the utility did a decent job cleaning up most of that water, but without power out there and with limited portable generators, the removal of the water in the conduits has been going quite slowly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were able to minimize the water intrusion as a result of Nolo,\u201d Sakumoto said. \u201cWe\u2019re in the final stages now of drying it out and getting it turned back on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Punalu\u02bbu Water and Sanitation is now discussing with the Department of Health that the wastewater system could be back online by the state department\u2019s next inspection, which is slated for around Oct. 15.<\/p>\n
The real challenge is restoring the potable water well, which is located about 30 yards off Hawai\u2018i Belt Road at the intersection of Ninole Loop Road.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe learned that as a result of Lala, when it floods, the debris will come racing across the highway and right onto the well site,\u201d Sakumoto said. \u201cThe ideal way of preventing this is to build a wall and essentially prevent the debris from engulfing the well site. The problem is if we build a wall that would prevent that type of debris from falling down, it would block the highway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sakumoto said the working wellhead was severed by road crews from the Hawai\u2018i Department of Transportation while trying to clear debris off the highway. <\/p>\n
Also, after speaking to the potable water operator employed by Punalu\u02bbu Water and Sanitation, Sakumoto said there is a concern that the well site may have been contaminated.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the well site is contaminated, getting the levels using chlorine back to the correct amounts can take an additional three months,\u201d the lawyer said.<\/p>\n
The private utility is working to implement some temporary potable water solutions.<\/p>\n
Sakumoto said they have secured a 3,000-gallon potable water tank, which is certified for drinking water, but they haven\u2019t been able to fill it because Hawai\u2018i County hasn\u2019t provided access to their potable water sites.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve spoken to at least two different administrators and two different attorneys with Corporate Counsel,\u201d Sakumoto said. \u201cThe response we get is always the same: \u2018We\u2019ll look into it.\u2019 \u2018We\u2019ll pass the message along.\u2019 But they never do anything.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sakumoto said the loss of potable water to its customers is a deep concern for the utility.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery day, I am taking phone calls, meetings, emails, trying to address the problem,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Silva disagrees, saying the utility has done almost nothing to address the damage or protect the well from Nolo. He also disagrees with Sakumoto\u2019s characterization of the county being unwilling to help the utility.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the clearing and realigning of the gulch and berm work to protect the wellhead, that was all done by the Department of Transportation and State of Hawai\u2018i,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n
Silva, who worked as an operator and advisor for Hawaiian Beaches Water Company and Wood Valley Water and Farm Cooperative, both potable water service companies for communities on Hawai\u2018i Island, said it\u2019s standard practice not to allow any truck to connect to a certified drinking water system.<\/p>\n
Silva said this is the kind of agreement that water systems make in advance, before disaster strikes. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou run a risk of what\u2019s called cross-connection and contaminating the system,\u201d Silva said. \u201cFor a certified potable drinking water truck to connect to a certified potable water system, they have to apply, and they have to purchase a water meter and a backflow prevention device that they can connect.\u201d<\/p>\n
Silva said Punulu\u02bbu Water and Sanitation was caught flat-footed despite being asked by the condo association and residents to develop a real and meaningful emergency response plan for the past seven years.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we\u2019re six weeks out from the storm, and they\u2019re just finding out we can\u2019t just have water hauled. Yeah, no duh,\u201d Silva said.<\/p>\n
Hawai\u2018i County Mayor Kimo Alameda said on Thursday that the Department of Water Supply has been in contact with the property owner\u2019s representative and they are finalizing the remaining details for approvals to allow the utility temporary service from a county-approved hydrant located in P\u0101hala, providing drinking water to their customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe requested volume is 15,000-20,000 gallons per week,\u201d Alameda said.<\/p>\n
Alameda is hopeful everything will be processed by the end of business day on Friday, adding Punalu\u2018u Water and Sanitation\u2019s hauler still needs to come in and apply for the temporary service, \u201cbut we communicated our consent via email.\u201d<\/p>\n
The county also has been involved with Liu over 6.8 acres of land she owns at Black Sand Beach Park, a popular recreation area that county has been leasing for decades. Last month, negotiations for a new lease with Liu\u02bbs Black Sand Beach, LLC, ended without an agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\nIn the meantime, the residents of the two condos wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The condo communities of Colony I and Kalana Estates in Ka\u02bb\u016b look like a ghost town. The nearly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[367109,192,367110,345678,349883,367111,273354,367112,79,260670],"class_list":["post-871133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-colony-i","tag-environment","tag-eva-liu","tag-hurricane-lala","tag-kau-district","tag-kalana-estates","tag-public-utilities-commission","tag-punaluu-water-and-sanitation","tag-science","tag-water-outage"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cdn.bigislandnow.com\/file\/bigislandnow\/2026\/10\/Punaluu-well-site-featured.jpg\")
<\/a>Punalu\u2018u Water and Sanitation\u2019s power building for wells inundated with mud and debris after Hurricane Lala struck on Aug. 15, 2026. (Photo courtesy: Jeff Silva)<\/p>\n