Stage 1 Water Shortage Declared for Upcountry and West Maui

The County of Maui Department of Water Supply will begin mandatory Stage 1 water restrictions for its domestic water system serving residents of Upcountry and West Maui beginning Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020. Official public notice of a declaration of a water shortage was published today.

The department is requiring customers in Upcountry and West Maui to cut back on non-essential water usage beginning Sept. 8 until further notice.

Under Stage 1 restrictions, consumers should postpone the washing of vehicles, irrigation of landscape, and all unnecessary water use.

Department of Water Supply Director Jeffrey Pearson said, “We were fortunate to receive rains for Upcountry due to hurricane Douglas. Our reservoirs filled and the Upcountry area got some rain. Since then our reservoirs have steadily been going down. For West Maui, due to minimal rain at higher slopes, stream flows are reduced.”

The majority of water supplied by the department on the west side comes from surface sources.

The department’s Upcountry storage is below 60 percent for the two 50-million- gallon Kahakapao reservoirs, and at 70 percent and dropping for the Piʻiholo Reservoir, which can hold 50 million gallons.

The Piʻiholo Water Treatment Facility can treat up to 6 million gallons per day. This means that, at full production, the Upcountry water system has less than six days of storage available. About 70 percent of drinking water supplied to our Upcountry residents comes from three surface water treatment plants.