Boil Water Advisory lifted for all areas of Upcountry, Maui

The Department of Water Supply reports a boil water advisory has been lifted for all areas of Upcountry, Maui, after consecutive days of negative water sample results for trace amounts of E. coli bacteria.

The last remaining areas have been cleared, and residents on the Upper Kula water system are no longer advised to boil water as a precaution.

Maintenance on valves and waterlines will continue for the next few weeks.

The department will use chlorine for disinfection while maintenance is ongoing. Then, it will switch back to chloramines for water distribution disinfectant.

The Department of Water Supply thanks Upper Kula residents for their patience and understanding.

Some residents have been under a boil water advisory since mid December 2021. As areas were cleared, they were removed from the list. The last areas removed from the advisory were residents of Waipoli Road, Oluolu Place and Kawehi Place.

Kula water issues discussed

On Monday, during a visit to Maui, US Rep. Kaialiʻi Kahele heard from a resident of Upper Kula who was dealing with the ongoing E. coli problem with the water delivery system. “For me, I sit on the infrastructure committee in Congress, so we’re looking at water infrastructure across the state. She told me how at least for the last two months, she’s had to have to boil water in Upper Kula, and that’s just unacceptable.”

“I looked at the pictures of the existing piping that we have up there. We’re talking a ‘plantation era’ delivery system that’s like 100 years old that provides water to the Upper Kula and Upcountry Maui ahupuaʻa area. That’s something that we have to desperately address,” said Rep. Kahele, “and some of the federal funds that we’ve been able to bring home, I hope can address that.”

When asked how close we are to getting those funds released, Rep. Kahele said, “We just passed in Congress a ‘once-in-a-generation’ bill–the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It was a bipartisan bill… That bill is going to bring over $2.8 billion to the state of Hawaiʻi for infrastructure–for roads, bridges, highways, water delivery systems, airports–to modernize those infrastructure investments that need to be done. At the national level, it’s an over $1 trillion bill that is going to provide work and construction jobs for a long, long time. This is not just something that’s going to happen overnight. This is a multi-year, phased process of money coming to the state, and money coming to Maui County,” he said. 

More on that story is posted here.