The rest of the Water Story

Subject: FW: Water Meeting. The rest of the story

The County Needs to ADDRESS THE HOMEOWNERS:

The truth of the hook ups has to come out. The Water Department needs to get on the ball and help us organize this project. We have contractors and plumbers that are willing to start, but we have a number of problems.
No pipe on island to hook up any of the lots.
No standards for the hook ups. Can you put the pipes into a raised rock wall for cheap or do we have to drill down through sheet lava 17 inches for thousands of dollars? Can we use disco? PVC? Copper? Is installation different? It needs to be clear. It isn’t my job to inform all of the homeowners on what is happening and how it works. This needs to be as affordable as possible for the homeowners. How much can the homeowner do it himself?
I heard it will be $1,190.00 for a meter from the County of Hawaii (actual cost to County approx. $65.00); the second unit on a CPR the meter will be like $5,500.00. This is insane. Both parts of the 23 CPR lots are paying taxes and paying the $10,000.00 each. On the CPR lots why the last one to the building department should be stuck with the $5,500.00 bill?
The County Water Department wants to close off the old systems on June 30, 2006 and there aren’t even any supplies on the island to do the job. The time line isn’t realistic especially since we have a half dozen plumbers and excavators to do 410 lots.
$6.2 million is being paid as follows: $1.8 million paid for by the Federal Government and the remaining $4.4 million is being paid for by the 410 lot owners. NOT one dime from the County or the State for this project. The County Water Department feels they have done a lot of work on this project. But in actuality the County has been paid for their hours of labor on design and engineering. Our project covered their bill. I am a Volunteer. I have fielded so many Water calls that I am over on the minutes and will now be charged for all my overtime. I find most of this time is for the WATER questions that the County should be handling.
This information should be clarified and sent to each of the 410 lot owners. They have to know: that they need a Licensed Plumber to hook up.
I have spoken with 120 people that want bids but we are waiting for the County Standards to start.

I wrote to the Water Department back in January and asked for Standards and the response was:

“The homeowners are contacting me regarding the lines on their own property. Does the County or Water Department have any recommendations on Standards?”

Answer: The Department of Water Supply does not have any recommendations regarding the consumers' supply pipe as the supply pipe shall at all times remain the sole property of the applicant and/or owner, and the applicant and/or owner shall be responsible for its maintenance and repair.

This sure doesn’t address any of the questions above. They didn’t say you need a plumbing permit from the building department in order to hook up. Nothing to help the homeowner. The Water Department has been given my 2 week notice as the Lead Volunteer. They aren’t being direct with the lot owners. See you in June doesn’t work. We are still waiting for our letter of disclosure on this process. So far 2 lots have run their pipe. Only 408 lots to go.

At every single water meeting during this process we requested that if any other additional subdivisions were attached to ours that they would contribute to our cost just like the SSP for a power pole you buy into that was paid for and reimbursed. It would be different if the county had contributed something financially to this system. But to put the cost of the system on to the homeowners and then make more money hooking other subdivisions to the pipes we can barely pay for. Sure sounds fair to me.

Susan McGeachy