watch the water
https://twitter.com/StarAdvertiser/status/1691864922844524921
https://twitchy.com/aaronwalker/2023/08/17/watch-maui-official-has-faith-based-philosophy-on-water-management-n2386360
Watch: Maui official who allegedly fumbled in the wildfire practices faith-based water management
We have been covering the horrible wildfire in Maui and its aftermath. We are horrified to see our fellow Americans die this way and we pray for everyone involved or impacted.
Now we get word that maybe the wildfire could have been controlled … if Deputy Director M. Kaleo Manuel of the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management had essentially allocated the water the firefighters needed.
From the article:
On the day after the fire, the West Maui Land Co. Inc. sent a letter to Deputy Director M. Kaleo Manuel of the Hawaii Commission on Water Resource Management, or CWRM, describing the events and communication problems that resulted in delaying the diversion of streams to fill reservoirs with water being made available to fight the fire….
According to the letter, although the initial fire was contained at 9 a.m., there were reports of fallen power lines, fierce winds, outages and low reservoir levels, prompting the company to reach out to the commission to request approval to divert more water from streams so it could store as much water as possible for fire control.
Instead of approving the request, CWRM asked the company whether the Maui Fire Department had requested permission to dip into the reservoirs and directed it to first inquire with the downstream user to ensure that his loi and other uses would not be impacted by a temporary reduction of water supply.
Communications were spotty, the letter said, and the company had already tried unsuccessfully to contact the one downstream user.
By around 3:30 p.m., a flare-up had shut down the Lahaina Bypass.
‘At around 6:00 p.m., we received CWRM’s approval to divert more water,’ Tremble wrote. ‘By then, we were unable to reach the siphon release to make the adjustments that would have allowed more water to fill our reservoirs.
‘We watched the devastation unfold around us without the ability to help. We anxiously awaited the morning knowing that we could have made more water available to MFD if our request had been immediately approved,’ he said.
There were reports of the fire moving so quickly and at such temperatures that water was spewing out of melting pipes and depressurizing the lines that also supplied the fire hydrants.
Tremble’s letter said it is unknown whether filling the reservoirs at 1 p.m. would have ultimately made a difference.
But ‘we know that fires spread quickly. We know that we need to act faster during an emergency. We know that the community we serve relies on the water as a defense from spreading fire. We know that we must have water available for MFD before MFD needs it. We know we can do better. We’re all in this together.’