Phear on Kauai

[Editor's note: This is the first of a three-part post on the recent rains and dam break on Kauai.]

by Gae Rusk
copyright 2006

I was already afraid of almost everything. Flying, eating, running, sleeping. Tsunamis, earthquakes, tornados, global warming. Snakes, centipedes, bears, sharks. Bullies, terrorists, street racers, CEOs.

See? I was already afraid of almost everything, and now I add Phear of Reservoirs to my list of phobias.

Still, I am an intelligent citizen. I know the reservoirs on Kauai are living treasures. They are cups of life spilling one unto the next all the way to the sea cliffs, nurturing the island’s farmers along the way. Because I am informed, I know that plowing under a reservoir would be a form of murder. It would be the killing of water, and thus the end of us, which means death by water is not always a drowning.

Four days after the March 14 disaster and while it was still raining, Kilauea farmers gathered with County, State and Federal officials and spoke out to save Ka Loko Reservoir. These farmers pointed out that taking away ag water by destroying even one reservoir would be a form of farmicide. They explained that the reservoir system is the only alternative for agricultural water when rains stop and seasonal drought arrives. Even if farmers could hook up to County water, an action that would require endless subsidies to pay for the millions of gallons required – even if farmers could do that, County water is chlorinated and fluorinated and mixed with other chemicals. Not only would using County water break the bank, the resulting produce would no longer be organic. Even if farmers could pump well water twenty four-seven to irrigate fields and orchards, at today’s fuel prices what farmer could afford that? Besides, if the loop of rainfall, reservoir and gravity is interrupted, pumping well water for half of every year will suck the aquifers dry in no time flat.

Yep. Death by water? Not always a drowning.

So please, Makers of Decisions, remember: the reservoirs, the ditches, the streams, the level of our water table – all are connected in one logical, holistic system that filters and cycles and replenishes the whole. Destroying one part will destroy the system, thus sabotaging Kauai’s ability to sustain itself.

If, against all advice from the truly informed, Ka Loko Reservoir is destroyed, or any of the reservoirs on Kauai are abandoned and flattened, I phear the makers of that decision will need to start another list, a very long one, for all the future victims of this disaster.