Construction to begin on 100,000-gallon water storage tank for homestead lots in Kaʻū

The Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, through its contractor Isemoto Contracting Co., is scheduled to begin construction on a new 100,000-gallon water storage tank as part of a project to connect Pastoral homestead lots awarded to native Hawaiians in the mid-1980s to county water service.

The project includes a water filling station with a spigot to be placed in the Kamāʻoa subdivision on Hawaiian Home Lands. 

This is Phase 1 of the $2.7 million Kaʻū Water System project, funded by the Hawaiʻi State Legislature. Phases 2 and 3 will include work on pressure regulating valves, new water meters, and improvements to South Point Road for future homesteading opportunities.

Construction on the water storage tank is scheduled to begin on Jan. 9 and is anticipated to conclude at the end of 2023. The public should expect construction materials and work crews along South Point Road throughout the construction period.

The project will be connected to the Hawaiʻi County Department of Water Supply’s No. 108 system in Kaʻū.

The lessees for the land, part of the Department’s Acceleration Program, were awarded to native Hawaiians as raw land following a 1983 report by a federal and state task force that recommended to the State of Hawaiʻi that the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands should issue undeveloped raw land to native Hawaiians.

The program’s effort was to accelerate the distribution of land to beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. DHHL issued 2,629 leases of mostly raw land between 1984 and 1987 as part of the program.

Since the issuance of lots under the Acceleration Program, DHHL has incrementally installed infrastructure as funding became available. It has plans to complete infrastructure improvements for the remaining Acceleration Program lots on Molokaʻi and Hawaiʻi Island over the next three to five years.

For more information, call 808-620-9500.