For the first time in decades, Kunia Village may have a longterm source of reliable drinking water not tainted by toxic chemicals used at the former pineapple plantation camp.
State engineers have signed off on plans to drill down into the island — through one aquifer and a layer of bedrock — to reach the presumably clean underlying body of water at about 1,175 feet deep.
The plan comes almost three years after PFAS, known as forever chemicals, were found in the the former Del Monte plantation camp’s drinking supply, marking the third time the village’s water supply was tainted since it was built in the early-1900s.
Kunia Camp has relied on a water treatment center to remove PFAS from its water supply. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)
Kunia Village Development Corp. still needs to jump through a few more regulatory hoops to start drilling and figure out where it will dispose of everything it dredges up in the drilling process. But the multimillion-dollar project, made possible with federal funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is an encouraging development for longtime community members.
“We’ll have a perfectly good water system for the first time probably in 50 years,” said Stephanie Whalen, village corporation president. “It will be great for the community to be independent.”
The state Safe Drinking Water Branch has signed off on project, having found there will not be any significant impacts associated with drilling a new well for approximately 500 residents. The project’s environmental review is open to public comment until Nov. 24.
Whalen is hoping the project will secure the additional permits it needs, including an OK from the Commission on Water Resource Management, as soon as December so it can start drilling in February.
“There will be some bumps along the road,” Whalen said. “As always.”
Kunia Village President Stephanie Whalen hopes the new drinking water source will be operational midway through 2026. (Cory Lum/Civil Beat/2021)
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, have been found throughout the state, often associated with military installations and landfill sites. They continue to be found in several state water sources — most recently on the Big Island, in a well that provides water to Pepeʻekeo — as the state Department of Health ramps up testing statewide.
The new Kunia site will draw up to 150,000 gallons of water from the ʻEwa-Kunia aquifer, unlike the previous well which was sourced from the Wahiawā aquifer that was found to be contaminated with PFAS. The ʻEwa-Kunia aquifer is deeper, going below the Waipahu-Wahiawa aquifer, and less likely to be contaminated, said Judy Hayducsko, an environmental engineer with the state Safe Drinking Water Branch.
The drilling work is complicated, however, because the pipeline will have to be sealed to prevent cross-contamination between the stacked underwater bodies of freshwater.
PFAS — found in water, soil, food and produce — can be absorbed through irrigation and has been the target of recent legislative efforts to mitigate the products’ impacts. Last year, a law preventing the use of certain plastics and firefighting foams was put into force to mitigate the spread.
Other toxic chemicals are also a concern in the area, such as pesticides.
History Of Contamination
Hawaiʻi’s sugar and pineapple plantations have a legacy of environmental degradation, predominantly due to water diversions and heavy pesticide usage, including throughout Kunia.
Lawmakers recognized the prolific agricultural region this year as part of a state resolution encouraging the Department of Agriculture and Biosecurity to prioritize projects in the area.
There have been three instances where the village’s water has been tainted. In 1977, its water source and soils were poisoned after a 500-gallon spill of toxic pesticides near its main water supply where Del Monte stored drums of pineapple fumigants. Three years later, the state found fumigants in the soil and water, and Del Monte stopped using the well for drinking water and non-crop irrigation.
Kunia Camp was built to house Del Monte plantation workers, some of whom continue to live in the neighborhood post-retirement, while it is now affordable housing for farm workers in other areas. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)
Then in 1994, the well was shuttered when the land was added to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s list of most contaminated sites nationwide after industrial solvents were found in 1986.
PFAS were discovered in one of two remaining wells in early-2023. The state advised concerned villagers that home water filtration systems would help reduce the presence of PFAS, but said no action was necessary until the remaining village well was found to be contaminated.
For three months, the community survived on bottled water. A treatment system was later installed on one of the wells, which filters the PFAS and continues to supply the village. That well will continue to be used as a contingency for the new well, and to water crops, Hayducsko said.
This ongoing series delves deep into what it would take for Hawai‘i to decrease its dependence on imported food and be better positioned to grow its own.
Kunia Village sits close to 4,000 acres of state-designated Important Agricultural Lands. That includes Sugar Land Farms, one of the state’s most productive operations, the Hawaiʻi Agriculture Research Center and Kō Hana Distillers, as well as land for the proposed new slaughterhouse and other key agricultural facilities, including a yet-to-be-developed state agriculture park.
It is also home to the Hawaiʻi Farm Bureau, whose executive director Brian Miyamoto is among many hoping to keep the ag corridor in active production. That would help ensure the Kunia housing remains affordable.
Future Plans
Kunia Village’s new well water will be stored, filtered and run through a state-of-the-art water system to be completed in mid-2026 at the earliest.
That project was also funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which has allocated more than $30 million to the state health department to help mitigate the impacts of emerging contaminants such as PFAS and other manmade toxins.
Drilling the well and testing the water is not expected to happen quickly, Hayducsko said. The drilling process alone will take about 20 weeks. The water will then need to be tested for a long list of elements, from iron and radionuclides to PFAS, before the go-ahead is given to drink it.
The water will likely be found clean, Hayducsko said, given the depths it will come from — a precaution required by the Environmental Protection Agency.
Whalen and Hayducsko hope they can finish the environmental review process fast enough to get on the Commission on Water Resource Management’s December agenda to stay on schedule while obtaining other necessary permits.
For Whalen, it’s all worth the wait to finally be self-reliant with a clean source of drinking water.
“Hawai‘i Grown” is funded in part by grants from the Stupski Foundation, Ulupono Fund at the Hawai‘i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation. Civil Beat’s coverage of climate change and the environment is supported by The Healy Foundation, the Marisla Fund of the Hawai‘i Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.
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