Salty Wylie Has
Lahaina Water Woes

Lahaina Water Woes

George Wylie of Lahaina is on the warpath again over the salty drinking water being supplied to his housing subdivision by the County of Maui.

Five months ago, Wylie asked the County Dept. of Water Supply to do something about the high salt content in the domestic water being supplied to the Kelawea subdivision in Lahaina, just up the hill from Pioneer Mill.

The department promised action to improve the situation.

But according to Wylie, nothing has been done.

So this week, Wylie sent a new letter to Carl Kaiama, director of the Dept. of Water Supply. In the letter, he asked for "an unprejudiced laboratory test" of the salt content of the water, and charged that the salinity of the domestic water for the new housing subdivision is increasing.

Wiley termed the department's inaction "an obscene way to treat a group of citizens who have just made possibly the major effort of their lifetime, to help provide themselves with dignified homes, at a cost of heavy mortgages."

Wiley said he believed the salt in the water was due to faulty construction or design of the well which provides the area's water. He said it appears the well was dug too deep, and reached an area of salty water.

"In a part of the world where good water is readily available," Wiley's letter said, "it becomes ridiculous that a group of taxpaying people have to tolerate treatment of this nature because some engineer made a boo-boo and drilled a well too deep."