Water main break cuts service in Pepeekeo, repairs expected by 1 p.m.
Water service stopped Friday along Pepeekeo’s commercial strip and nearby side roads after a Kulaimano Road main break. DWS said repairs were finished and warned of cloudy water when service returned.
Residents and businesses in Pepeekeo lost water service Friday morning after the Hawaii County Department of Water Supply reported a water main break on Kulaimano Road, cutting off customers along a busy stretch of Old Māmalahoa Highway and nearby side streets.
The outage affected the road corridor between Piilani Kitchen and What’s Shakin’, along with the lower portion of Kulaimano Road and adjoining lanes. The department said crews were repairing the break and expected the work to last until 1 p.m., leaving homes, shops and food service operations without water for much of the day.
That interruption hit a small coastal community where daily life is tightly packed along the highway. For businesses in the affected area, even a temporary loss of water can affect sanitation, food preparation and customer service, while nearby households are left to manage without basic tap water until service returns.
The Department of Water Supply later said repairs were completed and normal water use could resume. After service came back, the line was to be flushed and cleaned, and customers were warned that water could look turbid or discolored for a time. The department also said trapped air in plumbing could cause faucets to sputter as systems returned to normal.
The Pepeekeo water system is supplied by Kulaimano Well A and Kulaimano Well B, both groundwater sources. In October 2025, the Hawaii Department of Health said low levels of PFOS were detected in Kulaimano Well A, with readings from 2.6 to 3.0 nanograms per liter, below the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s maximum contaminant level of 4.0 nanograms per liter. Those detections were confirmed by samples collected on Aug. 18, 2025, and Sept. 23, 2025.
The Department of Water Supply, a semi-autonomous County of Hawaii agency founded in 1949, operates 23 water systems across the Big Island. Friday’s break was a reminder that a single failure on one road can quickly ripple through homes, storefronts and neighborhood lanes in Pepeekeo.
This article was produced by Prism’s automated news system from verified source data, official records, and press releases, then run through automated quality and moderation checks before publishing. The system is built and supervised by the people who set the standards it runs under. Read our full AI policy.
Did this article answer your question?
