Technical Report No 179
AQUIFER IDENTIFICATION AND CLASSIFICATION FOR O’AHU: Groundwater Protection Strategy for Hawaii
John F. Mink and L. Stephen Lau
November 1987 (Rev. 1990)
ABSTRACT
In response to the need to identify and describe aquifers for each island of the state of Hawaii to serve as a framework for goundwater protection strategy, a program has been initiated to classify and assign codes to the principal aquifers of the State. This first report provides Aquifer Codes and Status Codes for the island of 0’ahu. The Aquifer Codes incorporate locational and descriptive indices, while the Status Codes indicate the developability, utility, quality, uniqueness and vulnerability to contamination of the goundwater resources. The codes were generated for Hawaiian conditions of groundwater occurrence and behavior in preference to employing the DRASTIC approach suggested by the U. S. EPA. Each Aquifer Type within an Aquifer System is assigned an Aquifer Code consisting of an eight-digit number. An Aquifer Code is unique and non repeatable in the State. Accompanying the Aquifer Code is a Status Code of five digits. A Status Code is specific to an Aquifer Code. The 0’ahu classification includes 6 Aquifer Sectors, 24 Aquifer Systems, and 90 Aquifer Codes.