KILAUEA, Kaua'i — In soil the color of cinnamon and chocolate, rich in compost and sheltered by wind breaks to divert the incessant trade winds, organic farmers east of Kilauea grow tons of crops that make their way to local farmers markets, O'ahu supermarkets and Mainland chains like Whole Foods.

But these growers live under a cloud. The irrigation water, which cools their soil on hot summer days and keeps fragile lettuce leaves crisp and ginger roots moist — all comes from Kaloko Reservoir.

Kaloko is the more than a century-old sugar plantation reservoir that burst three months ago, sending hundreds of millions of gallons down the Wailapa Stream valley, sweeping away homes and killing seven people.

Today, Kaloko is a miniature version of its former self. Its dam breach cut its more than 400 million gallon capacity to perhaps a tenth that amount. The water is kept impounded by the remaining base of the old dam. There is still enough water now to keep irrigation flow through Kilauea Irrigation Company's pipes, which serve about 20 customers, most of them farmers. But the reservoir's water surface is only a few feet higher than the irrigation company's intake pipe.

Farmers worry. They worry that in its present configuration, the reservoir may not have the capacity to keep delivering water during an extended dry period. And they worry about whether the reservoir itself will survive the political and legal aftermath of the dam disaster.

"We're waiting with anxiety, looking at the (water) levels. At this point, we don't have any backup," said Phil Davies, who has 10 acres in lettuce and ginger and has been farming along North Waiakalua Road for 15 years.

LIVELIHOODS AT STAKE

Jimmy Pflueger, who owns a majority of the reservoir, in March informed the state he wants to remove the Kaloko Reservoir dam, but his representatives say he is reconsidering his position after receiving an appeal from farmers.

"The original thought was to take the dam down, but then the farmers wrote a letter asking us to come up with a plan to keep the irrigation system going," said Bill McCorriston, Pflueger's attorney.

"We can't do anything to help right now. We need some input from the state and the county. We need some constructive direction."

At the bottom end of the irrigation system, the farmers feel like pawns in the game.

Down the road from Davies, Amy Moorhead runs the small farm that she and her late husband developed. Her main crop is organic lettuce, much of which is sold through Foodland markets on O'ahu and Kaua'i. Her bags of pre-cut mixed varieties are priced comparably to Mainland organic lettuce, and people comment on the comparative freshness of the local product, she said.

"The thing they can't compete with is the freshness," she said.

Moorhead, working with three employees — two of them full-time — and her two teenage daughters, produces about 2,000 pounds of lettuce monthly. Plants start from seed in a shade house, then are moved into the sun to harden and finally are transplanted into the soil to grow to harvest size.

Lettuce requires a great deal of water, and the county water system lacks the required volume for big farming operations, she said. Never mind that county agricultural water costs 2 1/2 times the price they are paying for Kaloko water.

"We'd be out of business without that reservoir. That's the harsh reality. There are no other options," she said.

Phil Green and his wife, Linda, have about 20 acres in orchard crops, root ginger and pineapple.

"Ginger is our main crop," Green said.

He and the others are concerned about water conditions in late summer when the weather is usually at its hottest and driest. It's a time when Kaloko is likely to get the least recharge from its intake ditches because stream flows are low. And it's a time when the farmers are using the most water to keep their crops alive.

"August and September is real critical. Typically, I can quit irrigating the ginger about November because we're going to get the winter rains," Green said.

TRYING TO CONSERVE

The growers are doing what they can to reduce their demand on the irrigation system.

Davies said he has converted some of his fields to drip irrigation to save water, has put some acreage in cover crops that don't need irrigation, and has arranged to lease farm land in Moloa'a in case the Kaloko source dries up. Unfortunately, Moloa'a is hotter and drier, and "not very lettuce-friendly."

"I'm trying to keep our water use to an absolute minimum," he said.

Moorhead has increased the amount of compost she uses in the soil, and the moisture-retention of the compost has cut her water use nearly in half, she said.

"Compost is the rain forest of the soil," Moorhead said.

But hanging over them all is the issue of Kaloko. One alternative would be to sink wells and pump them, but the costs would be much higher than they pay now, and Kilauea Irrigation's Hitch said some wells on the island's east side quickly run dry. No one knows if the area's aquifer has the capacity to provide the amount of irrigation water Kaloko does.

"I get a major headache just thinking about it," Davies said.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.