(BIVN) – There has been another reported delay in the Kīlauea Eruption Recovery Road and Waterline Project Draft Environmental Assessment process.

The Hawaiʻi County Department of Public Works, Department of Water Supply, and Kīlauea Eruption Recovery team are working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to complete the assessment, in an attempt to finish road and waterline restoration work following the 2018 eruption of Kīlauea volcano on the lower East Rift Zone.

The County of Hawaiʻi provided this update on Thursday:

Unfortunately, we have recently received word that the finalization of the draft Environmental Assessment (EA) from FEMA has been delayed again. The previous projection we received from FEMA was that they would have the finalized draft EA in June, then this shifted to early July. Unfortunately, we are now being told their latest projection is early August.

Originally, we were told that the EA would be completed in January, but in the past six months, FEMA has encountered many challenges that have kept them from being able to complete their portion of the draft EA. We understand that the public is frustrated by the repeated changes in the projected completion date, but we’re hopeful FEMA will complete the draft EA for release in early August. This is not a guaranteed date for release, but the latest projection by FEMA.

Once FEMA hands over the draft EA to us, we’ll be ready to complete our part of the process. That includes publishing the document, holding an informational meeting on the EA, and allowing for the 30-day comment period. After that, we’re hoping FEMA will give us the green light to move ahead with final engineering design and procurement, which we’ve already made tons of headway on. Once that is complete, we can finally mobilize equipment and resources to begin construction. We’ve been working hard to speed up these steps, but we have to wait until FEMA gets the draft EA finalized and approved before these steps can be completed.

With this latest update comes a shift in the construction timeline as well. The County was hopeful to break ground early next year, but as FEMA continues to shift our timeline, so must we. Once we are given the finalized draft EA from FEMA, we will be releasing an updated timeline to help inform the public of our next steps.

Rest assured that we are focused on this updated timeline but we also acknowledge the possibility of further delays and unforeseen challenges that may impact the timeline.