In 1996, state auditor Marion Higa found that the administrative rules of the Commission on Water Resource Management “do not address native Hawaiian water rights,” whether they are appurtenant and surface water rights (most wetland taro growers have appurtenant water … Continued
What a difference a decade makes, yes? No, actually. When it comes to the Commission on Water Resource Management, time seems to have stood still in the nine years since state auditor Marion Higa published a scathing report on the … Continued
Interested in seeing water restored to diverted streams to protect stream life or asserting your rights as a Native Hawaiian or taro farmer? Don’t expect the state Water Commission to have a ready answer. Over the past year, staff with … Continued
It’s a familiar tale: A small group of diversified farmers demands that stream water continue to be diverted into an old, leaky sugar irrigation system, despite the fact that neither they, nor the state, can afford to fix or maintain … Continued
Last October, the Commission on Water Resource Management granted permission to Waiawa Development, LLC and Kamehameha Schools to withdraw roughly one million gallons of water a day from the Waipahu-Waiawa Ground Water Management Area in Central O`ahu. Over objections from … Continued
Good science is key to protecting Hawai‘i’s streams. But according to Bill Devick, retired administrator for the state’s Division of Aquatic Resources, the state agencies charged with protecting streams are “too diffuse.” At the Symposium on Hawaiian Streams and Estuaries … Continued
Tradewinds Partners With Energy Firm, Negotiates New Timber License Terms “My question for the last year has been: Do we have the right project?” With that remark, Tim Johns of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources voiced his … Continued
For more than a decade, an illegal diversion has shut off water to Hakalaoa Falls, one half of a famed pair of cascades that plummet down a near vertical 1000-foot-high cliff at the back of Waipi`o Valley. The diversion dates … Continued
Hi`ilawe and Hakalaoa falls, the legendary pair of nosebleed-high cascades in Waipi`o Valley, should be restored to full glory by the end of July, thanks to a sudden turnabout by Kamehameha Schools that caught the state Water Commission off guard. … Continued
Camille Kalama, an attorney with the Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation (NHLC), didn’t say much after the state Commission on Water Resource Management voted unanimously and without discussion to deny her clients’ request for a contested case hearing. She toldEnvironment Hawai`i only … Continued