For years, Wailuku Water Company (WWC) has been trying to get Maui County to take over its irrigation system. Maui mayors have repeatedly included in their proposed budgets $9.5 million to purchase the company’s lands and infrastructure, but the County Council has never agreed to fund it.
In the meantime, WWC president Avery Chumbley has complained that his company is bleeding money operating the system, which serves more than 100 users, but collects money from only a fraction of them. Many of those who don’t pay are owners of kuleana lands that were cut off from their traditional water sources when WWC’s ditch system was constructed.
What’s more, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has prevented WWC from acquiring more paying users until the Commission on Water Resource Management concludes a contested case hearing over who gets to use water from the streams — known as Na Wai Eha or the Four Great Waters — that feed into the ditch system.
In 2018, WWC sold nearly 4,300 acres of watershed lands “to fund continued operations of the surface water delivery system due to 12 years of continued financial losses resulting from the unresolved longstanding contested case before the Commission on Water Resource Management and the suspension docket before the Public Utilities Commission,” Chumbley testified to the Legislature in January. Weeks later, the Water Commis- sion staff proposed fining WWC $24,500 for wasting some of the water it diverts. Chumbley has requested a contested case hearing over the recommendation. (A related article on that appears elsewhere in this issue.)
In the meantime, WWC’s remaining 8,898.7 acres of watershed lands are still up for sale. And this legislative session, two bills have been introduced to acquire those lands to protect the watershed’s scenic, environmental, and cultural value.
House Bill 2555 and its companion, Senate Bill 2692, propose to allocate an undefined sum of money from the state Land Conservation Fund to the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) to help buy the lands. Chumbley urged the Legislature to pass the measure quickly.
“If this acquisition process drags on to the sunset date [for purchase of the land] as noted in the measure of June 30, 2022, WWC will have long been forced to shut down its operations and sell off the remaining 8,898 acres to a new private owner. That would be a loss of a rare opportunity for the public to take control of a major and significant part of the Island,” he wrote in his testimony on HB 2555.
The House bill stalled after second reading in early February, but the Senate version was approved by the Ways and Means Committee on February 20. The bill would take effect this July.
DLNR and Water Commission director Suzanne Case offered an amendment to both bills to allow the funds to be used to purchase WWC’s irrigation system and easements as well, but it was not adopted.
She noted in her testimony that the DLNR is working with federal and county partners to enable the purchase of the watershed lands, while securing, under county ownership, the water systems and easements downslope. “Exact acreage of the acquisition cannot be identified until the land has been surveyed. In addition, it is our understanding that the County of Maui is seeking to secure through its budget process the significant funds needed to purchase the water system and easements,” she wrote.
Jeffrey Pearson, Maui’s director of water supply, and Mayor Michael Victorino also testified in favor of the acquisition, noting that the watershed provides 70 percent of the island’s drinking water. “State control of these critical watersheds would ensure adequately funded and consistent watershed management. Na Wa Eha is also a strong candidate to receive federal funding through the Forest Legacy Program to further enhance this acquisition,” they wrote.
Lea Hong of the Trust for Public Land noted in her testimony that the acquisition did not need a special allocation, because it could be accomplished by supporting Gov. David Ige’s request to lift the Legacy Land Conservation Program’s spending ceiling from $5.1 million to $10.2 million. The low ceiling has allowed more than $20 million to accumulate in the fund.
“This would benefit Na Wai Eha as well as other worthy projects from Maui and Hawai‘i Island. … The Legacy Commission has identified and recommended 11 projects (including Na Wai Eha) for funding for FY21, but only two projects can be funded at the existing spending ceiling level,” she wrote.
With the current ceiling, only the commission’s top three projects would receive any funding. The Na Wai Eha project, which sought $2 million from the fund, was ranked sixth.
Plan to Transfer Kaua‘i Ditch To Ag Department Advances
The East Kaua‘i Water Users’ Cooperative bowed out last year from its responsibility to operate the section of an old sugarcane plantation irrigation system — including the Wailua Reservoir — that fed its farms and pasture lands. It was too expensive to maintain and get a state water license, the group decided.
To keep the system viable for future agricultural use, the Department of Land and Natural Resources has allowed a company to conduct maintenance activities until a long-term solution can be found.
For the second year in a row, a bill (Senate Bill 2099) has been introduced that would transfer to the state Depart- ment of Agriculture that section of the East Kaua‘i Irrigation System that the co-op used to operate. The bill would also provide the department with additional staffing and funding to handle the added responsibility. On February 20, it was approved by the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
“The bill provides much needed support for a system that has been operated and maintained by volunteer farmers in East Kaua‘i for many years. The need for continued irrigation access for farmers in the region is of utmost importance and directly supports the state’s goal to double local food production,” Board of Agriculture chair Phyllis Shimabukuro-Geiser stated in her testimony on the bill.
The system currently sits on lands controlled by the Department of Land and Natural Resources. Department director Suzanne Case testified in support of the bill, but added that if the Legislature did not approve it, “the Department will pursue shutdown of the irrigation system, including breaching the reservoirs, as a last resort.”
One of the members of the cooperative, the Saiva Siddhanta Church, testified that the system, specifically the Wailua Reservoir, has served its property for the past 100 years.
“It continues to be used to water our monastery gardens and dairy cows, as well as create wetland habitats within the property and marvelous scenic ponds immediately next to our nearly finished Iraivan Hindu Temple,” church vice president Sadasivanatha Palaniswami wrote.
“Leaving aside the vital importance of the water for our property, our neighbors have been alarmed by the threat issued by the [DLNR] to demolish the reservoir should, effectively speaking, SB2099 not pass. Wailua Reservoir is an important public community asset, a public fishing area, a wildlife preserve and nesting place for native birds and bats. It is inconceivable to us that the state would throw away such a resource, especially one they’ve spent millions of dollars on over the last ten years upgrading to meet dam safety regulations.
“The East Kauai Water Users Cooperative, in which we have had an active part, was formed to manage the system — which is almost entirely owned by the State — on an interim basis after the departure of the plantation. We did so diligently for 18 years, but saw no progress on the State’s part to take over the system management. With the failure of SB223 last year, the Coop regretfully but rightly decided to withdraw from management and let the system revert to DLNR, the owners.
“At the end of the session last year, we heard second-hand that SB223 failed because some legislators thought it involved purchasing the system from private owners rather than taking over management of a system—valued 18 years ago at over $200 million—that was already the state’s property,” he continued.
Without a functioning irrigation system, “farming will not only be impossible in the future, presently active farmers will be put out of business. [Department of Hawaiian Home Lands] will be deprived of water they are presently receiving. Fern Grotto, one of the island’s most popular tourist destinations, will suffer greatly. Reservoir 21, immediately on top of the grotto, is filled by this system and when it dries up, the ferns below it die,” he wrote.
The Land Use Research Foundation, the Ulupono Initiative, the Hawai‘i Farm Bureau, the Maui County Farm Bureau, as well as individual farmers and ranchers also testified in support of the bill.
—Teresa Dawson
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