Within the next month or so, Lawrence Miike, Water Commissioner and hearing officer in the Waiahole Ditch contested case, is expected to finalize his recommendations on the handful of issues that the state Supreme Court remanded to the Water Commission in June 2004. At issue is the commission\u2019s allocation of Waiahole Ditch water to various agricultural users and instream flow standards, among other things.<\/p>\n
Miike chose to hear oral arguments on only a few of the remanded issues, specifi cally, the practicability of Campbell Estate and Pu\u2018u Makakilo using alternative ground water sources, and a system losses permit to the state Agribusiness Development Cor poration, which operates the ditch that di verts roughly 23 million gallons of water a day from Kahana, Waikane, Waianu, and Waiahole streams to O\u2018ahu\u2019s central plain.<\/p>\n
Back in December 2001, after a second round of contested case hearings, the Water Commission reset allocations to Campbell Estate (from 5.28 mgd down to 4.74 mgd), Dole\/Castle & Cooke (2.22 mgd to 2.13mgd), and established a permit for op erational losses of 2 mgd. An appeal by several parties followed, leading to a third contested case hearing held in April and presided over by Miike, who had been reap pointed to the Water Commission for the specific purpose of adjudicating the case.<\/p>\n
In June, attorneys for Waiahole water users, as well as those representing parties seeking the return of water to windward O\u2018ahu streams, presented their final argu ments. The Campbell Estate and the ADC tried to justify their current levels of diver sion, while attorneys representing Hakipu\u2018u \u2018Ohana (a group of windward taro farmers), Ka Lahui Hawai\u2018i, Kahalu\u2018u neighborhood board and the environmental group Hawaii\u2019s Thousand Friends argued that water permits for both Campbell and the ADC should be denied.<\/p>\n
In her closing brief, Earthjustice\u2019s Kapua Sproat, representing the Windward parties, argued that the Supreme Court stated that the commission \u201cis not obligated to ensure that any particular user enjoy a subsidy or guaranteed access to less expensive water sources when alternatives are available and public values are at stake.\u201d Campbell Estate had failed to prove that it had no \u201cpracticable alternatives\u201d for irrigation water, she argued, noting that ample groundwater in the \u2018Ewa\/ Kunia area is available and affordable, compared to water rates paid by other farmers throughout the state.<\/p>\n
Attorney Lane Ishida, representing Campbell Estate, argued that groundwater is too expensive to be \u201cpracticable.\u201d He added that Campbell had hired two engi neers to investigate the possibility of drilling a new well. Based on the quality and salinity of water in the \u2018Ewa\/Kunia aquifer, Campbell rejected that option, he said.<\/p>\n
Ishida also argued that the windward parties were wrongly interpreting the law regarding alternatives. \u201cThere\u2019s always another alternative. But is \u2018practicable\u2019 also feasible, fair and convenient?\u201d he asked. \u201cClearly it is not more convenient to spend millions to dig a new well,\u201d he said, adding that continued diversion of Waiahole water can be done in compliance with the interim instream flow standards.<\/p>\n
Miike noted that Campbell Estate had a number of alternatives, including blending Waiahole ditch water with well water. \u201cYou can\u2019t just tell me one is more expensive than the other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
With regard to the ADC\u2019s permit for system losses, the Hawai\u2018i Supreme Court had vacated the allocation because the ADC had failed to prove that losses were reason able. However, the court tasked the com mission with determining whether a permit was even appropriate for system losses. In June, ADC attorney Haunani Burns argued that a permit for system losses was inappro priate because system losses are not a \u201cuse.\u201d She added that the ADC has made signifi cant progress in upgrading the ditch to reduce leakage and waste and plans to com plete in 2007 or 2008 construction of a reservoir that will prevent overflow and waste of excess Waiahole water. Feasibility studies and other fixes (i.e. lining the ditch) cannot be done sooner because the ADC lacks the needed funds, she said.<\/p>\n
The windward parties countered that a permit is the only way to regulate water use, including system losses. They also criticized the ADC\u2019s justification for not doing more to prevent system losses.<\/p>\n
\u201cHere they are giving away the store and claiming they have no money for repairs,\u201d said Sproat, adding that the ADC should end corporate subsidies and charge market rates. At present, Waiahole water costs 40 cents per thousand gallons. Sproat notes in her final brief that Big Island farmers pay the county board of water supply $1.88 per thousand gallons, \u201cmore than four times the rate for Windward water delivered by ADC.\u201d<\/p>\n
— Teresa Dawson<\/p>\n
Volume 16, Number 2 August 2005<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Within the next month or so, Lawrence Miike, Water Commissioner and hearing officer in the Waiahole Ditch contested case, is expected to finalize his recommendations on the handful of issues that the state Supreme Court remanded to the Water Commission … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-august-2005","category-water"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1484"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1484\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}