The state Commission on Water Resource Management has asked Hawai`i County to front-load its assessment of the impacts that future water withdrawals in Waimea and Keauhou will have on native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights and on the environment. In doing so, it may, as Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation attorney Alan Murakami put it, save people \u201ca lot of time, energy and heartache.\u201d<\/p>\n
At its February 18 meeting, the Water Commission heard recommendations from its staff on the scope and phasing of work to be done by the Hawai`i County Department of Water Supply in revising its Water Use and Development Plan (WUDP) for the areas of Waimea and Keauhou. The commission ordered the revision last December as part of its response to a petition submitted by the National Park Service to designate the Keauhou aquifer system as a Water Management Area.<\/p>\n
The commission\u2019s December order required a draft revision to be completed by May 15. However, after meeting with the county and its consultants, Water Commission staff determined that deadline was not realistic. Instead, staff recommended that the update proceed in two phases, with the county presenting the results of the first phase by May 30.<\/p>\n
In that first phase, as recommended by staff, the county is to update the plan\u2019s projections of demand and authorized use, while in the second phase, it is to address strategies for developing water sources and improving infrastructure. In the second phase as well, the county is to outline strategies to meet agricultural and other non-potable demands, assess potential impacts of source development on environmental resources and traditional and customary native Hawaiian practices, and identify appropriate mitigation measures.<\/p>\n
But during discussion on the staff proposal, commissioner Denise Antolini suggested including the assessment of traditional customary rights and ecological impacts in the first phase, given their importance to the commission and the length of time required to do it.<\/p>\n
John Nishimura of Fukunaga & Associates, the county\u2019s consultant, seemed reticent about jumping straight into an assessment of cultural and environmental impacts. He said those things also need to be addressed in the statewide Hawai`i Water Quality Plan and Water Resource Protection Plan \u2013 both elements of the overall Hawai`i Water Plan that are prepared by state agencies \u2013 as well as the county-prepared WUDP. To properly assess the cultural and environmental impacts of source development, he suggested, all of those plans need to assess the interconnection between surface and ground water and their connection to marine environments.<\/p>\n
Antolini said that environmental assessments and impact statements are a treasure trove of information that could help with the assessment absent updates to all of the sub-plans that make up the Hawai`i Water Plan.<\/p>\n
Commissioner Kamana Beamer added that the assessment is \u201cnot sort of like a side dish. It\u2019s constitutionally mandated.\u201d<\/p>\n
The NHLC\u2019s Murakami said he was encouraged by the commissioners\u2019suggestions. For decades, the NHLC has been fighting on behalf of native Hawaiians for the return of diverted stream water and limits on groundwater pumping so that they can properly exercise their traditional and customary rights.<\/p>\n
\u201cI come from a place in history when a lot of these things were either ignored or neglected,\u201dhe said. \u201cThe comments about front-loading really hit home for me. \u2026If you don\u2019t front-load it, it becomes difficult when you try to talk about developing sources.\u201dHe added that the Hawai`i Supreme Court\u2019s decision in the Ka Pa`akai<\/i> case requires state and county agencies to assess and mitigate cultural impacts before decision making.<\/p>\n
Doing the cultural impact assessments early on \u201ccan avoid really intense conflicts that are unnecessary. If you can incorporate that into this process, I really encourage it,\u201dhe said, adding that his office would be happy to assist.<\/p>\n
After conferring with the county during a brief recess, commission staffer Lenore Ohye suggested amending her recommendation so as to require the county to begin assessing cultural and environmental issues using available published information, with a report back to the commission of its preliminary findings by May 30.<\/p>\n
The commission unanimously approved the amended recommendation.<\/p>\n
***<\/b><\/p>\n
Early Findings On Claims<\/b><\/p>\n
Of Kaua`i Water Waste<\/b><\/p>\n
The Water Commission has enough information to start finding a way to end the waste of diverted stream water in West Kaua`i, Earthjustice attorney David Henkin said at the commission\u2019s February meeting.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been more than a year since Earthjustice, on behalf of Po`ai Wai Ola and the West Kaua`i Watershed Alliance, filed a waste complaint over the state Agribusiness Development Corporation\u2019s use of water diverted from the headwaters of the Waimea River along with a petition to amend the interim instream flow standards for the river and its tributaries.
\nAt the commission\u2019s meeting, Element Environmental\u2019s Steve Spengler, a consultant the commission hired to investigate the complaint, presented the results of his wet-season baseline measurements of the Koke`e and Kekaha irrigation ditches that serve the ADC\u2019s lands in Kekaha, as well as the streams that are part of the petition.<\/p>\n
Spengler found some leakage from both ditches. He also said that the vast majority of the water diverted from Waiakoali, Kawakoi, Kauaikinana and Koke`e streams into the Koke`e ditch is dumped into Koke`e Stream. Historically, the ditch sent water into the state\u2019s Pu`u Lua reservoir. But after the state Department of Land and Natural Resources found the reservoir to be non-compliant with state standards, the height of water in the reservoir has been limited to 60 feet for safety reasons.<\/p>\n
Under normal conditions, flows in Koke`e Stream are tiny, Spengler said, but because it is now receiving 80 percent of the ditch\u2019s water, the stream now produces a consistent waterfall that otherwise would be dry.<\/p>\n
Koke`e ditch water that used to lead to the state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands\u2019Kitano reservoir is also diverted elsewhere. \u201cKitano was repeatedly vandalized. \u2026They no longer divert there; it\u2019s a dry hole right now,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
Instead, the water is discharged into a pipe that leads to fallow sugarcane fields and intersects with the Kekaha ditch system, he said.<\/p>\n
The Kekaha ditch system, meanwhile, serves some taro patches before its waters are fed into a hydropower plant or are dumped into reservoirs linked to Kaua`i County\u2019s wastewater treatment plant, he said.<\/p>\n
Below the first hydropower plant, the ditch provides about 4 million gallons of water a day to a second hydro plant, then the system deteriorates, Spengler said, showing a picture of a big belt of green vegetation fed by leakage from the ditch.<\/p>\n
Finally, toward the end of the system, the Kekaha ditch feeds the Mana and Polihale reservoirs. From the Polihale reservoir, a pipe distributes water to smaller irrigation ditches.<\/p>\n
In general, Spengler said, flow in the Kekaha ditch is controlled to optimize electricity production by the hydros.<\/p>\n
\u201cA significant amount of ditch flow is diverted back into Waimea River just below the mauka hydro,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
Spengler said he and his team still have to measure flows during the dry season and a final report should completed some time later in the year.<\/p>\n
To Henkin of Earthjustice, the information Spengler had gathered on what the ADC, through the Kekaha Agriculture Association, does with the diverted waters should have been sufficient to allow the Water Commission to take action on the waste complaint at the least.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have an entire plantation system that disappeared in 2001 and all the water continues to be diverted. Regarding Koke`e, three streams are being dewatered at the source. The fact that they take 10 mgd and put it in Koke`e Stream does nothing for the headwater streams that are completely dewatered,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
His clients have been been waiting for the conclusion of Spengler\u2019s investigation for more than a year, and the community is concerned that it may take until the end of 2015 to address the waste allegation, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think anyone is claiming any use is being made of the headwaters of the Koke`e system. They can\u2019t. The reservoir can\u2019t be more than 60 feet,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
Henkin asked the commission to set a schedule to immediately address what he saw as the waste of water.<\/p>\n
With regard to the Kekaha ditch, the system appears to be operated and maximized for power production, not agricultural use, he continued. \u201cIt\u2019s now being used for power production that may not be technically waste. That gets to our \u2026petition on the IIFS [and] what should be in stream,\u201dhe said.<\/p>\n
The hydro plants provide power to pumps that protect the Mana plain and Kekaha town from flooding, he said, and keeping those pumps running is \u201cobviously something we care about.\u201dBut maybe there are ways to power the pumps other than by dewatering an entire system, he added.<\/p>\n
Finally, Henkin stressed the need for the commission to obtain information on the types of crops being grown on ADC lands and how many acres are being farmed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t do an investigation about waste and beneficial use until you know what people are growing,\u201dhe said. Referring to Spengler\u2019s photo of the leakage-induced belt of green along the Kekaha system, \u201cI was struck about how little green there was everywhere else,\u201dHenkin said.<\/p>\n
Attorney Doug Codiga, representing the Kekaha Agriculture Association, responded to Henkin\u2019s characterization of the system by saying simply that there is a \u201cdifferent and opposing view\u201don most if not all of the issues Henkin raised. The KAA is a cooperative of ADC tenants that maintains and manages the irrigation system for the agency.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Teresa Dawson<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The state Commission on Water Resource Management has asked Hawai`i County to front-load its assessment of the impacts that future water withdrawals in Waimea and Keauhou will have on native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights and on the environment. In … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7684,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[324,372,28],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-7683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-324","category-march-2015","category-water","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7683","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=7683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}