Water

Though the Maui Island Plan(General Plan 2030) states that Maui "possesses vast underground reservoirs of freshwater," access to these waters has historically been quite limited, and the condition of our aquifers has deteriorated, both through overuse and deep levels of contamination caused by commercial agriculture and rampant, ill-conceived development.

Severe pollution of near shore waters has been caused in most part through building too close to the ocean and through erosion and run-off of toxic agricultural chemicals. We are poisoning both our soils and our waters, and depleting our watershed through too great a diversion of running waters. We're taking too much for too little.

An interesting presentation was made to the Board of Water Supply in May, by Ellen Kraftsow, Division Head of Water Resources and Planning(DWS). The pre- sentation was in fact a report variously titled "availability worksheet," or "availability information." Three formulations were used to determine "remaining capacity." When asked by this person what all this meant, Ellen replied: "We're out of water."

The Board ran out of time at that meeting, and Ellen was on Lanai(another aquifer reportedly being overpumped)for the June meeting. When she returned for the July meeting, the story was much the same, only now the worksheet had certain numbers printed in red, to show where we are relative to water deficits.

These sort of figures apply not only to Upcountry, but also to Central and South Maui, as well as West Maui, which is a "mixed system," with about 53% being surface water, the rest from streams. Toward the end of the meeting, Director Jeff Eng acknowledged that the County may be forced to call a "Findings of Shortage," given the severe lack of redundancy in our water systems. This stops everything.

No water, no can...

Even though the need for a moratorium on development is sorely needed, it is essentially a political decision, which means that the Administration and the Council (as the policy making body of our County government) must act if we are to preserve even our present access to water.

USGS has pointed to a substantial rise in salinity in the Iao and Waihe'e Aquifers, of more than 200 feet in the last twenty-five years. These aquifers may in fact be permanently impaired. And these are the aquifers upon which most of our development is based, but which presently feed the highest per capita water use in the County of Maui--Wailea.

It would seem that water has always been available for tourists and for the wealthy. What has been lacking historically throughout Hawai'i, is a determination to see water as a resource for all in our communities, part of the "commons," rather than a commodity which is traded for monetary compensation. Nothing will compensate for the almost genocidal effects this has had on native/indigenous populations who had relied on this resource to maintain subsistence agricultures.

The classic book on diversion of Hawai'ian waters, is Carol Wilcox's thoroughly researched(and published by UH)book, "Sugar Water," in which the historical context for diversions of water throughout the State are delineated. That so much water for so many years, has been taken by a few corporate entities, has had a devastating effect on the practice of Hawai'ian culture and the maintenance of subsistence lifestyles. This practice has of course been ruled illegal by the Hawaii Supreme Court, but nothing has been done to remediate this situation. Instead, litigation aimed at returning waters to the kuleana farmers of East Maui, has gone on for more than seven years. A small portion of these public trust waters are then sold to the County, which is charged for "delivery" of these waters by A&B and its subsidiaries. A&B uses an average of 156 million gallons per day from the East Maui watershed; the County of Maui uses in total 7.24 mgd, on average.

Then, of course, there is the so called Wailuku Water Company, which controls most of the public trust water from the Na Wai Eha(the four great waters of the Waikapu, Iao, Waihe'e and Waiehu streams)and sells it to numerous users, chief among these, the County of Maui and A & B.

Access to these waters would lead to watershed restoration, recharging of the aquifers, and reestablishment of traditional agricultures, at a time when self-sufficiency in food products is a must for all of Maui County. We cannot in truth rely on importing nearly all our foodstuffs from markets thousands of miles distant from our islands.

How water is used (and distributed) is essential to our continued habitation in these islands. As poignantly spoken by Melissa Prince at the Water Use and Development Plan meeting in Pukalani last week, we cannot continue to take such a great amount of waters from the East Maui watershed without the forests and other life of the watershed being to die itself. Our lives and sustenance depend on nourishing the life of the land.

I would like to comment on two points discussed about Pi'iholo Well, the first being the fact, that in spite of adding water to the Makawao-Pukalani-Haiku systems, the Pi'iholo Well adds no source waters to the Upper and Lower Kula Systems, from which Maui Land and Pine will be withdrawing 120,000 gallons per day on a daily basis. In addition to which, these are prime agricultural lands, destined in their subdivided form (which we are facilitating) to be "gentlemen's estates." At a time when our future as a community hinges upon developing sustainable agricultural systems, this seems to be a poor decision.

Garrett Hew of EMI is quoted as saying there is enough water for both sugar and the taro farmers. Yet this is the same corporation that has taken--against their original mandate--surface waters from East Maui in such quantity, that most of these streams now run dry for much of the year, and taro cannot be reliably grown. It is EMI that refused the Hearing Officer's order to return 6+ million gallons per day back into the streams. The face that is shown to the public is not the face that the residents of East Maui have seen for more than 120 years. It is well past time to return at least enough waters to these streams, so families can practice the traditional agricultures these areas were so well known for. 

Letter to DLNR re Testimony on Continued Diversion of East Maui Stream Waters