Category: Water

July 20, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Maui County settles lawsuit over stream water treatment plant

Maui County today announced a settlement today of a dispute over an environmental impact statement for a proposed stream water treatment plant.

Mayor Charmaine Tavares said the county will “revisit” the study.

Maui Tomorrow and Hui o Na Wai `Eha filed a lawsuit in Maui Circuit Court on June 21, challenging the adequacy of the Waiale Treatment Facility’s study.

The two groups also appealed a decision by the state Commission on Water Resource Management to restore only about one-fifth of the total flow from four streams.

A decision on the appeal is expected to take years and could affect plans for the Waiale plant, so the county has decided to take another look at the proposed project, county officials said.

Hui o Na Wai `Eha President John Duey said his group was glad the county agreed to carefully examine the costs and benefits of the treatment facility.

A&B Properties Inc., which developed the study, said the firm will continue to support the county’s effort to find water for residents.

Maui County settles lawsuit over stream water treatment plant – Hawaii News – Staradvertiser.com

June 13, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Na Wai Eha: Decision in but dispute lingers (1 of 2) – The Maui News

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PUUNENE – Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. General Manager Chris Benjamin characterized last week’s long-awaited state decision on Na Wai Eha stream waters as a reprieve, rather than a victory, for the plantation struggling for survival.

On Thursday, the state Commission on Water Resource Management ordered 12.5 million gallons of water per day to no longer be diverted from West Maui Mountain streams, also called Na Wai Eha, or the "Four Great Streams."

That amount to be returned was only about a third of what had been proposed by Dr. Lawrence Miike, a commissioner and the contested hearings officer for the ongoing water dispute.

"I would say that the commission’s decision is nuanced," Benjamin said. "I would not use the word ‘victory.’ The reality is we still lost a significant amount of water for a plantation that lost $45 million over the last couple years because of low crop yields (due to drought conditions).

"It’s a setback in that respect, but relative to the initial recommendation, it’s a dramatic improvement," Benjamin said. "In the long term, at least this gives us hope when we’re just trying to stay in business."

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June 11, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Attorney: Water commission ‘wilted’ – The Maui News

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Panel: Decision strikes a balance between values, responsibilities

By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer

The state Commission on Water Resource Management on Thursday ordered 12.5 million gallons of water per day be allowed to flow in the Na Wai Eha streams in the West Maui Mountains, about one-third of the amount that had been proposed.

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The commission majority said the decision represented a balance between the values and responsibilities the law required them to consider. Chairwoman Laura Thielen said in a statement that even if 100 percent of the water were diverted, it would still not be enough to meet demands.

But contested hearings officer Lawrence Miike, also a commission member, issued a scathing dissenting opinion that accused the water panel’s majority of protecting the interests of private corporations over the public streams.

"By its decision, the majority has failed in its duties under the constitution and the state water code as trustee of the state’s public water resource," Miike wrote.

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June 10, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Na Wai Eha decision released by state water panel – The Maui News

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The state Commission on Water Resource Management has ordered 12.5 million gallons of water per day be restored to the Na Wai Eha streams, about one-third of the water that was being considered for restoration a year ago.

The decision released on Thursday addresses a years-long effort by environmental and Native Hawaiian groups to force former sugar plantations and the County of Maui to put back some of the water being diverted from four streams that run out of the West Maui Mountains to Central Maui.
Under the order:

  • Waihee stream would be restored to 10 million gallons per day.
  • North Waiehu stream would get 1.6 mgd.
  • South Waiehu stream would get 0.9 mgd.
  • Iao and Waikapu streams would remain at current levels.

Approximately 60 million to 70 million gallons per day are diverted from Na Wai Eha, or the four waters of the West Maui Mountains. In April 2009, Water commission hearings officer Dr. Lawrence Miike issued a "proposed decision" to restore 34.5 million gallons to the streams.

Throughout the dispute, environmentalists and Native Hawaiian groups have argued that restoring water to the streams is necessary for taro farming and to provide habitat for aquatic life. Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar has argued the water is critical for already tenuous sugar farming operations.

Na Wai Eha decision released by state water panel – Mauinews.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Visitor’s Information – The Maui News

May 20, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Water panel to take up East Maui stream petition – The Maui News

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PAIA – The state Commission on Water Resource Management will take up a petition next week to set new instream-flow standards for 16 East Maui streams.

The panel will meet at 1 p.m. Tuesday at the Paia Community Center, where it could render a final decision in the ongoing dispute over East Maui stream water, much of it now diverted by ditches to irrigate Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. fields in Central Maui.

The meeting will continue hearings held in December to determine how much water the sugar plantation and Maui County can continue to take from the East Maui watershed. The county Department of Water Supply takes the water for domestic use by residents.

Decisions that come out of the meeting could have long-lasting impacts on all the parties involved. Previously, commissioners had asked the sides to come up with compromises to share the surface water resource, such as fixing leaky ditches and restoring water to streams in the rainy winter months.

The agenda for Tuesday’s meeting sets aside time for presentations from the state water commission staff, the Nahiku Community Association, Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., HC&S and county Department of Water Supply.

The commission, which is part of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, also will accept public testimony. If there is not time on Tuesday to make a final decision, the commission is tentatively scheduled to reconvene on June 16 and July 21, according to the agenda released Wednesday.

The long-fought battle over East Maui’s stream water has pitted environmentalists and Native Hawaiian taro farmers against HC&S, Maui County and Upcountry farmers and ranchers.

The water commission has already required HC&S to partially restore millions of gallons a day to several streams on the western half of the East Maui watershed.

With Maui still in a 3-year-old drought, HC&S has said that further claims on available surface water would hurt the company and jeopardize more than 800 agricultural jobs.

Water panel to take up E. Maui stream petition – Mauinews.com | News, Sports, Jobs, Visitor’s Information – The Maui News

May 20, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

USGS releases report on Na Wai Eha – The Maui News

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WAILUKU – A U.S. Geological Survey study 4 years in the making and released this week describes the effects of taking millions of gallons of water daily from "the Four Streams" of Na Wai Eha that originate in the West Maui Mountains.

USGS also presented a complex matrix showing the amounts of stream water needed to return to each of the Central Maui streams to revitalize flora, fauna and aquatic life; to recharge the aquifer and to promote taro growing. The report also details the amount of water necessary to resume mauka-to-makai, or mountain-to-ocean stream flow, something not seen for more than a century of stream diversions to irrigate sugar crops.

"The idea is to give people and the commissioners the tools to understand the effects of a decision to divert water and adjust those diversions," said USGS hydrologist Delwyn Oki, who presented the findings of his 176-page report to about 50 people in Maui Economic Opportunity’s classroom Tuesday night.

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February 4, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Kiteboarder killed by sharks in rare deadly attack – The Washington Post

By BRIAN SKOLOFF

The Associated Press
Thursday, February 4, 2010; 11:05 AM

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Sharks killed a kiteboarder off South Florida’s Atlantic coast in the state’s first deadly shark attack in five years, authorities said.

A lifeguard spotted Stephen Howard Schafer, 38, in distress about 500 yards off the beach Wednesday. When he paddled out, he found Schafer bleeding and surrounded by several sharks. Schafer was taken to a hospital and died a short time later, according to Rhonda Irons, public information officer for the Martin County Sheriff’s Office.

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January 28, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

A&B to continue Maui sugar at least through 2010 – The Maui News

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WAILUKU — Sugar production on Maui got a reprieve on Thursday, at least through the end of the year.

Alexander & Baldwin Inc.’s board of directors met in Honolulu Thursday morning to mull over shuttering its Maui subsidiary, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., after it recorded about $45 million in losses over the past two years. In a statement, the company said it would continue sugar operations through the end of the year, but that the company’s fate beyond 2010 would depend on a "favorable outcome" in water cases pending before the state Commission on Water Resource Management, as well as HC&S’s ability to increase its sugar production levels.

An attorney for the environmental and Native Hawaiian groups that are petitioning the state to order HC&S to return more water to Maui streams called the company’s announcement Thursday a "stunt" aimed at pressuring the water commission to give it what it wants.

Asked on Thursday when the board of A&B would reevaluate the sugar company’s fate, HC&S General Manager Chris Benjamin said, "It’s hard to say. No later than the end of the year, but (the review) could happen at any time. It will depend on whether there’s an adverse development, if it’s a water decision or something else.

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January 26, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Hawaii’s dry spell predicted to linger through May | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Even the wettest spot in Hawai’i — Mount Wai’ale’ale — wasn’t so wet last year as the state experienced below-normal rainfall in all but a few spots.

Rain gauges at the Kaua’i mountaintop measured 308 inches in 2009, 73 percent of normal levels, and a scant 3 inches in December, only 7 percent of normal. It was Mount Wai’ale’ale’s third-driest December on record, according to National Weather Service data.

In Honolulu, only the O’ahu Forest National Wildlife Refuge experienced above-normal rainfall in 2009 — 214 inches. Totals for most sites in central and west O’ahu were less than 50 percent of their annual averages.

The December rainfall numbers were even worse, with most O’ahu gauges measuring a third or less of normal rainfall averages, a trend that has continued into the new year.

The U.S. Drought Monitor reports that 99 percent of the state is experiencing "abnormally dry" or worse conditions, compared with 37 percent at the same time last year. More than a third of the state is suffering "severe to exceptional" drought.

On Maui and the Big Island, the U.S. Department of Agriculture last month designated the two counties as natural disaster areas so farmers could seek relief for crop losses.

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