Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Maui Water Struggles

In the mid-1800s, Westerners developed an agricultural economy in Hawaii and planted sugar cane fields in the dry, leeward parts of the islands. [cane sounds out] To water their fields, they constructed massive irrigation systems to carry water from miles away in the wet, windward side of the islands.

KAPUA: when a lot of these plantation systems were put into place, ? they were done without any consideration of the impacts that taking the water out of the streams were going to have on the natural and human environments that rely on them.

Kapua Sproat is a lawyer with Earth Justice, a non-profit public interest law firm. She says for over 100 years, communities in Hawaii have suffered under the mismanagement of their fresh water.

KAPUA: Often times, streams and communities were de-watered with horrific impacts on traditional agriculture and aquaculture, on native stream life, on fisheries and estuary systems, on the ability of the communities to feed themselves and to continue their traditional lifestyles.

[cheesy HIan music/beach and laughter] the guitar solo starts at around 1:30
When most folks think about HI, they have these stereotypical ideas of paradise. They think that every thing is fine and there are waterfalls everywhere and the natives are happy, but we?re not.

Sproat says before Westerners arrived, [running water] four streams flowed here on Maui from the mountains on the west side of the island, through central Maui, and into the ocean. This lush valley, called Na Wai Eha supported farming of Hawaii?s staple food, an edible root called ?taro.? Na Wai Eha or literally ?the four great waters,? boasted the largest taro crop in all of the Hawaiian Islands.

But for over a century, a former sugar plantation company called Wailuku Agribusiness has diverted over 65 million gallons of water a day from Na Wai Eha. In doing so it has transformed the last stretch of each of the four streams into dry river beds. [water sound fades out]

Despite closing their sugar plantation, Wailuku Ag says their primary business is still agricultural related, they?re just not doing the farming themselves. But with the sale of pineapple fields and macadamia nut orchards and the eviction of small farmers from their land, critics are surprised the company continues to divert the same amount of water from the region.

DUEY: We?re in Iao Valley. We?re right above the intake of Wailuku Agribusiness. It?s a grate that goes clear across the river bed and all the water coming down ?drops into this grate. ?and if you were here, you?d see that right below the grate, the stream is dry.

John Duey and his wife Rose Marie, a Native Hawaiian, live 100 yards away from Iao Stream, one of the four streams comprising Na Wai Eha. Alongside the stream, the Dueys grow a patch of taro that requires running water to keep from rotting, as well as fruit trees and other native plants. He says this stretch of stream, which is below the Wailuku Ag diversion grate, ran completely dry several times in the last three years. Duey says it affected his garden, the stream life, and his grandchildren?s favorite playground.

And he says he predicted this tension between preservation and commercial development.

DUEY: It looks like it might be a fight between those of us who want to see water left in the stream and those who want housing. And I?ve said a long time ago when sugar goes out, water?s going to be the dividing factor of how many people are going to live on this island. There?s only so much water.

The Dueys are members of Hui o Na Wai Eha, a community-based organization working to preserve Hawaii?s natural and cultural resources, particularly in the Na Wai Eha region. The Hui, with the support of Earth Justice, have filed a petition to the State Water Commission to force Wailuku Agribusiness to release more of the water it diverts back into the Na Wai Eha streams.

Kapua Sproat of Earth Justice says the plantations have treated water as a commodity. But Hawaii?s Public Trust Doctrine established in 1978, mandates the State Water Commission to protect the health of Hawaii?s natural resources for the benefit of all citizens. The petitioners want enough water to remain in the streams so that they may again flow all the way to the ocean, improving the habitat, the lifecycle for native shrimp and fish, and allow for practicing native traditions like growing taro.

Isaac Moriwake with Earth Justice says the petition reflects a larger movement throughout Hawaii for environmental justice.

ISAAC: This was a legal movement that began with the law but then was able to empower communities that were at the close of the plantation era, were ready to say, ?Hey, for 100 years at least, our interests have been totally ignored by these oligarchic economic interests and it?s time in all kinds of aspects to see how we can undo the damage or level the playing field and get back to a more fair and balanced organization of society that was a little unbalanced during the plantation era.

AVERY: But that?s water that?s going to grow sugar cane, pineapple, diversified agricultural crops, that?s creating jobs, that?s feeding people, that?s buying homes in the community!

Avery Chumbly is president of Wailuku Agribusiness.

AVERY: Are you going to say that that should be stopped and that the waterflow down the stream and the little fish get all the water as opposed to the people who are earning a living from the agricultural crop?

Chumbly says it?s completely legal for his company to take water out of the Na Wai Eha streams.

AVERY: You have to understand first that the diversions that we do have in place are diversions that are registered under the state of HI, HI revised statutes, state water code and under the constitution of the state of HI to our company. ?The second aspect is that ?these are systems that were built on our lands with an investment of resources of time, personnel, and money going back 100 and some years. ?So until there?s a clear public policy, we will be able to continue to use the water off of our land in whatever means we feel is appropriate for agricultural purposes.

But the water is NOT used just for agriculture. Maui County is facing a shortage of domestic drinking water because of a dramtically expanding population. To offset the shortage, the County purchases up to 3.2 million gallons of Wailuku Ag?s diverted water a day.

Lucienne deNaie is a member of Maui Tomorrow, who along with the Hui filed the petition to restore the Na Wai Eha streams. She says water from the streams is going towards luxury housing and tourist development in south Maui at the expense of the ecosystem in central Maui.

LUCIENNE: Central Maui has been the cash cow of the water distribution system for the past 30 years. South Maui, which is the fastest growing area of the STATE, has many lovely resorts, but it?s a desert. And in order to make the property values blossom and make the public coffers benefit from them, a large water project was launched in the 1970s to bring the water of central Maui to south Maui. ? So when you look at the central Maui system and you see all that taking, taking, taking, taking far, far away, and you go, it?s like a bank account. Who?s making a deposit? Who?s putting water back in? Only the rainfall is putting water back in!

Maui County says it supports Earth Justice?s petition and the request to increase the amount of water flowing in the Na Wai Eha streams. John Duey says he?s happy to hear this, but says it?s not consistent with the County?s actions.

DUEY: it?s hard to join the two together when they just put on line at the end of October a new surface water treatment plant that?s taking water out of Iao/Waikapu ditch.? and this is water that we?d like see left in the stream.

But Duey understands there are competing interests for the water and that?s why he and others filed the petition.

DUEY: Whose right is it to the water? Is it one company who can sell the water? Is it you because you?re a homeowner because you want to buy a house? Is it me because I want water back in the stream? There?s law, 174c, Water code which states what?s what. So it?s up to the commission to enforce the law. That?s the bottom line.

The State Water Commission and Maui County have enlisted the U.S. Geological Survey for a four-year study, which will reveal the effects that surface water diversion and groundwater pumping have on stream flow and rain levels in central Maui.

In the meantime, the Water Commission will rule on the petition with the limited information they do have.

Back