Lahaina was formerly the “Venice of the Pacific,” an area famed for its lush environment, natural and cultural resources, and its abundant water resources in particular.
But recent wildfires have prompted a deeper dive into the history of West Maui's water management and the long-running dispute over water use in the area.
University of Hawaiʻi law professor Kapuaʻala Sproat, an expert in Native Hawaiian water rights, said this history matters.
“You know part of the reason this was the capital and the seat of governance and power was because of its abundance. Everyone knows about Mokuʻula and Mokuhinia, the famed island and fishpond where aliʻi resided and where they would sail in on their canoes, where the Declaration of Rights of 1839 and the Constitution was promulgated,” Sproat said.
“But that is really something that happened in the past tense because it was these same plantations who sucked these water resources dry,” she said.
“Streams were diverted, groundwater was tapped through their skimming wells and there are drought conditions now exacerbated by climate change that only made things worse.”
Fresh water began to be diverted in the late 1800s. First came the sugar plantations — then pineapples — and later resorts and other developments.
How water diversions impacted West Maui taro farmers and kuleana landowners
Kauaʻula Valley tucked in the foothills of Mauna Kahālāwai just upland of Lahaina has been home to taro farmers like Charlie Palakiko for generations. Today, he farms anywhere from 10 to 12 active loʻi kalo, or taro patches. Fresh water from Kauaʻula Stream is cycled through his loʻi and returned further downstream. But the availability of water for taro production was impossible because water was diverted for use by plantations.
“The river was dry. There was no running water in this stream for I don’t know how long. I like say hundred years,” Palakiko said.
It would take nearly two decades to restore mauka to makai streamflow in Kauaʻula Valley after the town’s largest plantation Pioneer Mill sugar plantation closed in 1999. The return of water to the valley brought with it the return of kuleana landowners like Palakiko.
Kuleana landowners are descendants of individuals who were originally awarded property during the Great Mahele of the mid-1800s. These kuleana users have a protected right under the State Water Code to access water for cultural practices and taro farming.
Despite these protections, it wouldn’t be until March 2018 that streamflow in Kauaʻula Valley was restored by the state Commission on Water Resources (CWRM), which is attached to the Department of Land and Natural Resources. But the West Maui Land Co., a successor to the Pioneer Mill and its subsidiary the Launiupoko Irrigation Co., initially refused to comply with the CWRM decision.
This had a profound impact on the kuleana landowners in Kauaʻula Valley, with an estimated population of 70, who found themselves with little if any water available to fight the 2018 wildfire linked with Hurricane Lane.
“Every house on our property was lost except two houses. The only two houses that stood after that fire was my house and my dad’s house,” Palakiko said. “Our water lines were burnt, so we had to scoop water with buckets from the ‘auwai. So that’s how important this water was to us. If we didn’t have this water that is running, our house would have burnt just like everyone else's.”
There are no nearby fire hydrants in Kauaʻula Valley, just one stream, which families rely on for their crops, livestock, household needs, and more importantly fire protection.
West Maui Land Company requests halt to stream restoration
The West Maui Land Co. is asking the CWRM to temporarily halt stream restoration to free up water for fire suppression.
Glenn Tremble, an executive at the company, said access to more water in streams from Ukumehame to Kahoma in West Maui may have made a difference in fighting the Lahaina fire. That claim has been disputed by Sproat and others.
On Aug. 8, the day of the fire, Tremble sent a letter to former CWRM Deputy Director Kaleo Manuel at 1 p.m. asking to divert more water than the company is allowed under the law. Manuel advised Tremble to ensure downstream users and others who depend on these West Maui streams would not need that water themselves to fight the approaching wildfire.
By around 3:30 p.m., a flare-up had shut down the Lahaina Bypass and Tremble said the company could not make contact with those who may be impacted by the increased diversion. At around 6 p.m., Tremble received CWRM’s approval to divert more water.
“We followed the process. The process failed us,” Tremble said in an emailed statement to HPR, referring to the need for the private water user to seek permission from CWRM before taking more water than it is allowed to under the law.
“Plantation disaster capitalism”
Lt. Gov. Sylvia Luke issued the first of five emergency proclamations on Tuesday, Aug. 8, in response to the West Maui wildfires. This allowed CWRM Chairperson Dawn Chang to temporarily suspend the requirement for private commercial users like the West Maui Land Co. to keep a certain amount of water in the stream for public trust purposes. These include stream life, taro farming, kuleana use and more.
“So the emergency proclamations went out and before the week was out, here were the plantations, and West Maui Land Co., in particular, asking for suspension of the interim instream flow standards, including in places where that weren't affected by the fire to the same degree as Lahaina, places like Ukumehame and Olowalu,” Sproat said.
“So part of what's happening in Maui Komohana right now is plantation disaster capitalism at its worst, right? Where folks are taking advantage of this tragedy to continue or even expand their water diversions, something that wasn't possible before the governor's emergency proclamation," she said.
Tremble told HPR he would have a longer discussion on the topic in the future, but declined to comment further because he did not want “distract from the loss to our community.”
Stream restoration advocates blamed for West Maui wildfire
Gov. Josh Green in a press conference Tuesday was quick to cast blame on communities like Kauaʻula who are fighting to keep water in their streams.
“One thing that people need to understand especially from far away is there has been a great deal of water conflict for many years. It's important that we are honest about this. People have been fighting against the release of water to fight fires. I’ll leave that to you to explore,” Green said.
“We have a difficult time on Maui and other rural areas getting enough water for houses for our people for any response. But it's important that we start being honest. There are currently people fighting, still fighting in our state giving us water access to fight and prepare for fires even as more storms arise," he said.
Green’s comments sparked outrage from some within the state’s Native Hawaiian community, especially those who have for decades been fighting to restore mauka to makai streamflow.
“The audacity!" Sproat said. "Blaming stream restoration for what happened, brah. If Maui Komohana had been the 'Venice of the Pacific' like it was, we wouldn't have had the wildfires to the extent that we did, because having water in the stream from mauka to makai cools that whole area, creates these riparian corridors. You know we wouldn't have had all these dry, invasive grasses.
"But we need to learn the lessons for the future on a going-forward basis, right? We cannot keep repeating the sins of the past. Like pau already," she said.
Water commission deputy ousted following media reports
Green’s comments also resulted in media reports both in Honolulu Civil Beat and in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser placing blame for the lack of water for firefighting in West Maui on former CWRM Deputy Kaleo Manuel. He served nearly four years on the commission as the first ever Native Hawaiian in that position.
In a statement sent to media Wednesday night, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources announced it was “redeploying” Manuel to a different division within the agency. It went on to say “this does not suggest Manuel did anything wrong” and that this would be DLNR’s final word on the matter.
Earthjustice Attorney Isaac Moriwake said its not exactly clear whether DLNR has the authority to relieve Manuel of his Water Commission duties. Under the State Water Code, that authority is held by the Commission itself.
“It's just sad and disappointing to see a true public servant being treated like this in the public debate and especially a private company trying to exploit a tough situation to try to gain that cheap advantage,” Moriwake said.
“I'm also looking for the leadership from the administration. What are they doing just with this cryptic message? 'Redeploying,' whatever that means. Mr. Manuel, when he's supposed to be doing his job and he's needed more than ever. So are they running away from the situation or have they bought in? I don't know what's worse," he said.
Palakiko and his wife Lauren say Manuel’s removal from the CWRM deals a huge blow to the progress made toward stream restoration in communities across the islands.
“Deputy Kaleo Manuel was a breath of fresh air and gave us renewed hope for the state and the future health of our water, island and way of living as kanaka,” Lauren Palakiko said. “We feel this assignment is truly unfitting and a nasty backlash from certain entities getting in the ear of our governor. In fact, I’m losing faith in the new governor as well.”
Tremble expressed appreciation for Manuel’s efforts in a letter to CWRM Chairperson Chang dated Aug. 12, saying “We would never imply responsibility on his part. Our words were born in anguish for the loss and frustration over the process.”
In that same letter, Tremble told Chang the company plans to make land available for temporary housing for displaced Lahaina residents. But that temporary housing would require the diversion of more water from places like Kauaʻula Valley, which concerns Palakiko.
“I know we gotta share the water, we gotta protect everybody. But eh, when it’s time and everything is green, we gotta put the water back. We gotta put 'em back in the stream where it belong because that was one long battle," Palakiko said.
Uncertainty over water access under emergency proclamation
Aside from the request for increased stream diversions, West Maui Land Co. is asking the CWRM to suspend and ultimately modify the Water Management Area Designation for West Maui. This designation adds a layer of permitting and allows the CWRM to revisit water allocations to ensure there is enough water in the streams for public trust uses before private commercial use.
Water policy consultant Jonathan Likeke Scheuer, co-author of the book “Water and Power in West Maui” said rolling back designation in West Maui would return us to a time when large landowners alone working with government staff behind closed doors made decisions about West Maui’s water future.
“In the close to 30 years that I've been working on water issues around Hawaiʻi, especially on Maui, I've never seen where a fundamental lack of water was a cause for not being able to build housing, not being able to have water for prevention of fires, not to be able to have water for streams,” Scheuer said.
"We need to, especially in the changing climate, make sure that we require people to use water with great care and efficiency before starting to cast blame on the very communities who've stepped up to say that we should have a balance in our water management in Hawai'i rather than having water solely go to whoever has the most money and power," he said.
