The state Commission on Water Resource Management has confirmed Ciara Kahahane to be its first deputy.
In August, Gov. Josh Green appointed Kahahane, who had worked in the state Department of the Attorney General’s Complex Litigation Division, to lead the commission.
Kahahane said some of her priorities include improving water resource monitoring and building community trust. She said Hawaiʻi's most important water issue is climate change-driven water shortages.
“ We are seeing droughts, we are seeing more frequent extreme weather events, and we are seeing … a general decline in rainfall,” Kahahane told the commission on Thursday.
“That, to me, stands out as the number one issue that we're going to have to contend with, and we need to really think about how we're going to plan for water shortages because I think they are coming — in many places, they're here already.”
Kahahane had been coordinating a comprehensive review of the Lahaina wildfire on behalf of the AG’s office.
She is a graduate of Kamehameha Schools Maui and the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa William Richardson School of Law. The Lahaina native also has cultural and lineal connections to West Maui.
She said traditional water use is an important part of CWRM’s job.
“Part of our highest duty is to protect traditional and customary Hawaiian practices and to have a deep respect for Hawaiian culture,” Kahahane said.
She said she wants to “streamline” the Ka Paʻakai analysis, a legal framework identifying how government plans could affect Native Hawaiians’ traditional and customary practices. Government agencies have to follow the analysis, which was set up to protect Hawaiian rights.
Kahahane said she wants to streamline the process and make it easier to comply with the analysis, even if that means simply providing a list of resources or cultural practices taking place in an area.
She also said one of her priorities is to balance the distribution of water, acknowledging possible conflicts of interest with affordable housing development.
While with the AG’s office, Kahahane provided litigation support and counsel to the Hawaiʻi Housing Finance and Development Corporation on a variety of legal issues.
“At times there is going to be a conflict between protecting water resources and encouraging development, essentially, and the construction of housing for Hawaiʻi residents. That is something that the Water Commission is going to have to make the final decision on, but I will be thoughtful in my approach to those issues,” she said.
CWRM unanimously confirmed Kahahane’s position during Thursday’s meeting. Prior to her confirmation, local organizations appeared cautiously optimistic about Kahahane.
Controversy has surrounded CWRM since last year’s fires on Maui, which eventually led to the resignation of former First Deputy Kaleo Manuel.
Manuel, the longest-tenured water deputy and the first Native Hawaiian in the role, was reassigned after being accused by a land developer of preventing the diversion of stream water to fight the Lahaina fire.
Manuel, who was supported by Native Hawaiian activists and several members of the public, was initially blamed in some media reports following comments from Green.
The issue sparked controversy because, for decades, the West Maui community had fought to restore stream water flow that had long been diverted — first to plantations but then to resorts and other developments.
Green is also facing backlash for scrapping a list of candidates to fill a commission seat meant for an expert in traditional Hawaiian water management that had been vacant since June.
CWRM's nominating committee provided Green with applicants earlier this year, but Green sat on the list for months. He then controversially re-did the selection process after saying some of the candidates withdrew their names.
This week he picked V.R. Hinano Rodrigues to fill the position.
