Changes could be coming to the state Commission on Water Resource Management, including some meant to address political conflicts of interest in managing and protecting Hawaiʻi’s water.
Part of the commission's duties is to regulate water in management areas, administer the State Water Code, and make decisions on proposed changes to the flow of streams.
The commission is attached to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the department chair leads the commission and appoints its first deputy.
Senate Bill 3 would provide CWRM with some independence from the DLNR by giving the commission the authority to choose who leads it. The bill would replace the first deputy position with a new executive director role, to be filled by CWRM.
The measure would also allow the commission to retain independent legal counsel instead of relying on the state attorney general — another provision that supporters say would help it function more independently.
The Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, in written testimony dated Feb. 3, said the reorganization would help keep water management decisions out of the governor’s hands.
“This bill would address long-standing political vulnerabilities that could allow, and have allowed, powerful special interests to unduly influence the important work of the Water Commission and its staff,” the organization said in its testimony.
Other supporters of the measure said that the 2023 Lahaina fires and the aftermath showed the need to reform the commission.
Previous CWRM First Deputy Kaleo Manuel was accused of delaying a request by West Maui Land Co. to divert stream water it wanted to use to fight the Lahaina fires.
That water had been previously restored for public trust purposes, including taro farming and kuleana use. Shortly after, in August 2023, DLNR Chair Dawn Chang removed Manuel.
In October 2024, Gov. Josh Green appointed V.R. Hinano Rodrigues to fill a vacant commission seat, which drew criticism and legal action by water rights activists, who accused the governor of not properly following the process to select a new commissioner.
ʻAhahui o Hawaiʻi, a student organization with the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa’s William S. Richardson School of Law, said in written testimony, “In a time when the Commission’s leadership and decisive action is needed more than ever, CWRM has been hamstrung by political interference from the Governor, the (DLNR) and large economic interests.”
Even if the measure doesn’t pass, CWRM First Deputy Ciara Kahahane said changes are needed.
“I think it is time for us to step back and look at, in the best case, what our organization would look like. What would it take, what kind of staffing or space or changes to the Water Code would we need to truly fulfill our public trust obligations as contemplated by the Constitution?” Kahahane said at a CWRM meeting this week.
The DLNR noted in its testimony that changes to the water commission and its first deputy have been discussed since 1994.
SB 3 would allow all commission members except the land department chair to lead the group. It would also expand CWRM’s ability to penalize water code offenders, as well as increase its authority to declare and address water emergencies and shortages.
The measure would also add groundwater management near the Red Hill Bulk Fuel Storage Facility, which spilled thousands of gallons of fuel into an aquifer in 2021, as one of the commission’s duties.
