Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 33, Number 3, 1 March 2016 — News Commentary: Oppose bills that continue diversion of East Maui streams [ARTICLE]

News Commentary: Oppose bills that continue diversion of East Maui streams

Submitted by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp.

As we noted in our eolumn last month, a state court recently ruled that Alexander & Baldwin's (A&B) diversion of, on average, 165 million gallons of water per day from East Maui streams is illegal. In an attempt to sidestep this ruling, Senate Bill 3001 and its eompanion House Bill 2501 have been introduced this legislative session. These bills, if passed, would allow these diversions to continue at the expense of the heahh and welfare of East Maui taro farmers, Hawaiian cultural practitioners, and our shared natural resources. Since at least 1925, A&B's massive diversions have caused significant, unjustified, and unnecessary injury to generations of farmers, fishermen, gatherers and the natural resources on whieh they depend. For nearly a century, government has provided a significant subsidy to a private commercial entity worth $2.3 hillion by allowing it to take and use as mueh water from state land as one million Hawai'i residents use daily. Hawai'i's territorial and state govemments have allowed A&B to divert water that originates on 33,000 acres of former crown lands to irrigate its 29,000 acres of sugar fields. In 2003, the state and A&B were ordered to complete an environmental assessment since none had ever been done. The study should have been completed prior to any diversion to reveal all eultural and environmental impacts of these proposed diversions. The law required it. We are still waiting for this environmental study to be initiated. Rather than do so, the State has allowed diversions to eontinue by inventing an authority for A&B's exclusive benefit - a more

than decades-long "holdover" of permits that were always intended to be "temporary." All these years, A&B has paid about a fifth-of-a-cent per thousand gallons for the water it diverts, while a typical Maui farmer pays 75 cents for the same amount. In short, A&B's diversions and the state's practices amount to a theft of puhlie trust resources. A&B's diversions are illegal and the state ean no longer condone or facilitate A&B's theft of our state waters. It's time for A&B to be held accountable. Based on A&B's own calculations, there is more than enough water for thriving mau-ka-to-makai stream habitats and fisheries, healthy taro crops, existing water users in Upcountry Maui, and future diversified agriculture on former sugarcane lands. A&B needs to publicly and immediately reveal exactly how mueh water is required to wind down its sugar cultivation and to pursue diversified agriculture. Since sugar requires more water per acre than any other crop, the immediate return of all excess water is imperative and the right thing to do. Senate Bill 3001 and House Bill 2501 are knee-jerk reactions intended to cover up and validate decades of abuse and arrogance. If passed, either bill would confirm that A&B is above the law, our courts have no power over its illegal actions, and that the health and welfare of our communities and natural resources are secondary. Ed Wendt, President, Na Moku Aupuni O Ko'olau Hui, Wailuanui taro farmer Lurlyn Scott, Honopou taro farmer, gatherer Lezley Jacintho, Honopou taro farmer Healoha Carmichael, Wailuanui gatherer ■