Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 36, Number 8, 1 August 2019 — Citizens Demand Restoration of Moloka'i Stream Flows Diverted by Moloka'i Ranch [ARTICLE]

Citizens Demand Restoration of Moloka'i Stream Flows Diverted by Moloka'i Ranch

In July 2018, Earthjustice, on behalf of community group Moloka'i Nō Ka Heke, brought legal action before the state Commission on Water Resource Management to restore stream flows to Kawela, Kaunakakai, Manawainui, and Waikolu Streams on Moloka'i. The streams, located in the central region of the island, have been historically diverted by Moloka'i Properties Limited, dba

Moloka'i Ranch, to supply the lands it owns on the island's west side. Although the Ranch shut down most of its operations over a decade ago and has abandoned many of its stream diversions, it has continued to drain water from Kawela and Waikolu Streams at amounts close to what it used during its heyday. Meanwhile, the Ranch's Singapore-based parent company has offered the Ranch up for sale. The citizen action initiated today demands the return of diverted flows to the streams, a halt to wasteful diversions by the Ranch, and eomplianee with procedures to formally abandon and remove the diversion dams. "For over a hundred years, these waters had been diverted miles across the island for cattle and ag operations on Moloka'i Ranch," said Moloka'i Nō Ka Heke member Walter Ritte. "Significant negative impacts to the ahupua'a include the aquifers, the streams and life in the streams, the many fishponds along the shore, limu grounds, fish stocks and the heahh of the reef. Moloka'i Ranch has shut down most of its

operations and has put the ranch up for sale and cannot justify the need for these diversions." Kawela, Kaunakakai, and Manawainui Streams flow from the island's lush windward mountain range to the south shore, while Waikolu Stream flows from the mountains to the north shore. All of the streams supported extensive settlement in pre-contact times, and are still used by residents for eultural subsistence practices. These streams also feed the groundwater aquifers that are the island's source of drinking water and the south shore reef and fishpond ecosystems that are a key traditional food source for residents. "Returning the water to Kawela ahupua'a will bring back life that it onee had before," said Moloka'i Nō Ka Heke member and Kawela resident Lohiao Paoa. "It was known to provide for our people in the past, and it's a eiueial part of Moloka'i's water future. Kawela Stream deserves respect." The Moloka'i community has been battling the Ranch over water rights for decades, resulting in landmark Hawai'i Supreme Court rulings that benefit all of Hawai'i and its people in affirming that water is a public trust and not private property. For example, in 2007, the Court made clear that it is private commercial water diverters like the Ranch — not the people who may be harmed — who bear the burden to prove a proposed water use will not harm the water resource and the rights of the public and Native Hawaiians. "Moloka'i Ranch has been taking water from these streams for far too long with no accountability to the needs and rights of the 'āina and the people of the island," says Earthjustice attorney Mahesh Cleveland. "It's time to return these waters to their natural flow, and for the Ranch to remove orremediate its diversion dams. We are committed to helping the people of Moloka'i safeguard their water resources and the eeosystems that depend on them, now and for the future." ■