Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 38, Number 9, 1 September 2021 — Water Allocation Years in the Making [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Water Allocation Years in the Making

'O KA NUHOU 'AINA HO'OPULAPULA < HOMESTEAD NEWS '

By Cedric Duarte There are very few subjeets within the Hawaiian eommunity that elieit universal agreement. Equitable aeeess to water is one of them, and it is a topie that is eentral to the implementation of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. In 1993, DHHL filed a water user permit application for a half-million gallons of potable water. That year, Moloka'i Ranch and the Maui Department of Water Supply also filed applications for water from the same Kualapu'u Aquifer System. As a result of that competition, and a contested case request by Moloka'i Ranch that was later withdrawn, DHHL's ability to access potable water to meet the needs of its beneficiaries stalled for nearly 30 years. In July 2021, the Hawai'i Commission on Water Resources Management approved a permit request from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to allocate just over a half-million gallons of water per day to supply new and existing uses of Hawaiian Home Lands on Moloka'i. The decision will allow DHHL to provide sufficient potable water to existing homestead lots while maintaining consistent delivery of water to critical services that benefit all residents. More

importantly, the increase in water allocation will allow DHHL to proceed with the development of new homesteads for applicants on the Waiting List. CWRM's approval is timely for several DHHL's Moloka'i projects. The Department's 80-year-old Ho'olehua Water System is undergoing a $37 million capital improvement project to upgrade its storage, distribution, and efficiency capabilities. The system currently serves more than 2,400 customers, including the post office, schools, the airport, and about 500 homesteads in Ho'olehua-Pālā'au, Kalama'ula, and Mo'omomi. The allocation will provide sufficient water to establish 171 new homestead service connections and up to 210 new service connections for subdivided homestead lots. DHHL is also completing environmental eomplianee documents as it begins to improve 58 homestead lots in the Nā'iwa Agricultural Subdivision and is developing an additional 20 agricultural homestead lots in Ho'olehua. The Department completed beneficiary consultations and updated the Regional Plan for the island in 2020. This recent CWRM decision is an important step in affirming the Native Hawaiian rights to water that are codified in the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act. ■ Cedric R. Duarte is the Information & Community Relations Officerfor the Department ofHawaiian Home Lands. He has worked in communications and marketing since 1999 and is a longtime event organizer. A product ofthe Kamehameha Schools and the University ofHawai'i at Mānoa, he resides in 'Aiea with his wife and two daughters.

DHHL's 80-year-old Ho'olehua Water System is undergoing a badly needed $37 million capital improvement proiect to upgrade its storage and distribution. The system serves more than 2,400 customers on Moloka'i. - Pnoto: Courtesy