Nearly a year ago, the Board of Land and Natural Resources granted a 55-year easement and a right-of-entry permit to allow a non-profit group of Hanalei taro farmers to repair and maintain the ancient, pre-contact Hawaiian irrigation system that they rely on … Continued
Water spills from Wailuku Water Company’s Waihe‘e Ditch into Pale‘a‘ahu Gulch. Last November, Wailuku Water Company (WWC) president Avery Chumbley told the Commission on Water Resource Management that his company doesn’t have enough money to make the kinds of improvements … Continued
For years, Wailuku Water Company (WWC) has been trying to get Maui County to take over its irrigation system. Maui mayors have repeatedly included in their proposed budgets $9.5 million to purchase the company’s lands and infrastructure, but the County … Continued
“No pressure, but history is in your hands,” attorney Pamela Bunn told the Commission on Water Resource Management during oral arguments in the Na Wai Eha contested case hearing, held November 19 in Wailuku. Fifteen years after Earthjustice, on behalf … Continued
The law firm Earthjustice has petitioned the state Commission on Water Resource Management in an effort to halt what it says is the waste of stream water on Moloka‘i. Moloka‘i Ranch takes the water from seven intakes on four streams … Continued
The Kaua‘i Island Utility Cooperative (KIUC) is inching closer to securing a long-term lease for stream diversions that feed two hydroelectric plants on the island’s east side. This month, the utility is expected to release a draft environmental assessment (EA) … Continued
“Let me first say, what you’re doing is long overdue. It’s something we need to do and it’s taken a long time for us to get to this point,” Stanley Roehrig told Ian Hirokawa of the Department of Land and … Continued
The state Commission on Water Resource Management has asked Hawai`i County to front-load its assessment of the impacts that future water withdrawals in Waimea and Keauhou will have on native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights and on the environment. In … Continued
Posted 11/30/2012 The Intermediate Court of Appeals has sided with a group of Hawaiians living in East Maui who had sought a contested-case hearing over the state Commission on Water Resource Management’s decision to amend stream flows in the area. … Continued
Posted 08/28/2012 The Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation has won again. On August 24, the Intermediate Court of Appeals found that the citizens’ group Lanaians for Sensible Growth (LSG) — a client of the NHLC — can appeal a 2010 Land … Continued