The controversy over surface water in central Maui has finally come to a head. On February 15, the state Commission on Water Resource Management authorized its chair, Peter Young, to appoint a mediator to help resolve an October 2004 waste … Continued
“It’s a baby step that should have been taken a long time ago,” Water Commissioner Lawrence Miike said about his agency’s renewed effort to document and verify all stream diversions in the state. In 2005, the Legislature gave the Commission … Continued
Within the next month or so, Lawrence Miike, Water Commissioner and hearing officer in the Waiahole Ditch contested case, is expected to finalize his recommendations on the handful of issues that the state Supreme Court remanded to the Water Commission … Continued
“We’re talking about at most five or six streams out of the 110 that they’re diverting right now,” Moses Haia explained to contested case hearing officer E. John McConnell. For years, Haia and his fellow attorneys at the Native Hawaiian … Continued
How useful is a planning document that takes so long to complete that by the time it’s finished, it’s hopelessly outdated? That is the question that needs to be asked and answered by the Commission on Water Resource Management as … Continued
In 1996, state auditor Marion Higa found that the administrative rules of the Commission on Water Resource Management “do not address native Hawaiian water rights,” whether they are appurtenant and surface water rights (most wetland taro growers have appurtenant water … Continued
What a difference a decade makes, yes? No, actually. When it comes to the Commission on Water Resource Management, time seems to have stood still in the nine years since state auditor Marion Higa published a scathing report on the … Continued
Interested in seeing water restored to diverted streams to protect stream life or asserting your rights as a Native Hawaiian or taro farmer? Don’t expect the state Water Commission to have a ready answer. Over the past year, staff with … Continued
It’s a familiar tale: A small group of diversified farmers demands that stream water continue to be diverted into an old, leaky sugar irrigation system, despite the fact that neither they, nor the state, can afford to fix or maintain … Continued
Last October, the Commission on Water Resource Management granted permission to Waiawa Development, LLC and Kamehameha Schools to withdraw roughly one million gallons of water a day from the Waipahu-Waiawa Ground Water Management Area in Central O`ahu. Over objections from … Continued