Jan Stevens, who championed the public trust doctrine while employed with the California Attorney General’s Office and working on the celebrated Mono Lake case, spoke in Honolulu last fall at a conference on the public trust sponsored by the University … Continued
Waiahole: More than a place name, it has become a word freighted with meaning, a metonym for a complicated, multifaceted dispute over water rights not just in windward O`ahu, but statewide. On December 28, without fanfare, the dispute came to … Continued
The tug of war over water on O`ahu continues. The transfer last November of an `Ewa water well permit from Campbell Estate to the Board of Water Supply (BWS) has raised arguments by windward farmers and activists that the estate … Continued
Here are several highlights of the Supreme Court’s decision on the Waiahole contested case appeal: Interim instream flow standards: The commission was instructed to designate the instream flow standards for windward streams “based on the best information available” instead of … Continued
When Kunia farmer Larry Jefts waters his watermelons, or Alec Sou irrigates his bok choy, the water they use from the Waiahole ditch costs 35 cents per thousand gallons for up to 4.61 million gallons a day. This is under … Continued
1913-1916: Waiahole Water Co., Ltd., constructs the Waiahole Ditch. The cross -Ko`olau tunnel alone is 2.76 miles long. Drilling of “developmental tunnels” to feed into the system did not cease until 1963. By the 1990s, the ditch was delivering about … Continued
Much ink has been spilled over the results of the 1998 Hawai`i Legislature. Several leading environmentalists, including David Frankel, executive director of the Hawai`i Chapter of the Sierra Club, have described it as the worst on record. Here, we take … Continued
In late December, the Water Commission heard testimony on the motion for a reconsideration of the order denying “existing use” status to several parties who had been denied use of Waiahole water in August 1995, when the commission issued its … Continued
The Waiahole contested case hearing is in the hands of the members of the state Commission on Water Resource Management. The last testimony has been received. Attorneys for the 23 parties are preparing their final arguments and briefs. It is … Continued
In January, the Commission on Water Resource Management ordered several of the leeward O`ahu parties involved in the Waiahole Ditch contested case hearing to show cause why they should not be found in violation of a commission order limiting their … Continued