Battles brew over Maui water grabs in wake of wildfires

Multiple battles are brewing over water rights on Maui. An attorney is contesting changes to stream flows in West Maui, while a lawsuit is being heard by the Hawaii State Supreme Court over a request to change stream flows in East Maui. Both issues emerged in the wake of the wildfires under the pretense that the waters are needed to fight fires.

What You Need To Know

- Department of Land and Natural Resources Chair Dawn Chang granted multiple requests from West Maui Land Company following the Maui wildfires, which included suspending stream flow minimums until the emergency period has ended

- Attorney Lance Collins, who represents kuleana families in West Maui, wrote a letter to Chang, asserting that she does not have the power to unilaterally grant West Maui Land Company’s requests

- Meanwhile, in East Maui, the Board of Land and Natural Resources and Alexander and Baldwin filed a petition in Hawaii Supreme Court, saying there was “not enough permitted water to battle the wildfires” in Upcountry Maui

On Wednesday, the Hawaii Supreme Court heard arguments on the Board of Land and Natural Resources and Alexander and Baldwin’s request to overturn a previous court decision to limit stream diversion

The fight over Maui’s water stems back to the late 1800s when sugar plantations diverted streams. After Lahaina’s sugar cane plantation closed in 1999, land developers, including West Maui Land Company, took over the ditch irrigation system. Taro farmers who live on kuleana lands, which are ancestral, went to court in the 1990s and asked that Kauaula Stream’s water flow be restored. The stream sits in the mountains above Lahaina. In 2018, the State Commission on Water Resource Management changed the amount of water West Maui Land Company could take from Kauaula Stream. But after that decision, the stream flow continued to be contested.

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