June 29, at Good Shepherd Church in Wailuku, a remarkable panel of persons with substantial familiarity with the present condition and historical precedents for Maui County water gathered to share their manao with a capacity audience.
Throughout his lively presentation, former Mayor Elmer Cravalho, ably accompanied once again by former longtime water board Chair Buddy Nobriga, urged – in no uncertain terms – that the county begin to access more of the “pubic trust” waters taken in large part from East Maui by East Maui Irrigation Co., a subsidiary of A&B, and from West Maui, Na Wai Eha, by the former Wailuku Sugar Co., now known somewhat euphemistically as Wailuku Water Co., both of which share the legally and certainly morally dubious distinction of selling publicly owned waters to our local governing entity, the County of Maui.Somehow, government in Hawaii has seen fit not to challenge the diversion, use and sale of public waters by two of the most powerful corporations on Maui other than Maui Land & Pineapple Co. Control of water and access to vast parcels of land guides development.
The power and the financial ability to move forward rests with a relatively small number of corporate entities who seem to have little sympathy for the predicament that a great many longtime residents are in as we scramble to help our children find a means of staying home on Maui, whatever their paid advertisements may otherwise assert.
Throughout my 35-year tenure on Maui, I have had the great misfortune to have been in a largely adversarial posture with the Department of Water Supply. Whatever the rights vested in me and my small farms were, I had to fight the DWS over a period of decades to establish and defend my rights to water from the county system despite the statement in the Hawai’i Constitution that all kuleana owners are to have free access “to the running waters of the State,” and also to its roadways.
Always, the end result was in my favor, but most often, only after years of contention and its attendant frustration. I know that my experience has not been unique, and I now see related inequities repeated by the department through a not uncommonly uncaring and impersonal bureaucracy.
Certain parties with enough determination have succeeded, but most have not, befouled by the endless rules and regulations, the strategies of a largely stagnant bureaucracy. There are certainly folks in the department who care, but they are often in secondary positions and unable to initiate policy, or even fund adequate staffing for their divisions.
Throughout the period of federal generosity in building reservoirs, the county seems to have stalled, whereas their corporate counterparts took full advantage of federal support for water storages. And, historically, we have not prepared for drought conditions through our inability to demand what is ours.
Now, we stumble about without the capacity to treat or even store adequate waters for a viable agriculture Upcountry, other than our corporate models which always seem to somehow get by.
Maybe we need to begin to take what is ours, unintimidated by unfortunate historical antecedents based on the near-absolute power of the large corporations who were the immediate and lasting beneficiaries of the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Maybe these rights need to be returned to our community. Maybe they need to be returned to us for the benefit of all.
Michael S. Howden is a member of the Maui County Board of Water Supply and a permaculture designer. He lives in Kula.
