Panel will take up designation for Na Wai Eha

WAILUKU — State Water Commission Chairwoman Laura Thielen is scheduled to issue a recommendation on a petition to designate the streams flowing out of West Maui to Central Maui as a surface water management area during a commission meeting scheduled for Thursday on Maui.

The Commission on Water Resource Management meeting will begin at 9 a.m. at the Cameron Center auditorium.

The agenda lists final findings of fact and a chairperson’s recommendation on the petition filed by Hui O Na Wai Eha and the Maui Tomorrow Foundation to have the surface waters of the region designated for management by the commission. The commission has designated the Iao aquifer, which underlies two of the streams, as a state water management area. As a water management area, all withdrawals from the aquifer must be approved by the commission to protect the groundwater system from excessive withdrawals.

Surface water management designation for the Waihee, Waiehu, Iao and Waikapu streams would have the water commission monitor and approve all withdrawals from the streams.

The commission also has before it a petition from Hui O Na Wai Eha and Maui Tomorrow to establish permanent instream flow standards for the four streams, jointly known as Na Wai Eha. A contested case hearing before Dr. Lawrence Miike, a commissioner and hearings officer, was concluded two weeks ago with all parties to prepare proposed findings and recommendations on instream flows.

Also on the Thursday agenda, the commission is scheduled to receive a briefing on the Maui County Water Use and Development Plan.