HAIKU — About 50 taro farmers lined Hana Highway on Saturday morning near Twin Falls, waving signs and hands in search of community support for their efforts to get more water placed back into East Maui’s streams.
As many passing motorists honked their horns as didn’t.
The farmers, led by Lyn Scott and Troy McConnell of the grass-roots Honopou Stream Association, are readying for an upcoming staff report and then potential decision by the state Commission on Water Resource Management. Scott said the farmers want to keep this issue alive in the public’s eye.
The commission could force East Maui Irrigation Co., and its parent company, Alexander and Baldwin Inc., to release much of the nearly 234 million gallons of water the company collects each day in its 74-mile, 130-year-old system of ditches and tunnels.
“Does the ditch own the water?” asked protester James Sagawinit, 72, of Haiku. “Water belongs to everyone. Not a certain few. They didn’t make it. It comes from the heavens.”
As the farmers and fishermen argued that restoring the streams will bring back new life, EMI officials said they wanted to find a new balance that will satisfy all sides.
EMI uses the water for Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.’s 35,000-acre sugar cane operation as well as to supply drinking water to Upcountry residents. HC&S, which is another subsidiary of A&B, also provides 800 jobs on the island.
Garret Hew, who manages both EMI and HC&S’s Paia plantation, issued a statement Saturday saying company officials have tried to work directly with the taro farmers in the past and continue to seek their cooperation, since the company believes there is enough water for both the sugar plantations and taro farmers.
“Unfortunately, those efforts have been stymied by some of the representatives of the taro growers, who view this situation as an ‘us versus them,’ ‘win-lose,’ ‘all or nothing’ conflict,” Hew said. “Instead, it our belief that by selecting the right streams, the right quantities of water and the right improvements to the water delivery systems, a ‘win-win’ result is possible.”
Seven years ago, the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. filed a petition on the farmers’ behalf seeking to dramatically increase flows into 27 streams below Hana Highway. Proponents argued that, by state law, Native Hawaiian farmers get first dibs on the water since the watershed is made up almost entirely of ceded Hawaiian royal lands, which are — for at least the time being — controlled by the state.
The Maui News was unable to reach an attorney for Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. on Saturday.
For the first time, the Commission on Water Resource Management staff’s final report, which could be issued as early as next month, will develop what’s called measurable in-stream flow standards for the Honopou, Hanehoi, Piinaau, Waiokamilo and Wailuanui streams.
In the past, the commission maintained a status quo stance on how water is diverted from the state’s nearly 400 perennial streams. But the new report is in response to a 2000 Hawaii Supreme Court ruling in favor of returning water that was diverted from the Waiahole ditch on Oahu since the 1920s to supply sugar crops.
However, in that case, the ditch was no longer watering crops.
On Saturday, Hew implored taro growers to sit down with the honest intention of working out a viable solution, one that preserves Hawaiian culture.
“No one wants to be involved in protracted and expensive regulatory proceedings, least of all HC&S and EMI, and we are hopeful that at some point in the process we will have the opportunity to work with the taro growers in developing a solution that will keep both taro and sugar alive on Maui,” Hew said.
The farmers also want the water restored so that the flora and stream fauna that rely on free-flowing streams will return and flourish.
“We need to take it back from the corporations that are watering their grass that they call sugar cane,” said protester Joyclynn Costa, 49, of Haiku.
Taro farmer Sanford Keka-huna, 52, of Huelo, said he wants to share the water so farmers have enough water to grow the Hawaiian staple.
“It’s not hard to share,” he said.
• Chris Hamilton can be reached at chamilton@ mauinews.com.
