ML&P deal opens spigot for Kula lands
But agreement seen as threat to agriculture, unfair to family projectsBy ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer
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The county is expected to get 168,750 gallons or more out of the agreement signed by former Mayor Alan Arakawa in 2006. That’s more than the county’s gotten out of similar agreements in the past. But some are questioning why the agreement allows ML&P to draw some of its water allocation from the county’s Upper Kula system, bypassing Kula landowners who’ve been waiting for years on the Upcountry water meter waiting list.
“That is not fair,” said Doug MacCluer, a retired vice president of Maui Pineapple Co., who now serves on the county’s General Plan Advisory Committee and the Central Maui Soil and Water Conservation District. “There are a lot of people on that list — family subdivisions — for years and years. To jump ahead is just not fair.”
ML&P officials contended that the well is a good deal for the county, and note that the water the county gets will actually enable it to start issuing meters to more Upcountry residents.
“Those who stand to benefit the most from this are the first couple hundred people on the Upcountry water meter list,” said Senior Vice President Ryan Churchill.
Churchill said the well was expected to cost ML&P $4 million to $5 million to develop.
“We’re paying for it, we’re taking the risk, and if we’re successful it gets turned over to the county for a very limited cost,” he said.
Under the agreement, the well would be built by ML&P; if pump tests are satisfactory, upon completion it would be turned over to the county, which would own and operate it.
County standards call for wells to be pumped at 45 percent of maximum capacity. Under the agreement, ML&P would receive 75 percent of that amount, or 506,250 gallons per day, while the county would get 25 percent, or 168,750 gallons.
Of ML&P’s allocation, as much as 120,000 gallons could be taken from the county’s Upper Kula water system and used to serve 15 parcels identified by tax-map key number, totaling more than 3,300 acres, according to the agreement. Also in the deal, the county would give ML&P credits against future water development fees and would refund 50 percent of the company’s cost of installing a transmission line.
Water Director Jeff Eng, who joined the county in January 2007, noted that the agreement with ML&P was more favorable for the county than similar water-development agreements signed with Maui Lani in 2006 and Dowling Co. in 1996. In both those cases, the developer was granted 100 percent of the net available water, while the county took over and operated the well.
“In terms of how much water the community can get out of it, this is definitely the best deal,” Eng said.
The county can also get more water out of the deal by pumping the well above the recommended 45 percent of capacity, Eng added. The county has recently been pumping the Dowling well in Kaupakalua at 55 percent of capacity, and pocketing the surplus, about 164,000 gallons per day, he said.
But Eng agreed the Piiholo well agreement was not ideal for the county. “We will get something, but on paper it doesn’t look good at all,” he said. “In the future, I want to get a better deal than this.”
Arakawa said the agreement was nothing unusual, and had terms beneficial for the county.
“I think the county got better than the standard deal,” he said.
He noted that the county could pump the well at maximum capacity if it wants to, which would allow it to take two-thirds of the total.
“Sixty-six percent of water is better than zero percent of nothing,” he said.
Deals with private companies to develop their own wells have been tried in recent years “to buy the county some time,” while the county seeks new water sources of its own, Eng said. He wanted future agreements to have terms more favorable to the county, with a 50-50 split of net water.
Eng said he was aware of the concern surrounding the agreement’s impact on the Upcountry meter list.
“I hear it every day,” he said.
But he noted that the county’s allocation from the deal would allow it to issue meters to people on the waiting list, and that water from Piiholo could be pumped to add water to the Upper Kula system from which ML&P would be drawing for its Kula parcels.
“We can move water around,” he said.
Board of Water Supply Member Michael Howden was disturbed by the agreement. Just because the county was “screwed” on previous deals for private water development, he said, that didn’t make this a good one.
He was distressed that people waiting for meters would be “pushed aside.”
“It’s just so unfair to the residents, especially people who are on the waiting list,” he said.
But Howden was also concerned that neither the water board nor the Maui County Council was notified of the deal before it was signed.
“We should have been informed that something of this magnitude was being negotiated and had been signed,” he said.
The council has since passed a law requiring the mayor to get council approval before accepting ownership of a private well.
Arakawa noted that the agreement includes a provision for the council to approve the handover of the well.
“There’s no sneaking anything through,” he said.
But MacCluer thought the fact that Arakawa signed the deal after voters had turned down his bid for re-election, and six weeks before leaving office, “just looks shady.”
In addition to his concern about the Upcountry meter list, MacCluer was upset that a number of the parcels specified to receive ML&P’s water allocation in upper Kula are prime agricultural lands. The parcels include former pineapple fields located between Pulehu and Omaopio Roads, below Pukalani, and adjacent to the Waiakoa Homesteads. Landowners include ML&P, Kula 1800 LLC, Haleakala Ranch, Pulehu Farms, Kula Ridge LLC and Kula Ridge Mauka LLC.
He feared the lands would become “gentleman’s estates.”
He also noted that, at 1,500-feet elevation, the Piiholo well water would have to be pumped higher than for other wells used by the county. The well will require more electricity.
“I think it’s a bum deal for the public and for agriculture,” he said.
• Ilima Loomis can be reached at iloomis@mauinews.com.
