Solutions now, for future

Among the many distinctions enjoyed by Maui County is the fact it is made up of four islands — Maui, Lanai, Molokai and Kahoolawe. The politically awkward situation was created in 1905 when the Territorial Legislature set up counties as the second level of government in the islands.

The awkwardness comes from having a government seated in Wailuku responsible for relatively few voters reachable only by air and ferry on islands dominated by one corporate owner. For decades, the infrastructure affairs of Lanai and Molokai were left largely in the hands of those two separate owners.

The recent shutdown of Molokai Ranch has highlighted several flaws in the county’s long-standing practice of requiring or allowing developers to provide basic necessities supplied by the county elsewhere. The main flaw is the question of who supplies such things as water when the developer decides it will not or cannot continue to supply them.

The question has come up nearly every time a developer on Maui wants to develop its own source of water. It’s a reasonable question that was most often posed by Council Member Michelle Anderson.

Of late, Molokai has served as an early-warning system for Maui, just as Maui has served as a negative example for activists concerned about the kind and amount of development on Molokai. A rational evolution of Maui County depends on striking a balance between economic growth and preservation of the natural and social environments. Situations become critical when too much power or influence is applied to either end of the scale.

The current Molokai situation, which threatens to leave 1,200 property owners without operating water and sewer systems, is a legal tangle of rights and responsibilities, one that officials should examine closely for ways of preventing similar problems elsewhere in the county.