March for return of water to 4 streams

WAILUKU - Groups will be marching and waving signs Friday afternoon in Wailuku to call attention to an Oct. 15 contested-case proceeding before the state Commission on Water Resource Management.

The event is being organized by Hui Na Wai Eha, Maui Tomorrow and Earthjustice. They will be drumming up public support for the return of stream water to the Iao, Waikapu, Waihee and Waiehu streams.

Marchers will meet at 4 p.m. at Iao Valley State Park and walk about three miles down Iao Valley Road to Wailuku where they'll wave signs and have an informational booth at "First Friday" activities on Market Street.

The walk is expected to take a little more than an hour. Participants also may park near the State Office Building in Wailuku where organizers will have shuttles available at 3:30 p.m. to take walkers up to Iao.

For about a century, plantations have diverted the streams for irrigation of sugar and pineapple crops and other uses. Taro growers, Native Hawaiians, environmentalists and others want the commission to order water returned to the streams.

Hearings officer and Commissioner Lawrence Miike has proposed returning about half of the 70 million gallons diverted each day to the streams' natural mauka-to-makai flow.

Friday's events are nearly two weeks before the commission considers a decision on Miike's proposed interim in-stream flow standards for the streams collectively known as Na Wai Eha, or "the Four Waters." The commission's contested case proceeding will be heard at 9 a.m. Oct. 15 at Iao Congregational Church, located at 2371 W. Vineyard St.