Victory for Wai: BLNR Unanimously Rejects D-7 Water License
UPDATE AUGUST 14, 2026
After seven hours of testimony, the BLNR unanimously rejected the staff recommendation to begin a public auction for a 30-year water license to PSP Investments. In a packed hearing room and across screens statewide, the message was unmistakable: our water is not for sale.
The path to this decision was anything but smooth. After a Maui representative motioned to deny the lease, Mahi Pono made a last-ditch effort to request a contested case hearing—a move that would have blocked the Board's ability to continue with a vote. But Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi counsel, David Kimo Frankel, pushed back. Following executive session, Frankel informed the Board that if the request were granted, the Sierra Club would intervene and push for conditions including a new environmental impact statement, a requirement that Mahi Pono's lands remain agricultural with no development, and other protections. Thankfully, the Board denied the request and proceeded with a motion to deny the water lease.
This is not just a procedural victory; it is a reaffirmation that in Hawaiʻi, water is a right, not a commodity. It is a declaration that Article XI of the state constitution means what it says—our streams are sacred living entities that belong in public hands, and the people are ready to steward what is theirs. The decision sends a clear signal that private corporate control over our public trust resources will not go unchallenged.
For too long, communities on Maui have watched their streams run dry while diversions have prioritized profit over people. This ruling marks a turning point. It honors the generations of kalo farmers, cultural practitioners, and families who have never stopped fighting for the health of their watersheds. And it lays the groundwork for what comes next: the restoration of streams that have been starved of water, and the long-awaited stewardship of the East Maui Water Authority.
But make no mistake—this victory is not the finish line. It is a critical milestone on a longer journey toward true water justice. The work of building a community-led, ecologically grounded water management system is just beginning. The BLNR's decision gives us the momentum we need to keep pushing forward.
None of this would have been possible without the people. Mahalo nui to the many, many individuals who showed up for wai—in person on Maui and Oʻahu, online, and through written testimony. From kūpuna to keiki, from farmers to urban residents, the breadth of support was overwhelming. Today, we proved that when we stand together, our collective power outweighs corporate interests.
This is what people power looks like. This is what water justice sounds like. And we hope this is only the beginning for a shift on the BLNR to heed the call of those impacted by the decisions they make.
UPDATE AUGUST 12, 2026
Mahalo nui to everyone who has stood with East Maui's streams, farmers, and cultural practitioners over the years. Because of your support and the generations of leadership from East Maui communities and groups like Nā Moku Aupuni o Koʻolau Hui, we've had some real wins: historic Water Commission orders to restore flow to a number of East Maui streams; the defeat of legislation proposing to extend “temporary” water diversion permits for nearly a decade; and eight straight court victories forcing the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) to hold evidentiary hearings it had illegally denied, cap the water Mahi Pono can take, and require greater transparency around Mahi Ponoʻs water use and waste.
Now the fight over the long-term future of East Maui's water is at a pivotal moment.
On Friday, August 14, the BLNR will consider a proposal to sell an East Maui water license at public auction — giving Mahi Pono, owned by Canadian pension fund PSP Investments, the ability to take 88 million gallons of stream water from East Maui every day for the next 30 years.
Please submit written testimony today, consider testifying verbally to the Land Board on Friday, and join our rally. Ask your friends and networks to do the same! Sample testimony and testimony instructions below.
Rally and Sign-Waving on Maui
Friday, 8/14
9:00 AM til pau
J. Walter Cameron Center, 95 Mahalani Street, Wailuku, Maui
Wear blue for the streams
Bring a sign and a friend!
Why this matters
The auction of East Maui’s streams will perpetuate a harmful legacy of private, profit-driven corporations controlling our most precious public trust resource. We've already seen what private control of water has looked like for the past century — dewatered streams, rampant water waste, displaced communities, cultural erasure, and destroyed ecosystems. It’s time for a change.
Mahi Pono has been a poor steward of water — It continues to lose millions of gallons a day through unlined, leaking reservoirs it has refused to fix for nearly a decade — all while dragging its feet on state-mandated stream restoration orders that still remain unimplemented.
This isn't about agriculture — it's about Mahi Pono's bottom line. No one is questioning the need for water to support farming in Central Maui. But public management via the EMWA would secure just that, while also ensuring other public needs are considered. Giving Mahi Pono a long-term license to take water directly from East Maui’s streams only serves to inflate the value of Mahi Pono's assets and boost its parent company's returns — not Maui's food security.
The proposed license would let Mahi Pono divert 88 million gallons of water a day for the next 30 years — but there may not be that much water to take. State hydrologist Aaron Strauch has repeatedly warned of record declines in East Maui stream flows over the past few decades, a trend climate change is only expected to exacerbate. Handing a foreign corporation a 30-year claim to water that likely will not exist is irresponsible, if not dangerous.
A public auction would be grossly uninformed. The BLNR is only weeks away from initiating a contested case hearing that was ordered to investigate water availability, waste, cultural and ecological impacts, and other concerns regarding stream diversions for the next year and a half. There are also still questions about land ownership, compliance with stream flow restoration orders, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands water reservations, and other issues relevant to the long-term disposition of East Maui’s streams. A public auction for a water license would only turn a blind eye to these issues, for decades at a time.
A voter-created alternative option already exists. The East Maui Water Authority (EMWA) was established by a 2022 charter amendment to provide community-based, expert-informed stewardship of East Maui’s water, to meet the needs of East Maui communities and watersheds, Upcountry residents and farmers, and Central Maui agriculture alike. The mayor, numerous county council members, and 64% of Maui voters believe that East Maui’s water should be held by the EMWA, not Mahi Pono.
What we're asking the Board to do
Do not approve selling an East Maui water license at public auction. A public trust resource with this much at stake for streams, farmers, and cultural practitioners should not be sold to the highest private bidder.
Continue to work on giving the community-based, voter-established East Maui Water Authority access to East Maui’s waters. Maui’s water should be managed by an entity made up of Maui’s people, subject to the public trust, Sunshine Law, and best interests of the public – not a foreign corporation.
In the meantime, let the court-ordered contested case for the 2026-2027 revocable permits play out. The pending contested case hearing will allow for a careful, evidence-based examination of long-neglected issues such as water waste, water availability, stream flow restoration compliance, and Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights - all critical to protecting the public interest in East Maui’s streams as the transition to public, Water Authority stewardship of East Maui’s water takes place.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
East Maui streams need your voice. Please submit testimony and show up for our wai!
How to testify:
Written testimony (submit by 9am Thursday if possible): Email written testimony to blnr.testimony@hawaii.govwith Testimony: Agenda Item D-7 (East Maui Water License) as the subject line.
In-person oral testimony (limit ~2 minutes): Friday, Aug. 14, 9:00 a.m., at either the:
DLNR Boardroom, Kalanimoku Building, 1151 Punchbowl St., 1st Floor, Honolulu, Hawaiʻi 96813, or
J. Walter Cameron Center, 95 Mahalani Street, Wailuku, Maui, 96793
By Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84790711512 (Meeting ID: 847 9071 1512). To sign up to testify in advance, email blnr.testimony@hawaii.gov at least 24 hours ahead with your name, email, and the agenda item (D-7); you can also testify without signing up in advance.
By phone: 1-719-359-4580, Meeting ID 847 9071 1512, on the day of the meeting, when Item D-7 comes up.
Livestream: https://www.youtube.com/live/F6yXscIyd9M
Sample Testimony*
Subject: Testimony: Agenda Item D-7 (East Maui Water License)
Greeting: Aloha Chair Kanakaʻole and Members of the Board of Land and Natural Resources,
Sample 1:
My name is _____ and I urge you to DENY the recommendation in agenda item D-7, recommending the sale of an East Maui water license to PSP Investments (doing business as Mahi Pono) at public auction.
The issue before you today is not about agriculture in Central Maui. A license is not needed for water delivery now or in the future, for Central Maui agriculture to continue. A license will only give a foreign corporate entity - PSP Investments - the unilateral power to dictate whether and how agriculture proceeds in Central Maui, and who will actually benefit from its profit-driven endeavors.
If you wish to support local agriculture, a set aside to the East Maui Water Authority would instead ensure that public interests like local food security (in Central and East Maui), as well as county water needs, watershed health, and cultural practices are prioritized and balanced by and for Maui’s people.
This is about whether we can keep Maui’s water, and Maui’s future, in the hands of Maui’s people. This is about whether we wish to finally address the long-neglected concerns of water waste, water hoarding, environmental degradation, and cultural erasure that will all but continue under a corporate water license. This is about whether we can transition East Maui’s most precious resource from profit-driven exploitation to public stewardship, after over a century of corporate abuse.
Please make the right choice, and reject the proposed public auction to allow Mahi Pono to take up to 88 million gallons of water every day for an entire generation.
[Optional: add your own story, perspectives, lived experiences, or other useful information]
East Maui's streams are a public trust resource, not a commodity to be auctioned to the highest private bidder. Maui voters created the East Maui Water Authority specifically so this water could be managed by the county in the public interest, and Mayor Bissen has explicitly asked this board to support the transition from private to public management of East Maui’s water. Please, heed this call for much needed change.
I ask the Board to direct staff to 1) deny the staff recommendation in agenda item D-7, 2) continue working to ensure East Maui's water is placed in the hands of the East Maui Water Authority, and 3) in the meantime, focus on holding the court-ordered contested case hearing on Mahi Pono's stream diversion permits, reflected in agenda item D-6, to meaningfully investigate ongoing issues of water waste, actual agricultural water needs, stream and estuary health, and Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights, among other impacted public interests.
Mahalo nui for the opportunity to testify.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
Sample 2:
My name is _____ and I ask you to REJECT Agenda Item D-7 for the sale of an East Maui water license at public auction.
Historic decisions about Maui’s water must be made on Maui, and I respectfully ask that this Board travel to Maui for any future meetings on this matter, as it has done in the past.
[Optional: add your own story, perspectives, lived experiences, or other useful information - see these talking points for possible ideas]
East Maui's streams are a public trust resource, not a commodity to be auctioned to the highest private bidder. Maui voters created the East Maui Water Authority specifically so this water could be managed by the county in the public interest, and Mayor Bissen has explicitly asked this board to support the transition from private exploitation to public stewardship of East Maui's water.
The proposed water license would prevent this transition from happening. It would instead perpetuate over a century of corporate decisionmaking over public trust streams that has caused immeasurable harm and generational traumas to the people and ʻāina of East Maui.
I ask the Board to deny the recommendation in Agenda Item D-7, and direct staff to 1) continue working to ensure East Maui's water is placed in the hands of the East Maui Water Authority, and 2) in the meantime, focus on holding the court-ordered contested case hearing on Mahi Pono's revocable permits for 2026-2027, to meaningfully investigate ongoing issues of water waste, actual water needs, stream and estuary health, watershed protection, and Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights, among other long-neglected matters of significant public interest.
Mahalo nui for the opportunity to testify.
Sincerely,
[Your Name]
*Additional sample testimonies are also available at https://www.oha.org/advocacy and https://www.hawaiiwatercodefilm.com/testimony).