A&B receives permits for another year

After almost 5 hours of presentations and testimony, the Board of Land and Natural Resources granted Alexander & Baldwin permits to continue to divert water from East Maui for another year. Unlike last year's vote (4-2), this year the Land Board unanimously approved A&B's permits. The Sierra Club is extremely disappointed in the Board's decision. A&B presented no concrete evidence that they followed through on the conditions that were included in their permit renewal in 2016 yet the Land Board proceeded to approve this year's permits with the same conditions in addition to require A&B to clean up any trash/infrastructure/machinery that they have left behind around stream diversions and that the permits must be made consistent with the Interim Instream Flow Standard which is currently being deliberated and is to be set by the State's Commission on Water Resource Management.The Sierra Club believes that A&B failed to provide enough information to reason the continuation of diverting up to 80 million gallons of water each day. A&B failed to restore the streams that they were mandated to by last year's permits and there is evidence to show that A&B is wasting water, despite what they say. Click here to see footage of wasted diversion water and hear from Lucienne De Naie, a Sierra Club member and East Maui resident that lives off a nearby stream.