Water Protectors: Action Needed This Week!
In September of this year, the people of Maui and from across Hawaiʻi came together to stand up against an ill-informed proposal, to award over 85 million gallons of East Mauiʻs water per day, for 30 years, to a real estate investment trust (Alexander & Baldwin) and Canadian pension fund (Mahi Pono).
While our efforts succeeded in getting Board of Land and Natural Resources Chair Dawn Chang to withdraw the September proposal, a new and similarly problematic agenda item has now been submitted for the BLNR’s consideration this Friday, November 8.
We need your help to defend Maui’s water, and Maui’s future, by urging the Board of Land and Natural Resources to reject this new proposal.
Notably, this proposal would allocate more water than would be available after the implementation of the updated interim instream flow standards ordered by the Water Commission; fails to incentivize the implementation of these flow standards or stop significant and ongoing water waste; and fails to require that the DLNR first negotiate with the ‘Aha Wai o Maui Hikina, otherwise known as the East Maui County Water Authority, to take on the East Maui water system before contemplating the issuance of a license to private corporate entities; among other concerns.
Please take a moment to submit testimony in OPPOSITION to item D-4 on Friday’s BLNR agenda. Testimony instructions and sample testimony are below.
Testimony instructions:
Submit written testimony to: blnr.testimony@hawaii.gov by Thursday, November 7, 9am
*If you intend to provide virtual verbal testimony, include your request to testify via Zoom in your email with your written testimony
Subject line: Testimony in opposition to agenda item D-4
Verbal testimony in person: 1151 Punchbowl St. Room 132 (Kalanimoku Building), Honolulu
Watch online on YouTube
Sample testimony:
Aloha Chair Chang and Members of the Board of Land and Natural Resources,
My name is ________ and I strongly OPPOSE the recommendation in agenda item D-4.
The proposed long-term disposition in this agenda item is premature and threatens to only create more conflict and uncertainty over Maui’s water resources. The proposal would authorize more water to be diverted than would be available after the Water Commission’s amended interim instream flow standards are implemented; ignores the still-unfulfilled need to implement these flow standards, which are critical to stopping the ongoing harm being inflicted on East Maui’s streams, watersheds, and estuaries; turns a blind eye to the significant and ongoing waste of public trust water, including from leaky unlined reservoirs; and fails to give the ‘Aha Wai o Maui Hikina a fair chance at negotiating for the disposition of Maui Hikina’s streams, before launching a contested case hearing over a potential water license to a real estate investment trust and Canadian pension fund with no duty to uphold the public trust or the public’s interests in their control over Maui’s water resources.
Please do not allow this recommendation to move forward, which would allow private corporate entities to continue to flaunt the public trust and state water code - including the Water Commission’s still-outstanding orders - while wasting potentially millions of gallons of water per day with no consequence.
Mahalo nui for your consideration of this testimony.
Sincerely,
[Your name]