Update and Action Alert: East Maui Corporate Water Sale Thwarted as Communities Rally - East Maui Revocable Permit Now Needs Your Voice!
By Wayne Tanaka, Chapter Director | Reading time: 5.75 minutes
ACTION ALERT AT BOTTOM: BLNR meeting this Friday, December 12, 9am. Submit testimony today! Details and sample testimony below.
In a resounding victory for East Maui communities and water protectors from across the islands, the Board of Land and Natural Resources last month deferred a Department of Land and Natural Resources recommendation to begin the process of issuing a 30-year lease of East Maui’s streams to Canada-based PSP Investments LLC, dba Mahi Pono.
Nearly 600 pages of written opposition testimony and over two hours of verbal testimony - including from Maui Mayor Richard Bissen and ʻAha Wai o Maui Hikina director Gina Young - ultimately convinced the Land Board members to delay the process for at least six months.
This decision will allow the community-based ʻAha Wai o Maui Hikina, or East Maui Community Water Authority, to continue preparing to take control of East Maui diversion infrastructure that has been held by private interests for over a century, under public land leases and, for the past 40 years, under one-year “revocable permits” that have never meaningfully accounted for the harms and public trust impacts of corporate stream diversions.
Testifiers noted that the proposal to place East Maui streams under long-term corporate control flew in the face of not just the needs of the East Maui community, but the decision of Maui County voters, who in 2022 established the ʻAha Wai o Maui Hikina to administer East Maui streams - not a foreign corporation.
They also noted that three years had passed since the Water Commission ordered the restoration of stream flow to East Maui streams that are still being drained dry by Mahi Pono; that millions of gallons of diverted stream water were still being lost every single day due to Mahi Pono's refusal to use lined reservoirs; and that DLNR failed to initiate a court-ordered evidentiary hearing over the immediate impacts of a short-term, one-year revocable permit for the continued diversion of East Maui streams by Mahi Pono through 2026.
Water and good government advocates made clear that to move forward with a long-term private lease while such critical and pressing issues continue to languish only prioritized the profit-driven desires of a corporate entity, over ecosystem protection, Hawaiian rights, water and food security, and county home rule.
The Land Board’s decision was particularly notable in that it lacked a designated conservation expert as required by statute, and both its cultural expert and Maui representative were absent. In a testament to the power of community action, the Land Board nonetheless voted unanimously to defer the proposed leasing process.
ACTION ALERT! Your Voice Needed
Now the Land Board will consider the issuance of another one-year revocable permit for Mahi Pono to divert East Maui's streams thru 2026. Whether it will finally address the aforementioned years-long concerns about the ongoing waste of millions of gallons of diverted stream water per day, the continued draining of streams ordered restored by the Water Commission, and Mahi Pono's unsubstantiated and unrealistic water demands, among others, may depend on the community's continued engagement.
Please take a moment to submit written testimony, and consider testifying verbally at the Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting next Friday, which begins at 9 am, via Zoom or in person at the Kalanimoku Building Room 132, 1151 Punchbowl St., Honolulu, HI 96813. Testimony instructions and sample testimony below!