We are headed back to court in defense of East Maui streams

On February 1st, the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi takes to the courts in the ongoing battle to protect East Maui streams from needless exploitation. For too long, Hawaiʻi’s Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) has allowed Alexander and Baldwin (A&B) to take all the water it wants with no real oversight to ensure that the water is used responsibly and our stream ecosystems and communities are protected. Don’t miss this opportunity to watch BLNR being held accountable!

Sierra Club v. BLNR, A&B, EMI, and County of Maui
Wednesday, February 1st 
1:00 PM 

*Please, please, please make sure you mute your microphone! 
The Zoom is hosted by the First Circuit Court. The Sierra Club is unable to provide technical assistance. Please review this document from the court system for assistance.

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Come watch in person on the 4th floor of the First Circuit Court
Kaʻahumanu Hale, 777 Punchbowl Street, Honolulu

Here’s what you need to know:
For the past forty years, A&B and its subsidiary, East Maui Irrigation (EMI), have been relying on one-year revocable permits (RPs) to divert water from East Maui streams, which the BLNR has been authorizing without proper assessment of ecological, cultural, and recreational impacts or the amount of water that is actually needed and used. These RPs were never intended to be long-term. 

In 2020, as the BLNR considered A&B’s request to continue the one-year revocable permits for yet another year, the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi asked for a contested case hearing, which would allow for more time than the standard 3-minute testimony to present information. The BLNR denied Sierra Club’s request, prompting us to sue, successfully, with the environmental court ordering BLNR to hold the contested case and temporarily capping the amount of water that could be diverted from East Maui to 25 mgd until the case could be completed and a new decision reached. In 2022, Judge Crabtree further lowered the diversion cap to 20 mgd, based on Mahi Pono’s quarterly water usage reports which fail to demonstrate that they need any more than that.  

The contested case hearing and ongoing litigation have revealed that the vast majority of the time, most of the water taken out of East Maui streams is not used, but is wasted. A&B could implement several mitigation measures that would allow much more water to remain in the streams, while still providing more than enough water for agriculture to flourish in Central Maui.  

Despite the facts, in 2022, the BLNR not only approved the RPs for another year but more than doubled the amount of water A&B is authorized to take from 20 mgd to 45 mgd, even though A&B only asked for 40 mgd and the evidence is that more than 50% of the diverted water is regularly wasted.  

The Sierra Club is appealing this decision and the hearing begins on Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 1pm. Tune in to see how it all unfolds!