We are back in court for East Maui’s streams, join us in-person or online

We are headed back to court tomorrow, Wednesday, December 13 in the ongoing battle to protect East Maui streams from needless exploitation, and you are invited to join us in-person or tune in online at 10am.

Supreme Court Courtroom
Ali‘iōlani Hale, 2nd Floor, 417 South King Street, Honolulu, HI 96813
Wednesday, December 13, 10am
Stream online here

Why we are back in court
Back in 2020, the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi requested a contested case over the Board of Land and Natural Resources’s (BLNR) renewal of Alexander & Baldwin (A&B) and East Maui Irrigation’s (EMI) one year revocable permits to divert a baseless 45 million gallons of water a day from East Maui’s streams. The BLNR denied our request and we went on to sue the state for violating our constitutional rights to a contested case.

In 2021, Judge Crabtree of the Environmental Court ruled in our favor, stating that the BLNR did in fact deny our constitutional rights to a contested case, ordering the board to hold the contested case hearing as soon as possible, and capping the amount of water that A&B could take from East Maui streams at 25 million gallons of water per day (mgd) instead of the 45 mgd authorized by the BLNR.

The Environmental Court went on to further lower A&B’s diversion cap to 20 mgd in 2022, based on Mahi Pono’s (who owns EMI) quarterly water usage reports which failed to demonstrated that it needs more than 20 mgd. 

On Wednesday, A&B, East Maui Irrigation, and BLNR will argue that the Environmental Court was not warranted to require a contested case or modify the permitted amount of water to be diverted. It is bound to be interesting and we encourage you to tune in!