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North Shore Citizens Feel Left out of Maui Water Use and Development Plan Decisions

Agriculture, WATER / by

Maui’s Water Use and Development Plan (WUDP) is 1,200 pages long, 20 years overdue and has been read by very few.  It’s hard to see specific plans in the bulky WUDP document, but the message is there in the text and charts: ‘Iao aquifer (Wailuku-Waiheʻe) supplies 60% of County water customers and it’s nearly maxed out. The next aquifer to pump for South Maui water supplies is Haiku. 

A recent virtual Town Hall meeting Hosted by the Haiku Community Association attracted 1,000 participants on Facebook and Zoom, who came away with more questions than answers. The Association hosted the Town Hall and invited the County Water Department staff, because scores of Haiku residents felt left out of the 8-year process. 

Haiku residents had plenty of questions: 

  1. What about the hundreds of families waiting for water meters in Haiku? 
  2. Why was the County Water Department discussing a nearly $100 million well plan to send more water away from Haiku to irrigate luxury landscapes in Wailea-Makena? 
  3. Haiku wells have a history of toxic ag chemicals in the water table. If some County wells are clean and others are contaminated: who gets the clean water?
  4.  Past versions of the Haiku well plan included a partnership with large landowner A&B, Inc. that gave the company an “allotment” of the water developed. The Water Plan is silent on this possibility.

Haiku is not the only area that has questions about the Draft WUDP. Testifiers at the September meeting of the Maui County Board of Water Supply were concerned that the plan is outdated, proposing too much water for future visitor growth and not enough for local community farming. 

This Plan will be cited in every Environmental document issued for the next 20 years. We still have time to get it right!  Please speak up for a Water Plan that gives us a realistic view of our water resources,  water demands and water priorities. Email the Maui County Council before their October 9 meeting or better yet, log on to testify at the meeting on Oct 9.  Support citizen groups who want to see amendments made before the 20 year plan is adopted.