Water Commission to Consider Taro Farmers' Petitions to Restore Flows to 8 East Maui Streams

From: Alan Murakami
Sent: Sunday, September 14, 2008 11:10 PM
Subject: East Maui water trouble

ALERT

Water Commission to Consider Taro Farmers' Petitions to Restore Flows to 8 East Maui Streams

WEDNESDAY, Sep. 24, 2008
Haiku Community Center
2 PM (to continue into the evening)

After an unexplainable 7-year delay, the Commission on Water Resources Management is poised to finally receive its staff recommendations on whether and how much to restore to 8 East Maui streams. In 2001, Na Moku Aupuni O Ko`olau Hui, an association of taro farmers and Hawaiian subsistence gatherers of Wailuanui Valley, and Beatrice Kekahuna and Marjorie Wallett of Honopou Valley filed petitions to restore 27 streams in East Maui. Under the law, the Water Commission was supposed to respond in 180 days. The Water Commission has set a meeting for this purpose on Sep. 24, 2008 on Maui to receive input from the public on this crucial issue.

Continued...

East Maui Irrigation Company, a subsidiary of Alexander and Baldwin currently diverts an average of 160 (up to 450) million gallons per day, virtually all from 33,000 acres of state ceded (once Crown) lands under permit from the Board of Land and Natural Resources. Without doubt, these companies will use all of its economic and political muscle to stop or limit this restoration attempt. While typical irrigation subscribers pay a minimum of 35 cents per 1000 gallons, EMI pays the state only 1/5 of a cent for every 1000 gallons it diverts from over 100 East Maui streams. Currently, all O`ahu domestic water consumers use about as much water as EMI diverts.

In 2001, EMI marshalled 200 workers from its sister company, Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar plantation, in red T-shirts in support of continuing this continued diversion of the life blood of East Maui taro farmers and subsistence gatherers. Hawaiian taro farmers and gatherers need only a fraction of this massive diversion to preserve their cultural traditions dependent on free flowing streams.

Please spread the word for people to support the taro farmers and subsistence gatherers by: (1) testifying in person at the Sep. 24 meeting; or (2) sending in written testimony or letters of support in advance of that meeting; or (3) attending a possible press conference or demonstration at the hearings to signify support of the issue of releasing water back into the streams, and/or (4) writing letters to the editors of the Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu Star Bulletin, Maui News, Haleakala Times, Honolulu Weekly, or other publication.

Points to cover:

• Ask that the Water Commission at its Sep. 24, 2008 meeting on Maui to ACT NOW to amend interim instream flow standards so that water is allowed to naturally flow again in those streams.
• The law requires the Commission to act in 180 days of the filing of a petition to amend an interim instream flow standard. Na Moku filed in 2001. The Commission must act now.
• Taro farmers cannot wait years, months, or even weeks for water. They need prompt action when they lose water to diversions by EMI.
• EMI has diverted this water with state permission for over a century without regard for protecting the superior water rights of taro farmers and traditional subsistence gatherers and fishermen.
• Place the burden on EMI to demonstrate how it is using the water it diverts and that its diversions do NOT harm the interests of those with superior rights to water, as traditional taro farmers and subsistence gatherers enjoy.
• The restoration of this resource for the continuation of Hawaiian traditions and customs, as protected under the Hawai`i Constitution and the public trust, is vital to assuring that the cultural rights of Hawaiians are protected.
• Please uphold the law and not cater to the political and economic arguments of the diverter.

Address testimony to:

Members, Commission on Water Resources Management
1151 Punchbowl Street
Room 227
Honolulu, Hawai`i 96813

Phone (808) 587-0214

Written testimony may be submitted in
one of the following ways:

FAX (808) 587-0219 - Or -
Email: dlnr.cwrm@hawaii.gov - Or -
Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 621
Honolulu, Hawaii 96809

I've attached actual conditions in a Honopou lo`i on July 9, 2008, showing the bare, cracked ground and dying kalo because of EMI's (and the state's) refusal to release more water. A more detailed timeline of events on this issue is viewable at:

Timeline of Events

Mahalo

Alan T. Murakami, Esq.
Native Hawaiian Legal Corporation
1164 Bishop Street
Suite 1205
Honolulu, HI 96813
Tel: 808-521-2302
Fax: 808-537-4268
Email: almurak@nhlchi.org

Posted: Mon - September 15, 2008 at 06:29 AM

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Water Commission to Consider Taro Farmers' Petitions to Restore Flows to 8 East Maui Streams

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