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Groups want to
overturn water permit

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Star-Bulletin staff

Groups that support the return of all the water in the Waiahole Ditch to the Windward side are back in court.

They are trying to force the state Water Commission to void a water use permit that Campbell Estate recently transferred to the Board of Water Supply.

The Waiahole-Waikane Community Association, Hakipu'u Ohana and Ka Lahui Hawaii filed a petition yesterday in the Hawaii Supreme Court asking it order the commission to declare the permit transfer illegal.

The groups claims the permit gives Campbell the right to draw 12 million gallons of water per day from the Ewa shaft, a large well pumping groundwater in Central Oahu, only for agricultural uses. They say the Board of Water Supply has no use for an agricultural water use permit and the State Water Code bans Campbell from changing the permit's use from agricultural to municipal.

Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund attorney Paul Achitoff, who represents the parties, said the move is an illegal attempt to undermine the Hawaii Supreme Court's decision in the Waiahole Ditch case.

In that ruling, the court vacated the permit granted by the water commission to Campbell Estate for use of ditch water. The commission plans to address the issues raised by the Hawaii justices next year.