GARY T. KUBOTA / GKUBOTA@STARBULLETIN.COM
East Maui farmers held a demonstration in front of the state building on Maui yesterday to protest stream flow diversions for residential use. The farmers want more water for irrigation and to restore stream ecosystems.
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East Maui water diversion protested
Farmers are left with little and stream life is dying, the state is told
WAILUKU » About 30 people including taro and flower farmers held a protest on the Valley Isle yesterday, calling for the state to increase stream flows in East Maui.
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources, which oversees the leasing of some 33,000 acres of stream-flow lands, is holding a contested-case hearing today about water diversion in East Maui.
The contested case has been debated before the board and in the courts for several years.
Attorney Moses Haia, representing the farmer cooperative Na Moku Aupuni o Ko'olau, said his group wants the state to require Alexander & Baldwin Inc. and its subsidiary East Maui Irrigation to release more water and to show the amount of water needed for the diversion.
Haia said East Maui Irrigation diverts an average of 160 million gallons a day of stream water on state ceded lands in East Maui and transports it for agricultural and domestic use.
"They're taking the lion's share of water out of the watershed," he said.
Haia said Keanae and Wailuanui farmers have been left mainly with 3 million gallons a day from a spring below the diversions.
Na Moku Aupuni and other farmers say the amount taken by the diversions is excessive and leaves them with too little to use and not enough to maintain the streams' native ecosystem.
"We want EMI to have all the water they need, but we don't believe that they need all of the water," said Neola Caveny, a protester and Huelo flower farmer.
Caveny is among several individuals and groups criticizing Alexander & Baldwin's request for a long-term water lease.
The protesters say native stream life has virtually disappeared in most East Maui streams and that the board should enforce the state water code, including provisions that ensure native Hawaiian traditional practices and in-stream flows sufficient to promote healthy stream life.
East Maui Irrigation has noted that a portion of the diverted stream flow provides domestic water to 36,000 households and provides an average of 3 billion gallons a year to households and farms in Upcountry Maui.
It also provides a significant amount of irrigation water to Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., the largest single sugar plantation in Hawaii.
Hawaiian Commercial officials have said in the past that the flow fluctuates with the dry season and sometimes is significantly lower.
The first 17-mile leg of a 74-mile ditch system was organized in 1874.
Haia said the state Commission on Water Resource Management is evaluating a study of stream flows in East Maui.
Other petitioners seeking more water for small farmers include Beatrice Kekahuna and her family in Huelo, and taro farmer Ernest Shupp.