State Water Commission failed to restore stream flows after closure of last sugar plantation

We therefore vacate the Commission’s Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Decision and Order issued June 28, 2021, as amended by Errata issued June 30, 2021, with respect to the IIFS and the delegation of the Commission’s public trust duties. Other than for the reasons given in this opinion for vacatur or remand, we affirm. We remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

An opinion piece by Naomi Klein and Kapuaʻala Sproat. Naomi Klein is the professor of climate justice and co-director of the Centre for Climate Justice at the University of British Columbia. Kapuaʻala Sproat is a Professor of Law at Ka Huli Ao Native Hawaiian Law Center & the Environmental Law Program. She also co-directs the…

Leina‘ala Ley, Attorney, Mid-Pacific Office, Earthjustice: “KIUC admits it has not used water from the two diversions for the past two and a half years, and will not be able to use water for the foreseeable future because it has not repaired the siphon and it does not have plans, currently, to contract for those…

Isaac Moriwake, Managing Attorney, Mid-Pacific Office, Earthjustice: “This is a model for 21st-century water management for all of Hawaii. We owe it to the community who carried the burden for this, and to future generations, to get it right.”

Isaac Moriwake, Managing Attorney, Mid-Pacific Office, Earthjustice: “There’s no question that this is a historic move forward, in terms of shifting from the old plantation paradigm of draining rivers and streams dry to now recognizing the need to protect flowing rivers and streams.”

Community groups flag concerns on further corrections and improvements needed

Hawai‘i Water Commission 2021 Decision on Maui’s “Four Great Waters”

Kauaʻi utility pulls plug on state water commission’s discussions to increase stream flows

As Big Sugar plantations release their grip on the islands, local and Native Hawaiian communities are reclaiming their water rights and restoring their deep-rooted ties to the land.

For the first time in more than 100 years, the Waimea River will flow from mountain to sea—thanks to successful mediation, not years of litigation.

Agreement concluding a year-long mediation involving Pōʻai Wai Ola, the state-run Agribusiness Development Corporation, the Kekaha Agriculture Association, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, and the Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative. Under the agreement, tens of millions of gallons of water each day will be restored to the Waimea River and its headwaters, and no diversion will ever be a total diversion again.

Historic agreement approved by the State of Hawai‘i’s Commission on Water Resource Management will end wasteful plantation-era water diversions

It was like a horrible dream: Native Hawaiians fined for growing food and practicing their culture.

Maui community groups Hui o Nā Wai ʻEhā and Maui Tomorrow Foundation, represented by Earthjustice, filed a legal petition to the state Commission on Water Resource Management to increase the flows in Nā Wai ʻEhā—Maui’s “Four Great Waters” of Waiheʻe River, Waiehu Stream, Wailuku River, and Waikapū Stream—based on the recent announcement by Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. that it will shut down its Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar plantation by year’s end.

Plantation closure provides opportunities for more sustainable and just agriculture

After years of citizen action and court battles, "The Four Great Waters" of Maui are finally coming back to life. But the larger fight to uphold public and native Hawaiian water rights continues.

See major milestones in the legal fight to uphold water as a public trust, stop wasteful water diversions, and restore the "Four Great Waters" of Maui.