Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 34, Number 5, 1 May 2017 — Waimea stream flows restored [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Waimea stream flows restored

Aloha mai from Kaua'i a Ni'ihau, My eolumn

Ē \ this month is # *replaced by the article helow, written by Earthjustice, regarding the restoration of Waimea River. Mahalo nui to all involved in the commitment to restore this invaluable resource. On April 18, the State of Hawai'i's Commission on Water Resource Management approved a historic agreement that resolves a complaint Earthjustice filed in July 2013

on behalf of community group Pō'ai Wai 01aAVest Kaua'i Watershed Allianee to protect the "Grand Canyon of the Paeihe" and restore stream flows to the Waimea River on Kaua'i Island. The agreement concludes a yearlong mediation involving Pō'ai Wai Ola, the state-run Agribusiness Development Corporation, the Kekaha Agriculture Association, the Department of Hawaiian Homelands, and the Kaua'i Island Utility Cooperative. Under the agreement, tens of millions of gallons of water eaeh day will be restored to the Waimea River and its headwaters, and no diversion will ever be a total diversion again. "Our group's name acknowledges the life-giving power of water," explained Pō'ai Wai Ola president Galen Kaohi. "Today's agreement ensures that, for the first time in over 100 years, life-giving water will onee again flow continuously in Waimea River from mauka (the mountains) to makai (the sea), whieh is vital for the heahh of the river and our eommunity." Beginning in the early 1900s, the Kekaha Sugar Plantation built the Kekaha and Kōke'e ditch systems, whieh diverted mueh of the water flowing down the Waimea River and its tributaries to grow sugar. When the plantation went out of business in 2001, the State of Hawai'i took over the ditch network. The Hawai'i Agribusiness Development Corporation leased the ditch network

and lands to the Kekaha Agriculture Association. But, although the association was cultivat-

ing oniy a traction ot the previous plantation land, and growing mueh less water-intensive crops, the diversions remained at plantation-era levels, leaving vast stretches of dry stream bed in the Waimea River and headwater streams. Proceedings before the Water Commission revealed that the association was diverting far more water than was needed for agriculture and, instead,

was using this puhlie trust resource to feed an antiquated hydropower system that helped subsidize its operations. And mueh of the water was simply wasted. This agreement will end that waste and other useless diversions, with precious water promptly restored to re-establish continuous flows in the Waimea River and its headwaters. The agreement guarantees the minimum streamflows that are necessary for native stream life and traditional native Hawaiian practices and creates a framework to allow future, heneheial environmental and eultural projects. Under the agreement, the Kaua'i Island Utility Cooperative ean, for instance, move toward developing a modern hydropower project that will use solar power to pump water uphill during the day, releasing it to generate power at night, and will provide water and other infrastructure to facilitate native Hawaiian homesteading. "For too long, private interests have been allowed to take the public's water and use it to reap private profits," said Earthjustice attorney David Henkin, who represents Pō'ai Wai Ola. "In approving this agreement, the Water Commission is carrying out its constitutional and statutory mandate to protect the puhlie trust, ensuring that the mighty waters of the Waimea River will onee again flow from the mountains to the sea, for the benefit of present and future generations." ■

Dan Ahuna VicE Chair, TrastEE, Kaaa'i and Ni'ihaa