A Maui landowner is now facing potentially millions of dollars in fines after allegedly mismanaging water resources.
Last week, the Hawai‘i Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Commission on Water Resource Management issued a notice of alleged violations to property owner Maui Land & Pineapple Co.
Maui Land & Pineapple is already facing a legal battle on multiple fronts, having been sued in August by neighbors accusing MLP of having misused its water resources and exacerbating drought conditions.
The Commission’s notice warns that MLP has consistently been non-compliant with a 2019 order to install various infrastructure to the Honokōhau Ditch System, an irrigation system maintained by MLP. Most pertinently, those improvements include a remotely operable valve controlling the inflow and outflow of water between the ditch system and Honokōhau Stream.
The notice claims that, in 2021, the Commission had required MLP to complete installation of the valve and associated improvements within six months. While temporary modifications were reported after six months, permanent fixes never materialized.
At a Water Resource Management Commission meeting in September, MLP presented plans that “appeared to contemplate” installing a gate elsewhere within the ditch system than the Commission had previously ordered. According to MLP representatives, the Commission stated its expectation that MLP will submit its final engineering plans, construction schedules and supporting materials for review as soon as possible.
But with the ordered improvements not installed, MLP could face fines of up to $5,000 per day of non-compliance, the notice warns. In an absolute worst-case scenario, with maximum possible fines levied for each day since 2019, that could mean a total fine of nearly $11 million.
The missing valve is only one of the possible violations alleged in the notice. Because the valve was intended to prevent excess draining of the Honokōhau Stream into the ditch system, the Commission had also established flow standards: at least 13.3 cubic feet of water must pass through a certain point on the stream each second (or, about 8.6 million gallons per day).
If stream flows drop below that rate for three consecutive days, or for four days out of any seven-day period, MLP would once again be in violation.
The notice states that real-time monitors at the site found that 36 days between Jan. 1 and Aug. 14 fell below Commission standards, with many of those days between May and July, a particularly dry period on Maui.
“We are investigating each of those days to determine whether water was diverted offstream for other uses, including for the County, and if so, what steps could have been taken to ensure the interim instream flow standards were met,” read a statement by MLP on Tuesday.
MLP also announced Tuesday that it expects to install “a remotely monitored and operated diversion in Honokōhau Stream” this week. The system allows water to be retained within the stream until it exceeds minimum flow thresholds, and includes a backup gate to return water to the stream as needed.
MLP stated that the construction should continue through Friday, with additional system testing to take place next week.
In the meantime, legal actions between MLP and neighboring water users are still pending.
A suit against MLP by TY Management Corp. — owner and operator of the Kapalua Plantation Golf Course — and several area apartment owners associations accusing MLP of allowing water in the Honokōhau Ditch System to fall below usable levels has a hearing scheduled for Nov. 25, as does MLP’s own countersuit against TY Management, which accused the latter of using excessive water to irrigate its golf courses.
A second suit, by TY Management and one of the owners’ associations from the first suit, accused MLP and its CEO of conspiring to seize control of the Kapalua Resort Association by illegal land annexations. No hearing has yet been scheduled in that case.
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