The City and County of Honolulu will attempt to take over a stretch of road in Kapolei as part of a plan to draw freshwater from the sea.
Plans for desalination plants — facilities that can convert saltwater to freshwater — have been bandied about in Hawai‘i for more than a decade. The only one still active, the Kalaeloa Seawater Desalination Facility, is supposedly set to go online in 2027, although construction has not yet begun.
But the project still continues apace. The Honolulu Board of Water Supply has, over the past year, been attempting to secure road access to the project site at Campbell Industrial Park, located just east of the former Barbers Point Naval Air Station.
The only road that gets close to the 20-acre project site is the partially paved Ōla‘i Street. The stretch of the road between its eastern endpoint and the nearest cross street, Kalaeloa Boulevard, is about 3,500 feet long, and BWS has sought a right-of-way agreement with the owner of that stretch of road, Maryland-based company Hawai‘i MMGD LLC.
“Right now, nobody really uses that road because it doesn’t go to anything,” Michael Matsuo, land administrator for BWS’ land division, told the board during a meeting on Oct. 27.
Matsuo said that BWS initially requested in 2023 a construction right-of-entry from MMGD allowing for potential alterations to the road, such as road widening, paving and the installation of water infrastructure and mains for the desalination plant. However, MMGD was reluctant, expressing concerns to BWS about the potential impact of the planned desalination plant to the greater industrial park.
Negotiations between BWS and MMGD went back and forth over the next two years. Throughout those negotiations, MMGD repeatedly told BWS that it would grant a conveyance to the board if and only if the board indemnified and insured MMGD for any liability stemming from construction or operation of the desalination plant; these terms were non-negotiable, Matsuo said.
One year ago, BWS determined that it could not meet those terms and commenced an appraisal of the lot with the intention of offering to purchase outright. In July, that appraisal came back — the parcel is valued at $309,400 — and BWS made an offer to MMGD at the end of September.
While MMGD has expressed amenability to selling the parcel, they did not make a decision one way or another by an Oct. 15 deadline, leading BWS to commence eminent domain proceedings: the process by which a government can seize private land for public purposes, with appropriate compensation.
The board voted unanimously to adopt the resolution on Oct. 27, allowing the City Department of Corporation Counsel to commence eminent domain proceedings. Kathleen Elliott-Pahinui, BWS information officer, told Aloha State Daily that the city charter grants BWS independent authority to acquire property on the city’s behalf without requiring approval by the city council.
Matsuo told the board on Oct. 27 that the funds for acquiring the property can be taken from BWS’ already-encumbered budget for the 2026 fiscal year.
Meanwhile, Elliott-Pahinui told ASD that the board will continue to negotiate with MMGD in hopes of reaching an agreement, which would make the eminent domain proceedings moot.
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