Illegal water use alleged

By Timothy Hurley
Advertiser Maui County Bureau

Two Maui agricultural companies yesterday were accused of illegally wasting millions of gallons of water in an effort to deceive the state Commission on Water Resource Management.

Earthjustice, an environmental law firm, filed a complaint with the commission against Wailuku Agribusiness Co. Inc. (formerly Wailuku Sugar Company) and Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., accusing the firms of diverting water from the Central Maui streams known collectively as Na Wai 'Eha Waihe'e, North & South Waiehu, 'Iao, and Waikapu.

The complaint by Earthjustice was filed on behalf of two Maui community groups, Hui o Na Wai 'Eha and Maui Tomorrow.

The complaint, which includes photographs that Earthjustice says depict examples of the dumping, accuses the companies of draining the streams dry. The complaint also states that the companies have vastly reduced the acreage in cultivation and switched to crops requiring far less water than sugar.

HC&S plantation manager Stephen Holaday said the company uses water responsibly.

HC&S has spent millions of dollars to install drip irrigation systems, which save water, Holaday said in a written statement. HC&S has also increased its farm acreage, he said.

Officials from Wailuku Agribusiness could not be reached for comment.

A water commission spokesperson declined to comment because the document had not been reviewed yet.

"We're extremely disappointed that decades after the end of the plantation era, the plantations still believe they need not answer to the community," Earthjustice attorney Kapua Sproat said. "The idea that Wailuku Ag and HC&S can not only commit such waste, but refuse to disclose it, in a time where Maui faces a water crisis and public streams run bone-dry, is an outrage."