AS SEEN ON FREE HAWAI`I TV - HAWAI`IʻS CHEAPEST WATER FOR LUXURY HOMES ON MAUI
HawaiiNewsNow - February 4, 2025 - Some of Hawaii’s richest property owners are paying much less for water than the rest of us by taking advantage of privately owned water systems built during the plantation era.
The disparities, as well as the need to deal with chronic water shortages and fights over access, has led the county to a major decision to take over private water systems, which deliver most of the water in the county.
HNN Investigates looked into the source of the inequity on West Maui, which has its roots in the plantation eras and the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom and now leads to both waste and drought.
Just south of Lahaina, the sprawling agricultural estates of Launiupoko, framed by lush green landscaping and azure pools and standing out from the dull brown dryness of the former sugar lands they occupy.
The homeowners paid a lot for their ocean-view properties. What they don’t pay much for is water. Their cost for water about 65 percent lower than their neighbors in Lahaina.
Lahaina resident, taro farmer and water activist Kekai Keahi says it’s been an issue for years in the community, where most local residents rely on the county water department, paying more for water than investors and resorts.
“So they have the ability to get as much water as they want, charge what they want. We are on a county system, so we stuck paying. Whatever the county says, we gotta pay,” Kekai said.
Many of the old plantation systems that deliver water to customers are considered water utilities and rates are determined by the Public Utilities Commission, based on what it costs to deliver the water, plus enough profit to keep them sustainable.
Most people and businesses in West Maui are on the county system. Its rates per thousand gallons vary from about $2 to $8. A family using 17,000 gallons a month would pay about $65.
In Kaanapali, they pay a little more than $3 per thousand gallons, for a bill $10 lower than county water customers.
The real bargains are south of Lahaina at Launiupoko and Olowalu, where drinking water costs less than $1.50 per thousand gallons, a monthly bill nearly two-thirds cheaper than county water.
Attorney Lance Collins has represented local streamside farmers in litigation over water distribution and at the PUC, and says the lower prices are one symptom of a historically unjust system.
“It doesn’t feel so great, but it’s just another iteration about how, you know, the common people are always getting the short end of the stick,” he said.
The reason the water is delivered so cheaply is a remnant of a hurtful past.
It flows through irrigation systems built over 100 years ago, during the same era that saw the Hawaiian kingdom overthrown by American business and plantation owners, who used contract labor to build dams, dikes, ditches, flumes, aqueducts and reservoirs to divert mountain streams, sometimes until they were dry, to irrigate sugar fields miles and miles away.
The antique water systems are now remarkably cheap to operate, because they were built long ago, mostly by contract laborers, Collins said.
“They had labor that they exploited,” he said.
After the plantations closed — Lahaina’s Pioneer Mill in 1999 was among the last — the water systems lived on, some acquired by investors, others kept by descendants of the sugar companies that built them.
“The companies (are) still there. They just morphed into resort and development, land companies, but the control of water never left their hands,” Keahi said.
Kekai Keahi, who is also a construction manager, spends much of his time helping others rebuild in Lahaina, which burned largely because the area is surrounded by dried-up cane fields where the fire sparked and spread.
The water that used to irrigate those fields now fills swimming pools and irrigates landscaping and golf courses, with little or no cultivation in the former sugar fields south and mauka of Lahaina.
Residents on the county system and local streams need more water for traditional farming and housing, Keahi said.
“So now, rather than send this resource to thirsty crops, they’re sending it to thirsty resorts and high-end development, and at the expense of the community,” he said.
The unfairness of the rates is an emotional issue in Launiupoko, where Charlie Palakiko and his family have restored traditional stream-based taro loi on Kauaula Stream. The farm is downstream from a reservoir owned by Launiopoko Irrigation Company, which is controlled by the developer of luxury subdivisions, Peter Martin.
For years, the Palakikos have had to fight in court and the state water commission for adequate water for their crops.
“I know that they’ve been hoarding water throughout the years. You know, for future development or whatever they’re doing,” he said.
The Palakikos have fought in state agencies and the courts to get enough water to keep their crops healthy, while he says cheap water is wasted by his wealthy neighbors.
“It hurts, you know, like before, they used to overwater the roadways. And we’re coming home, our streams low. And then imagine you coming home, and then you see all this roadway being overwatered, and there’s like, streams running down the road, you know what I’m saying?” he said. “Like, hey, we’re fighting for water. We need water. Then you look at the roadway, it’s all green, and there’s like streams running down this thing.”
During Hawaii News Now’s visit, the Launiupoko Irrigation Company reservoir above their property was full, and Palakiko said there was just enough water being released into the stream to sustain his taro.
Glenn Tremble, a spokesman for West Maui Land Company, another Martin-controlled company that controls the Launiupoko and Olowalu systems, said in an email to Hawaii News Now that the systems “have lost money for several years, and it has been difficult to keep them operating at the old rates with the increased cost of operations over the years. Owners and members of the companies have loaned a lot of money to the companies just to keep them going.”
He said the companies have been seeking rate increases from the PUC, but the farmers have challenged them as part of the overall water dispute, and that has delayed the process.
The situation is not isolated to West Maui. It’s estimated that over 70 percent of water on Maui is controlled by private systems, which have made setting policies for water impossible, and led to shortages and delayed development.
But now, Maui County has decided to begin taking over the legacy systems, according to Maui County Water Department Director John Stufflebean.
“We are looking at kind of a new policy, which is to really get more of the water under the control of the county,” he said. “We think that’s the good public policy decision.”
Stufflebean said the county could buy the systems and then charge the resorts and large users much higher rates than they pay now.
“So a lot of that money would just have to be put back into upgrading the systems to meet the current county standards,” Stufflebean said
“Then the other big issue is that we could implement policies that we feel are important such as water conservation policies and encourage people to be more efficient with their water use,” he said.
