Maui County moves to buy private water systems despite cost concerns

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Maui County is moving to purchase private water systems in West Maui for $6 million, a plan that supporters say will improve service to hundreds of customers but that some warn could bring significant infrastructure costs.

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The systems, originally developed more than a century ago to divert stream water to reservoirs for sugar fields, are now owned by West Maui Land. The company sells surface water for irrigation and distributes potable water to about 500 customers.

The Maui County Council gave preliminary approval to the sale.

Farmer says system failures threaten his livelihood

Organic farmer Eddy Garcia, who owns six separate farm properties in Olowalu and Launiupoko, relies on the West Maui Land water systems. He said service interruptions have put his operation at risk.

“I’m in dire straits,” Garcia said. “If the county doesn’t take this over, at the way things are going, we will lose our farm. We lose our livelihood.”

Garcia said water outages can last a week at a time. He also pointed to a reservoir that the state water commission ordered West Maui Land to repair four years ago, which he said is still dangerously flawed.

“Tons and tons of water comes in, and then it overflows the banks, and it has caused us already hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage — crop loss, infrastructure loss — because it overflowed the banks,” Garcia said.

Infrastructure concerns run deep

Garcia showed a damaged exit pipe on the reservoir, overgrown and broken ditches, and a road destroyed when water from a broken irrigation ditch flooded during a Kona low storm.

“There’s just endless problems with this water system that I would say is in the tens of millions of dollars to repair the infrastructure and get this working properly,” Garcia said.

West Maui Land’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.

Council gives preliminary approval

During a council budget committee meeting last week, Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee raised concerns about the financial impact of the acquisition.

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“My main concern is that we are not going to be operating at a loss because it’s just not worth it. I don’t see too many benefits here,” Lee said.

Council member Keani Rawlins-Fernandez pushed back on critics.

“Opinions are like butt holes. We all have one, but opinions are not more important than fact,” Rawlins-Fernandez said.

The county said the water companies are profitable and that revenue from users should cover operations, repair, and maintenance.

Mayor cites wildfire lessons

Mayor Richard Bissen said the deficiencies of private water systems were exposed by the wildfires and that public ownership is the right investment.

“We’ll be able to provide this water to our community at a much better, more efficient — I would say — than what’s being done now,” Bissen said.

“If you’re gonna invest in something, water is probably the thing you should be spending your money on,” he added.

West Maui Land previously faced fines for failing to allow enough water to reach downstream taro farms, while luxury subdivisions developed by the company were landscaped with water from the same systems.

“The rich people on the hill get the pressure, they get the volume, they get everything they want out of it. We don’t,” Garcia said.

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