State commission alleges MLP water violations

A major Maui landowner entrenched in litigation with private customers over the supply of water made improvements to stream diversion infrastructure after a state commission alleged violations of a nearly 6-year-old order.

Maui Land &Pineapple Co. announced on Oct. 14 that improvement work was expected to be completed by Oct. 17, after receiving a violation notice on Oct. 8 from the state Commission on Water Resource Management.

According to MLP, the work was completed Oct. 17.

The commission, which regulates use of the public trust resource, ordered MLP in November 2019 to improve control and monitoring of water diverted from West Maui’s Honokohau Stream into the company’s irrigation ditch system that largely provides water to Kapalua Resort and Maui County but is required to maintain minimum stream levels.

Improvements were to include the replacement of one damaged intake point with new grates featuring remotely operated restrictor plates, and remotely operated equipment to return water to the stream from the ditch in another area.

The commission noted in its violation notice that MLP installed temporary plywood intake restrictor plates in 2022 that don’t comply with the commission’s 2019 order or an amended 2021 version, and that another company on behalf of MLP installed a remotely operated gate in June that regularly does not return sufficient water to the stream.

“To date, MLP has not completed the modifications required under either order,” Ciara Kahahane, the commission’s chief administrator, said in an Oct. 8 letter to the company.

Kahahane also informed MLP that it violated minimum stream flow standards many times earlier this year, including days when the commission said there was enough water to meet the standard despite severe drought.

According to the commission, which measures stream water every 30 minutes at a fixed station and occasionally takes measurements by hand to validate accuracy, the minimum standards weren’t met on 36 days between Jan. 1 and Aug. 14, representing a 16% failure rate. Those days included two days when hand measurements were taken, the violation notice said.

The commission has the power to impose separate fines up to $5,000 per day for violating its order to make system improvements and for not maintaining minimum stream flows.

MLP, which owns 22,000 acres of land on Maui and quit pineapple farming in 2009, contends that it has now made the necessary improvements to its former plantation water delivery system and addressed the violations. The company also has suggested that the commission’s water measurements may not be accurate for judging whether the company has met the commission’s interim inflow stream standard, or IIFS.

In an Oct. 5 letter to the commission, MLP cited a commission staff presentation at a September meeting that noted rainfall in the area of the stream and ditch system was 46% of normal so far this year, leaving stream flows very low over the past nine months.

“We understand that CWRM (Commission on Water Resource Management) makes adjustments to the real-time collected data through subsequent calibrations,” MLP said in its letter. “We will continue to work with CWRM staff to understand how these retroactive adjustments are taken into account.”

In its Oct. 14 announcement by news release, MLP said it is developing a public online dashboard to show drought conditions, stream readings and Kapalua water usage data in an effort to support transparency and community awareness.

The company also said its ditch system upgrades stem in part from community feedback and are designed to keep water in Honokohau Stream until it exceeds the minimum requirement, representing an improvement over a prior design to divert water from the stream and then return a sufficient amount at a lower elevation if necessary to meet the minimum requirement.

“Based on community feedback and in coordination with the Commission on Water Resource Management, an improved system was designed, featuring new automated gates and remote communication technology that will enable operators to control water diversions in real-time based on rain data and stream flows,” the company said. “We hope that this solution, which has been developed through collaboration and field testing, will exceed prior design standards by keeping more water in the streams during drought conditions and enabling better oversight through real-time data.

“MLP’s goal is to foster open collaboration with all interested parties — using accurate, transparent data — to responsibly manage the water resources under the company’s care and deepen understanding of how drought affects water availability and promote conservation and compliance with necessary restrictions,” the company continued.

In August, the owner of two Kapalua golf courses, three homeowner community associations and an organic farm filed a lawsuit against MLP contending that their property was damaged due to insufficient irrigation water from MLP because the water system was in a state of “demonstrable disrepair” that resulted in shortages during drought conditions.

The five entities suing MLP are TY Management Corp., which bought the Plantation Course and Bay Course at Kapalua Resort from MLP in 2009 and 2010, Plantation Estates Lot Owners’ Association, Association of Apartment Owners of Coconut Grove on Kapalua, Association of Apartment Owners of the Ridge at Kapalua and Hua Momona Farms LLC.

The two golf courses have been closed, and the PGA scrapped a prestigious January 2026 golf tournament at the Plantation Course worth $50 million to Maui’s economy.

MLP has filed counterclaims alleging that the plaintiffs jeopardized the safety of the Kapalua community by using water barred by restrictions throughout June and three days in August. MLP also contends that the water shortage is due to severe drought and not because of any failure of its own to maintain the its delivery system.