The large-scale use of water on Maui has been in contention for years, since the end of the sugar industry there in 2016, and state authorities have approved an environmental study to advance an Alexander &Baldwin proposal for diversified agriculture.

The problem: That study, the final environmental impact statement (FEIS) on which the state Board of Land and Natural Resources is basing its long-term water leases, does not address the problems of water loss the way advocates for Maui’s small farmers believe, correctly, that it should.

The state has a duty to manage allocations of water to major users, and the land board has decided imposing conditions on the leases can accomplish that. But before leases can be written, applicants must undergo a court-ordered contested case hearing on the amount of water to be diverted.

The FEIS, submitted by landowner A&B and its subsidiary East Maui Irrigation, is yet another step in a long and complex process. The land board in September unanimously approved the document, which explored environmental impacts of the companies’ proposed action: securing a 30-year water lease to enable continued diversion of the water from Maui streams.

Board member Vernon Char said the approval enables A&B’s project to move to the next step in planning rather than bogging down. But he also rightly added that concerns raised during the FEIS process can help the state carefully “tailor a water lease.”

These critical concerns include storage of water, diverted from streams, in a system that wastes it; and the need to balance farming water uses against other county requirements.

A&B is pursuing long-term water leases on behalf of Mahi Pono LLC, with which it signed a partnership in 2018 for the development of a farming plan on former sugar lands.

Sierra Club of Hawai‘i, the principal challenger in this particular conflict, focused its FEIS comments narrowly on the complaint that once water is diverted from streams, it’s stored in unlined reservoirs and aging pipes, resulting in too much waste. This problem, the organization argued, was inadequately addressed.

Although the land board opted to approve the FEIS regardless, Sierra Club already has gained key leverage in its fight from the state Environmental Court. Judge Jeffrey Crabtree in August reduced the water that the land board previously approved for diversion from the streams, from 45 million gallons a day to 25 million gallons a day, while a contested case hearing is being conducted.

The state Department of Land and Natural Resources for too long managed water resources through one-year revocable permits. This impeded oversight of how water allocations affected competing interests, including farmers who rely on stream flow for taro and other crops planted in Maui’s east valleys.

While the move to long-term leases was essential, the state’s stewardship of streams is still incomplete. Some of East Maui’s streams still lack water flow standards, said Sierra Club attorney David Kimo Frankel. Providing them, plus oversight enforcement, should be on the agenda for DLNR’S Commission for Water Resource Management, which administers the state water code.

In its 2018 decision setting standards for some streams, the commission wrote that “modern agribusiness investors should not expect to build a new industry on the back of century-old infrastructure.”

Of course, in order to finance replacing that infrastructure, longer leases are necessary. But those leases must be structured so that efficient systems are in place from the start. Water waste on an island so plagued by drought simply can’t be tolerated, if all of Maui’s needs are to be served.