Tensions over a new East Maui water allocation permit ran high at a Board of Land and Natural Resources meeting Friday, resulting ultimately in the issuance of another temporary authorization for the continued diversion of millions of gallons of water.

The new permit applies just to 2024 and allows for 38.25 million gallons of water per day, averaged annually, to be diverted from East Maui streams. The approved permit to Alexander &Baldwin and East Maui Irrigation Co. includes 31.25 million gallons per day for agricultural use, 6 million gallons per day for Maui County and 1 million for Kula Agricultural Park.

The original proposal from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which the seven- member Land Board oversees, included a total water allotment of 27.4 million gallons per day for use by both Maui County as well as A&B and EMI, and was calculated based on estimated needs from past data.

In DLNR’s original recommendation drafted in September, Land Board Chair Dawn Chang was given the ability to adjust the water allotment limit without consulting the rest of the Land Board or giving public notification — a provision that was removed when the board approved a limit amount at the meeting.

“I think the bigger concern originally was the idea that there could be amendments without coming back to the board, and that raises issues — with you folks being this public-trust resource and the ability to scrutinize the actions that are taken and how that affects the resources,” Ashley Obrey, a staff attorney at the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp., said in her testimony.

Ian Hirokawa of DLNR’s Land Division said in his presentation to the board that compared with when the recommendation was originally drafted, current data was now available to make better water allocation estimates. DLNR’s recommendation for the maximum allotment for A&B and EMI was 26.4 million gallons per day, for a total of 31.25 million when including the county’s allotment.

Despite having DLNR’s recommendation, reaching a consensus on what exactly the water allocation limit should be proved difficult, with concerns raised from various members of the community throughout four hours of public testimony.

Meredith Ching, who testified on behalf of A&B and EMI, said DLNR’s proposed recommendation didn’t provide enough water for Mahi Pono, a local farming company that has 50% ownership of EMI, as the recommendation took only the farm’s 2023 acreage into consideration.

According to Grant Nakama, Mahi Pono’s senior vice president of operations, Mahi Pono’s acreage in DLNR’s initial recommendation from September was 9,079 acres, and by the end of the year, that number will have increased by 1,300 acres. He also said that the farm plans to cultivate an additional 4,400 acres by the end of 2024.

Following questions as to the plausibility of the increase, the Land Board ultimately decided that an estimated total of 12,500 acres would be used to calculate the final water allocation.

Other members of the public pushed back against A&B and Mahi Pono’s request for a larger allotment.

“It has been frustrating because, for literally decades, the Board of Land and Natural Resources has given A&B all the water it wants and without question, and A&B has never demonstrated that it needed that water, and a lot of water was wasted in a number of years,” David Frankel, who testified on behalf of the Sierra Club of Hawaii, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. “It has been frustrating seeing streams drained and dry, and water wasted.”

In his testimony, Frankel said A&B and Mahi Pono’s water usage data indicated that there was no need for an additional water allotment increase.

“What they have done consistently is exaggerate their needs to you,” Frankel told the Land Board.

The Sierra Club in court has challenged BLNR’s annual decisions authorizing the continuation of one-year revocable permits for the diversion of billions of gallons of water from windward East Maui to Central Maui. In June a federal judge lowered the amount of water that A&B and EMI can take from East Maui streams by some 9 million gallons per day.

A&B is one of Hawaii’s original Big Five companies and has been diverting water from East Maui for more than 150 years. But environmentalists and Native Hawaiians have argued that the practice has resulted in East Maui streams running dry and impacts on taro farming and native species.

The Land Board for years has issued short-term “holdover” revocable permits for the water diversions. The short-term permits allow the company to avoid the more rigorous review required of a long-term lease.

“How do we fashion our decision, recognizing that this is only for a year?” Chang said Friday. “This is just a revocable permit for one year, and I know when I came on board, I challenged (DLNR), ‘You’ve got to get us to the point where we’re doing long-term dispositions. We cannot be doing these RPs (revocable permits),’ but we were stuck here. I think that there’s been a lot of forward movement to addressing the long-standing concerns that have been raised by the community.”

The impact of stream water diversion on local communities was again emphasized to board members.

State Rep. Mahina Poepoe, whose district includes East Maui, supported the Sierra Club’s position as she testified on behalf of kalo farmers in the area. She said the recent return of water to the stream stoked a revival of kalo farming but that some farmers were forced to stop when the streams began to dry up.

“I think it’s important to also recognize that the taking of water for farming in Central Maui did have a devastating impact on kalo farming and ecosystems in East Maui,” Poepoe said. “The taking of that water again was not without consequence to farmers in East Maui. Now that we’re getting water back in the streams, there’s potential and there’s a lot of activity happening to scale kalo farming back up.”

The issue of water conservation is especially relevant, given the added context of severe drought on the island and the aftermath of the Aug. 8 wildfires.

Lance DeSilva, Maui forestry program manager under DLNR’s Forestry and Wildlife Division, was actively involved in firefighting efforts on the island. DeSilva, who responded to the Olinda and Kula fires, said they didn’t have any issues with water access, and utilized county hydrants and open reservoirs.

The Central Maui Soil and Water Conservation District is sponsoring the fire recovery of 7,000 open acres in Upcountry Maui, and is working to restore vegetation among the thousands of acres of barren land caused by the wildfires.

“We’d like to support the idea of reservoirs not only for fire protection, but possibly for use in fire recovery, and having strategic reservoirs kept at somewhat of a capacity because when you need it, you cannot fill it overnight,” Chair Mae Nakahata said.

In its approval of DLNR’s proposal, the Land Board included a condition that water from reservoirs will also be available for “fire restoration purposes.”

At the end of the four-hour discussion of the agenda item, Chang said that everyone involved both “walked away with something but gave something,” and she “greatly appreciated everybody working with the board.”

“This is a work in progress. It’s going to come back to the board because we’re looking for a permanent solution,” member-at-large Vernon Char said. “If we can evolve with working together, then perhaps we can satisfy all of our constitutional requirements — for the people, for the environment, for the Hawaiian groups, for encouraging agriculture — and I think that’s what we’re looking to do.”