HILO >> The state Department of Agriculture is scaling back a plan to place a portion of the Lower Hamakua Ditch in a pipe after several landowners offered to help maintain the open irrigation system through their properties.

The Hawaii Tribune-Herald reports the department wants to reduce maintenance costs and the effects of erosion on the 26-mile-long irrigation system. But several property owners say the project would bury or enclose a historic landmark.

The irrigation system transports water from above Waipio Valley along a series of tunnels and open ditches carved into the hillside to Paauilo.

It went into operation in 1910 and was used by the Hamakua Sugar Co.

The state took over the ditch to maintain an irrigation system for area farmers after the company went bankrupt in 1993.