Maui County does not have water available in West Maui for the Pulelehua project, a long planned development seen as a scarce opportunity to provide desperately needed housing for Lahaina residents displaced by the August wildfires.
Located mauka of Honoapiʻilani Highway between Kāʻanapali and Nāpili, Pulelehua is one of two purported “shovel ready” projects (the other being Kaiāulu o Kupuohi) in West Maui.
In response to a query from Maui Now about water availability for the Pulelehua project, Department of Water Supply Director John Stufflebean said that the county’s West Maui water system is unable to serve the Pulelehua development.
“We are approving clearly temporary housing on a case-by-case basis,” Stufflebean said in an email Wednesday. But, Pulelehua “is permanent housing. We do not have sufficient source to serve permanently. We have no assurance that their wells will be permitted.”
Pulelehua developers have told Maui County they plan to develop their own wells for long-term supply, but the water quality in those wells is too salty and will require a reverse osmosis water treatment process to reduce and filter out high salt content, Stufflebean said in a phone interview Wednesday. That process leaves a residual discharge of brine that needs to be discharged properly in accordance with a permit issued by the state Department of Health.
Pulelehua developer Paul Cheng is seeking development of two private water wells also subject to the review and approval of the state Commission on Water Resource Management, which is only processing permits for existing users. (Cheng’s company was called Maui Oceanview LP, but during a May 21 Council meeting it was identified as MOV Construction LLC.)
Stufflebean’s assessment that no county water is available for the planned 310-acre, 500-home Pulelehua development is relevant to the Maui County Council’s pending action on its proposed fiscal 2025 budget. It contains an appropriation of $15 million in additional funding (on top of $18 million set aside in late 2022) to Pulelehua from the county’s Affordable Housing Fund.
The Council’s fiscal 2025 budget was approved on first reading May 21. It’s set for second-and-final reading June 5.
In the budget bill, funding for Pulelehua includes a Council finding that says, “for soonest vertical construction to commence on the 240 affordable rental units, the project would require the issuance of a Will Serve letter by the Department of Water Supply for temporary access to 75,000 (gallons per day) of water for up to five years while the Commission on Water Resource Management completes its review of the project’s new use permit for two privately owned wells at Pulelehua.”
Three council members voted against providing more funding for Pulelehua: Yuki Lei Sugimura, Tasha Kama and Nohelani Uʻu-Hodgins. The remaining six council members voted in favor.
Sugimura, who serves as chair of the Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee, said on the Council floor during first reading that she had unresolved questions about Pulelehua’s access to water. She requested, but did not immediately receive, a response from the Water Department on water availability for the project.
(In West Maui, developments need permits from the state Commission on Water Resource Management because the region has been designated as a surface and ground water management area.)
Stufflebean shared a copy of an 11-page, April 25, 2024, memorandum addressed to Council Chair Alice Lee, addressing municipal water use and demand in West Maui after the wildfires.
In it, he says that current reliable capacity in West Maui’s county system is 4.12 million gallons per day, often abbreviated as “mgd.” Current, post-fire water usage was 3.59 mgd, as of March 2024. The difference in current capacity of 4.12 mgd and current water usage of 3.59 mgd is 0.53 mgd, and that will be used temporary housing and reconstruction of Lahaina town, he said.
The available supply of water in West Maui includes well water from the County wells and surface water from streams treated at the two Maui County water treatment plants: Lahaina, which draws water from Kanahā Stream; and Māhinahina, which takes its supply from Honokōhau Ditch. Surface water supplies vary depending on the weather: a surplus during heavy rains; a deficit during droughts.
Stufflebean notes that the County has reduced water available at its West Maui water treatment plants because of new water commission requirements imposed to meet interim in-stream flow standards. In other words, the commission has determined that more water needs to stay in West Maui streams, supporting healthy stream life but leaving less for human use and consumption.
Prior to the Aug. 8 fire, water demand in West Maui was 5.6 mgd, Stufflebean said. The County met that demand “by pumping the wells in excess of their reliable capacity and by using stream flows that will ultimately need to be reduced to leave water in the streams.”
“There is no unused water in the County system in West Maui,” Stufflebean said. “In fact, the Department of Water Supply was preparing to declare a (water) meter moratorium prior to the fire, but since the post-fire demand has been temporarily reduced, this is not necessary at this time.”
When asked about Stufflebean’s position that no water is available for Pulelehua and her vote in support of funding for the project, Lee said: “I will absolutely continue to support Pulelehua.”
“Pulelehua is the ONLY large-scale affordable housing project in Lahaina,” she said in an email Wednesday afternoon. “The fire victims emphatically said, ‘WE WANT TO LIVE IN LAHAINA.’ Why are the County and State bureaucrats treating this situation like this is a typical approval process? Doesn’t the complete destruction of a town warrant a sense of urgency, a more flexible, compassionate and workable approval process?”
“Allowances could and should be made for Pulelehua and the people of Lahaina,” Lee said. “They deserve better. And that is why the Council voted 6-3 to fund this project.”
She added that, “in just over a year, Lahaina victims will begin to lose their interim housing arrangements. Are we ready for wholesale homelessness?”
“I am thoroughly disappointed that there isn’t a concerted effort to make Pulelehua a reality before it’s too late,” she said.
Water for temporary housing is being allowed to help people who lost their homes, Stufflebean said.
“Our priority in West Maui is to make sure there’s enough water in Lahaina for when it’s rebuilt,” he said. The water will be for displaced people; “they’ll be moving back to Lahaina.”
Stufflebean said he doesn’t want to leave a future Department of Water Supply with the problem of the current department approving water for more homes when there won’t be enough to supply them years from now.
In his April letter to Lee, Stufflebean said the County is working toward getting additional water sources in West Maui. It is moving ahead with plans to develop 3.4 mgd from new wells. But those new sources will need approval from the state water commission, he said.
“The first sources to be developed will be used to fill the gap between current reliable supply and demand with the assumption that demand will ultimately return to pre-fire levels,” Stufflebean said in his letter. “Once the reliable supply exceeds demand, additional water users can be served.”
He pointed out that the Commission on Water Resource Management legally assumed control of all water use and source development in West Maui when the agency designated all of the region as a surface water and groundwater management area. All new sources are subject to water use permit allocations and constrained by adopted interim in-stream flow standards, he said.
Now, the state agency is only processing permits for existing users, not new ones, he added.
“It is unknown when and even if permits for new sources will be considered and potentially approved,” Stufflebean said.
In the phone interview, he said the water department is preparing a letter for Pulelehua, informing the developer that the County cannot provide water for the project. “It should be ready tomorrow,” he said of the letter.
