Hotels, highest residential users could see higher water rates as county tries to conserve more amid drought

With chronic limited water supply in West Maui, and water shortages already declared this year in Upcountry, Central and South Maui — well before the dry months of summer — Maui County is considering sweeping conservation measures and increasing water rates, especially for hotels and high-use residential customers.

Under a proposal by the Department of Water Supply, hotels on the county system and general residential customers using more than 35,000 gallons of water a month would see their rates increase by 25%.

All other customers — except for general residential customers who use 5,000 gallons or less — could potentially see their water bills go up by at least 5%. 

It’s one way the department is trying to get customers to conserve water, especially after a dry winter and a hot summer approaching.

“We’re controlling how much water is used through the economics of a rate structure, and then we’re making sure that people are conserving and using it efficiently,” Department of Water Supply Director John Stufflebean said.

The entire state is currently under drought conditions of some kind, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. West, Central and South Maui, as well as southwestern areas of Moloka‘i, are under a severe drought, but even that’s better than what the Maui County saw during the winter when some areas were under the harsher level of extreme drought.

The Department of Water Supply declared a Stage 1 water shortage in Central and South Maui in January and in Upcountry Maui earlier this week.

Stufflebean said the department plans to send a bill to the Maui County Council in May outlining stricter conservation measures during a shortage.

The expectation is that more expensive water fees also will put pressure on users to cut back.

Residents in single-family homes who use more than 35,000 gallons a month are currently charged $10.56 per 1,000 gallons, according to county budget documents. The department’s proposal would bump their rates to $13.20 for the next fiscal year that starts July 1. And, the department now wants to add a fifth tier to charge people who use more than 50,000 gallons a rate of $15.90. 

The new tier is being proposed “because we found out there’s a few folks out there that are using a huge amount of water in residential,” primarily in Mākena, Stufflebean told the Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative last week.

He also told the County Council in a recent letter that this would generate an additional $500,000 and help support a grant to the organization Aloha Pu‘u Kukui for work in the stressed watershed above West Maui. 

With the changes, the tiers for general residential/single-family homes would be as follows:

• 0 to 5,000 gallons: No change from $2.13 per 1,000 gallons
• 5,000 to 15,000 gallons: $4.63 to $4.98, a 7.5% increase
• 15,001 to 35,000 gallons: $7.58 to $8.72, a 15% increase 
• 35,001 to 50,000 gallons: $10.56 to $13.20, a 25% increase
• Over 50,000 gallons: $15.90 

Customers in multifamily homes, which do not have tiers, would see a 10% increase from $4.63 to $5.09 per 1,000 gallons.

Hotels are currently charged some of the highest rates of all users at $10.56 per 1,000 gallons. Their rates are proposed to increase to $13.20.

Agricultural users would also see the following increases of 5% per category:

• 0 to 5,000 gallons: $2.13 to $2.24
• 5,000 to 15,000 gallons: $4.21 to $4.42
• Over 15,001 gallons: $1.19 to $1.25 

Farmers get special consideration during water shortages; they are asked to reduce consumption but are not required to follow restrictions or mandates until 180 days after the shortage is first announced. Their rates are also unique because they pay higher residential rates for the water used in their homes and lower agricultural rates for the large quantities of water needed for their farm operations, Stufflebean explained.

The rates will be up to the council, which is currently reviewing next year’s budget.

The council could also get a chance soon to consider the department’s more extensive water conservation proposal. The bill aims to step up conservation efforts during shortages by barring wasteful use of drinking water, creating irrigation schedules and clarifying how much water should be cut back during shortages. 

During a public meeting in Lahaina on Tuesday to gather input on the bill, Robert DeRobles, planner with the department’s Water Resource and Planning Division, said: “We’re trying to help people understand what water efficiency means, to try to change these habits that’s been going on for a long time and trying to help define what overuse is.”

The department’s proposal would change the way water shortages are declared, giving the director sole power to declare a water shortage, instead of getting the approval of the mayor as is required now. It also makes clear exactly how much of a cutback is required: 10% in Stage 1, 20% in Stage 2 and 30% in Stage 3, according to a draft version of the bill. The conditions for a water shortage will depend on how much surface and groundwater will be available in the area. 

During a shortage, it would be illegal to use drinking water wastefully, which includes landscaping, yard maintenance or other outdoor activities that overflow or spray onto nearby properties to pool or obstruct the public and potentially cause erosion, the department’s proposal says. That would also include “chronic wastefulness” or failing to fix leaks “in a reasonable amount of time.”

Watering or irrigation of lawns, landscapes and other vegetated areas would be prohibited from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and it would be limited to no more than three days per week on a schedule that alternates days between odd and even residential addresses as well as commercial facilities and multifamily units. 

The department’s proposal would also require hotels, motels, resorts and other commercial lodging establishments to be more water efficient “and make reasonable efforts” to save water by hiring landscapers trained in water-efficient practices and by installing water-efficient indoor and outdoor fixtures, smart irrigation systems, laundry facilities, and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems. 

Fines for violating the schedules, restrictions or other measures established by the director would also be doubled from $500 to $1,000 per violation, with second violations potentially resulting in water service being cut off and third violations potentially resulting in the customer’s water meter being removed. 

Despite the tougher penalties in the proposal, DeRobles said the department is not a police agency — they are primarily trying to push people to make the effort to save water. Residents make up the biggest population that the county serves, and DeRobles said water usage can vary drastically in a neighborhood — a home that uses 7,000 gallons a month could be right next door to one using 40,000 gallons. 

“We’re not trying to target everybody,” DeRobles said. “We’re just trying to raise awareness that people, households, also have to do their part.”

Saving water doesn’t just mean shorter showers. The department also recommends installing efficient water fixtures and equipment like toilets, washing machines and dishwashers; using automated irrigation systems; and using smart “xeriscaping” practices that emphasize the use of plants suitable to the environment.

The good sign, DeRobles said, is that overall household demand for drinking water has declined as more efficient water fixtures, toilets and other appliances become common. However, that’s offset by the rise in population.

Over the past three decades, the number of county-serviced water meters has grown from nearly 27,000 to more than 37,000, while consumption for each water meter has decreased by more than 20% from 1994 to 2021, according to the department’s water shortage and conservation plan released last year.

Stufflebean told the Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative on Thursday that the county’s water savings goal is 20% over the next 15 years. Water production was about 41.5 million gallons per day with a total population of roughly 167,000 in Maui County as of 2022, according to the conservation plan.

That population could grow to just over 222,000 needing 55.7 million gallons per day by 2040. But if the county follows its conservation goals, it could reduce water production for the same population to 44.5 million gallons per day.

Council Vice Chair Yuki Lei Sugimura, who chairs the budget committee and lives Upcountry where her landscaping has suffered through the regular drought, said any efforts by the department to be more conscious of water use “is going in the right direction.” However, the problem is and always has been enforcement because the department doesn’t have the staffing to check up on everyone, and residents don’t want to tattle on their neighbors. 

“Everybody has gotta be more akamai (smart) on how they use their water,” she said. “I think this is the right steps forward. It is education. It is policy changes, whatever we can do in government. But the real thing is that individual people have to become more water smart.”

Stufflebean said the department is including two enforcement positions in its fiscal year 2026 budget, and its proposed conservation bill calls for an expedited enforcement process and higher fines.

“Our first approach is always to encourage compliance and then use enforcement for the more serious violations,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

Lahaina resident Kekai Keahi said he’s fully supportive of the county’s water-saving measures but that private companies, which own most of the water in West Maui, have to do their part, too. Keahi said he is less worried about the penalties for overuse — which wealthy hotels and property owners can easily pay — and more about conservation and actually making sure the largest users also comply. 

Years ago, Keahi and others fought to put water back in the streams after decades of sugar plantation diversions in hopes that one day there would be enough for the environment and the public. But now he feels like he sees it going to waste overwatering luxury landscaping and sitting in pools of the homes he’s helping to rebuild in Lahaina. 

“Now the streams are flowing again, we’re recharging … aquifers again, and we’re trying to create capacity for the future,” Keahi said. “These are the things that we put into place, but now we need to go beyond that.”

Hawaiʻi Water Service, one of the private companies servicing West Maui, may not be under the county’s system, but General Manager Geoff Fulks pointed out that they are regulated by the state Public Utilities Commission that approves their rates and the state Commission on Water Resource Management that oversees their water allocation.

The company serves 1,200 residential and commercial customers in Kāʻanapali and Kapalua. It gets drinking water from wells they own or lease, and nonpotable water for irrigation at the Kāʻanapali Golf Course from a Maui Land & Pineapple Co.-owned ditch system that also serves Maui County.

John Kadowaki, the operations manager based on Maui, said the county gets first priority to use the drinking water from the shared system before the company can take any, under a policy set by the water commission.

Last month, with stream levels low because of the lack of rain, the company issued a tier 4 conservation that reserves water for fire protection use only and reduces all nonpotable water usage. Fulks said “that’s when we turn into water police” and go around and document customers’ water use. The company can turn off and lock the water meters of repeat offenders.

Even when a shortage is not in effect, the company measures moisture in its service areas and sends notices to customers whose usage is too high based on their area and current conditions, Kadowaki said.

Fulks said the company meets monthly with the county to discuss coordinating their conservation efforts because their tiers may be different from the county’s, and “we’re working together to get those as close as possible.”

Because the county and the company rely on the same water source, they have no choice but to align their conservation practices, he and Kadowaki said.

“We’ve really got to be unified in our message to all customers here,” Kadowaki said. “We have to work together to make sure that every bit of the resources is accounted for.”