Maui Land & Pineapple fined $140K for streamflow violations, but can offset penalty with improvements

Maui Land & Pineapple Co. is facing a $140,000 fine for violating streamflow standards but can offset the penalty if it makes improvements to its water system in Honokōhau Valley. 

The state Commission on Water Resource Management voted 6-0 on Tuesday to approve the fine and gave the company until Feb. 24 to meet with the community and come up with a list of projects with a total value of at least $140,000.

Commission staff said Maui Land & Pineapple violated the interim instream flow standard for Honokōhau Stream on 28 days from Jan. 1 to Aug. 14. Staff had originally proposed a fine of $126,500 for the company, which oversees a water system supplying Maui County customers, Kapalua residents and local farmers.

The commission increased the fine to the maximum possible and agreed to the tradeoff if the funds are used to benefit the community, whose ability to grow kalo and carry out other cultural practices has been impacted by low streamflows.

“I ask the commission to hold Maui Land and Pineapple accountable, not on paper, but through real, measurable action,” urged Kapule Eubank, whose family grows kalo at the top of Honokōhau Valley. “Accountability is essential if conditions in Honokōhau Stream are going to improve.”

The ditch system that diverts water from Honokōhau Stream is more than a century old and was originally funded by Maui Land & Pineapple and Pioneer Mill to irrigate their pineapple and sugarcane crops. Since the shuttering of both company’s plantations in the early 2000s, the water has been diverted to support non-potable water needs for the Maui County Department of Water Supply and the Kapalua resort area. 

In May 2021, Maui Land & Pineapple sold its subsidiary, Kapalua Water Company, to Hawai‘i Water Service, which took over operational control of the Honokōhau ditch system on behalf of Maui Land & Pineapple. However, Maui Land & Pineapple remains the owner and responsible party under the water commission’s orders. 

Weeks after the sale, the water commission set interim in-stream flow standards for Honokōhau Stream at 13.3 cubic feet per second, or 8.6 million gallons per day. If average daily flows fall below that threshold for three or more consecutive days or four days out of any seven-day period, that counts as a violation. 

Water from Honokōhau Stream is diverted into Honokōhau Ditch at Diversion 770, also known as Aotaki Weir, and can be returned to the stream at a location known as the Taro Gate. Farther downstream, at an elevation of 340 feet, sits MacDonald’s Dam, where the water commission has a real-time monitoring station.

When commission staff reviewed data from the water commission’s gauge at the dam and the U.S. Geological Survey’s gauge at the diversion earlier this year, they found 28 days between Jan. 1 and Aug. 14 when mean daily flows fell below the minimum levels. 

On Oct. 8, staff issued a notice of alleged violation to Maui Land & Pineapple. They recommended that the company be fined $126,500, which took into account the number of days of violations as well as the severity of the impacts. The maximum fine allowed by state law is $5,000 per violation, or $140,000 in this instance. 

On Tuesday, Maui Land & Pineapple said it was not contesting the commission staff’s findings, which relied on data taken in the field, but said that later verified data showed stream flows dipped under required levels on only two of the 28 days in question. On those two days, the Taro Gate had malfunctioned and stopped in a partially open position but was promptly repaired, the company said. 

Instead of a fine, the company suggested that it would create improvements to the system valued at about $135,000, roughly equal to the proposed fine. Those projects would include:

• Removing the debris of an old county bridge above MacDonald’s Dam at a cost of $25,000.
• Creating and operating an online public data dashboard at a cost of $5,000.
• Offering quarterly tours of its ditch system to representatives of Honokōhau Valley residents, at a cost of $20,000 each year for five years.
• Installing boards in the ditch just beyond the county’s intake to reduce the water that passes the county’s facility, at a cost of $5,000. 

Race Randle, CEO of Maui Land & Pineapple, said the company has updated its system to better handle low flows, especially during times of drought. For decades, he explained, the system has operated as a “divert and return type of system” in which water is taken from the stream and returned at the Taro Gate if needed to meet streamflow standards. 

But now the company is working to make it more of a system that’s focused on “keeping water in the stream at the source, especially during low flows.” For example, this year a restrictor plate was added at the Taro Gate to limit the amount of water getting into the ditch. And, the company added a remote-controlled gate at Diversion 770 that can be set at a taller height and keep more water in the stream at the diversion. The Taro Gate can also be controlled remotely. 

The water commission said the company should be making improvements anyway to make its system more efficient.

“Are you making these improvements because of the violations, or are you making these improvements … to make your system more efficient?” asked Dawn Chang, chair of the commission.

Randle said the company had already been looking into many of the improvements it suggested “well before the notice of violation.” He noted the company had discussed the improvements with the water commission in September. 

He also pointed out drought conditions have worsened in West Maui, which has contributed to the low streamflows. Over a 12-month period from September 2024 to August 2025, the total rainfall was only 46% of the annual average in Honokohau, resulting in a nearly 40% reduction in median streamflow, according to the water commission staff’s report.

But residents and customers who rely on the stream still placed some of the blame on Maui Land & Pineapple’s maintenance of the system and said the recent improvements should have been done earlier. 

Punahele Ladera-Dapitan, who grew up in Nāpili, said many of her uncles worked for Maui Land & Pineapple for more tha 20 years, including on the Honokōhau ditch system, and her family regularly went up to the mountains. Back in those days, the trails were clear and safe and the water was clean and inviting to swim in. Now, the trails are overgrown and the stream is filled with algae. 

She said the conditions of the ditch system and the failure to meet streamflow standards “are connected, and they must be addressed together.”

“Without repairing and maintaining the ditch system, we cannot meaningfully address water flow and stream health,” she said. “Fixing the ditch system may not solve all of our water problems, but it will help.”

In August, Kapalua golf course owner TY Management filed a lawsuit claiming that the company failed to properly maintain its system and provide irrigation water to its Plantation and Bay golf courses in Kapalua. In September, the PGA Tour announced it would be cancelling The Sentry tournament in 2026 due to the dried-out condition of the Plantation course. 

Maui Land & Pineapple has countered that TY Management failed to follow water restrictions and has used millions of gallons of water that were meant for fire suppression to irrigate its golf courses. 

Kenji Yui, general manager of TY Management, said Tuesday that he was given a tour of Diversion 770 in May and “was surprised and shocked to see no areas of repairs or maintenance.” In a slideshow he shared with the commission, he flipped through photos of a broken bridge, aging and damaged water infrastructure and accumulated sediment and debris.

“MLP, as the custodian of this asset, has a duty to care and protect this invaluable public resource,” Yui said. “MLP’s improvements seemed too late, too little.”

Gretchen Losano, whose family was displaced from the valley after flooding in 2018 and has since returned, said the issue over water for the golf courses shouldn’t distract from the actual public trust uses the stream is supposed to supply. She supported fines for Maui Land & Pineapple, saying “there’s been a long history of a lack of accountability for the maintenance of the ditch system.”

“Golf courses, again, that’s not a priority for the stream, and while we appreciate their support, please don’t lose focus on the actual people that live and farm in Honokōhau Valley,” Losano said.

Mahesh Cleveland of Earthjustice, which has also called for the water commission to stop the golf courses from using drinking water, cautioned that the issue was at risk of turning into a “war between the fat cats.” He said the work the commission really needs to be doing is issuing water permits to the dozens of West Maui residents and businesses who have been waiting more than two years for the commission to take action.

“We really need to have these public trust uses locked in before dealing with all the squabbles between the big rich landowners that are just taking like huge amounts of water off the stream,” Cleveland said. 

Water Commissioner Lawrence Miike agreed “the commission also has a duty to get the damn permit system going.”

“Ultimately we have to decide how we’re going to apportion the waters, because it’s obvious a shortage,” Miike said. 

Miike proposed the maximum fine with the conditions, saying he was “sympathetic” to the idea of swapping a fine for projects that would make actual physical improvements to the system and benefit the community.

After the decision on Tuesday afternoon, Maui Land & Pineapple said in a statement to the Hawai‘i Journalism Initiative: “We appreciate the Commission’s thoughtful resolution and support for our request to fund community priorities.

“We heard the community’s concerns over extreme drought and the need to ensure more water stays in Honokōhau Stream. We also heard the Kapalua golf course owner’s concerns that we should have taken more water from the stream. Our focus will continue to be on responsible stewardship, as guided by the Commission, and on working with the community to manage this resource for the benefit of all.”