Waiahole Ditch Contested Case

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Category: Hawaii

Waiahole Ditch Contested Case.

The Waiahole Water Ditch was constructed in the early part of the twentieth century by the business interests on Oahu to bring water from the Windward Oahu to the Oahu Sugar Company plantations on the Leeward side. Streams ran low on the windward side as a result and the life therein were diminished. Taro cultivation too, suffered. When in 1994 the Amfac/JMB-Hawai`i, Inc moved its operations from central Oahu to the Phillipines, numerous interests began vieing for the Waiahole water that Amfac/JMB-Hawai'i had been using. Many native groups and other windward side organizations banded together by bringing suit to regain water diverted from their side of the island eighty years earlier. This is called the Waiahole Ditch Contested Case.

External Links

• Waiahole Tunnel: A Drain on Windward Resources (Environment Hawai'i, October 1994)
• Chronology of Waiahole Ditch (Environment Hawai'i, November 2000)
• Waiahole Decision Highlights (Environment Hawai'i, November 2000)
• Parting The Waters Supreme Court Throws Waiahole Dispute Back to Water Commission (Environment Hawai'i, November 2000)
• Kamehameha Schools Covets More Windward Stream Water -- Wanted to subsidize leeward development (Earthjustice, 7-31-02)
• Windward O`ahu Streams and Communities Win Further Protection -- Court: No give-away of public trust resources (Earthjustice, 6-22-04)
• Waiahole Water Rights (Earthjustice, 8-10-04)
• Coleman, Mark. Watching the water flow -- Vernon Pico and his crew "ride the ditch" to keep the Waiahole Irrigation System free of obstructions Honolulu Star-Bulletin, July 30, 2007.