Water for Generations – Protecting West Maui’s Lifeline
The Full Story as alleged in our complaint:
Honokōhau Ditch System
In Hawai‘i, where the constitution requires that “the State and its political subdivisions shall conserve and protect Hawaii’s… natural resources … and shall promote the development and utilization of these resources in a manner consistent with their conservation and in furtherance of the self-sufficiency of the State,” critical water infrastructure, like the Honokōhau Ditch System, should be managed by the State or the County of Maui.
As alleged in the complaint, this is not the case. Instead, the Honokōhau Ditch System, on which residents, farmers, and businesses in Kapalua and parts of West Maui all depend, is owned by an often-struggling, once-nearly-bankrupt, former plantation company with a history of environmental violations and problems — Defendant Maui Land & Pineapple.
And MLP is doing a terrible, actionable job of complying with its responsibilities as the Ditch System’s owner and operator. This must stop; water users cannot bear MLP’s incompetence any longer.
MLP has knowingly, and in violation of its promises and obligations to Plaintiffs, allowed the Ditch System to fall into a state of demonstrable disrepair. That disrepair, not any act of God, or force of nature, or other thing, is why users who need it are currently without water.
Plaintiffs bring this case against MLP because MLP has abused the trust of residents, farmers, and businesses in Kapalua and parts of West Maui, all of whom are now being starved for irrigation water by MLP.
Where is the Water?
Now, under scrutiny, MLP is telling Plaintiffs and other water users in West Maui that there is not enough water to serve their needs, repeatedly claiming that water is scarce “due to low precipitation in the Pu‘u Kukui watershed.” But that statement is false.
Precipitation in the Pu‘u Kukui watershed is anything but “low.” The Pu‘u Kukui region receives an average of 225 inches of rain per year, and the annual mean discharge of the Honokōhau Stream was slightly higher in 2024 than it was in 2009, when MLP first promised that there would always be enough irrigation water for all of West Maui.
For comparison, the famously rainy “Emerald City,” Seattle, Washington, received 55.14 inches of rain in its wettest year ever. Similarly, rainy Portland, Oregon, in its wettest year ever, recorded 72.71 inches of rain.
Water is scarce, not because rain is falling in significantly smaller quantities. Rather, water is scarce because MLP has failed to honor its promises to maintain the infrastructure used to collect, carry, and store it properly. Making matters worse, MLP has repeatedly said that it is planning to develop new luxury residences, hotels, and even a new golf course, all while it claims there is not enough water for the existing Kapalua community.
Photo from May 2025 shows the intake to the Honokōhau Ditch System from Honokōhau Stream. MLP installed the plywood restrictor board to regulate the amount of water going into the ditch pursuant to an order from the Commission on Water Resources Management in 2021 but never replaced it with a more permanent fix as required by that order. This just is one example of how MLP has ignored government orders relating to the Ditch System.Despite exhaustive efforts from TY and others to engage MLP in a cooperative fashion to fix the Ditch System, MLP has refused. MLP is evidently content to see water users’ reasonable and beneficial needs go unmet, and to see the cost of irrigation water increase for end users. TY has gone so far as to offer to MLP that TY would finance maintenance and rehabilitation of the Ditch System as long as MLP completed studies on the integrity of the Ditch System and released those studies to the public. Incredibly, MLP said no.
MLP’s Responsibility
At the same time MLP is telling TY, as well as the greater Kapalua and West Maui communities, that drought and storms in 2018 are to blame for the fact that there isn’t enough water to go around, MLP is making its own plans to use more and more water. Strange.
Specifically, MLP’s alleged non-potable water shortage issues come at a time when MLP is seeking to develop its remaining real estate assets.
MLP told its shareholders that it has “entitlements to develop a variety of projects in the Kapalua Resort. Three projects that are currently in various stages of planning include Kapalua Central Resort, Kapalua Mauka, and Kapalua Makai. And it said that the Kapalua Mauka remaining project area encompasses approximately 930 acres of land and has State and County land use entitlements to deliver up to 639 single-family homes, resort amenities, and an additional golf course or recreational space. As of this filing, planning and pre-development efforts are underway for the project.
MLP’s most recent quarterly report similarly confirms that, at the same time as MLP’s neglect and mismanagement of the Ditch System is starving West Maui of the water MLP promised to provide, MLP has roughly tripled revenues from its water operations, presumably on account of the significant increase in water rates that MLP has imposed. In other words, rather than using these revenues to make needed repairs, MLP is pocketing the extra money, all while the water needs of those who depend on MLP’s water infrastructure go unmet.
July 8, 2025, Pacific Business News reported that MLP has recently experienced significant growth partly due to increased entitlements for real estate development on its properties. A few weeks later, again during a time of alleged water scarcity for existing users, the same source ran a profile on MLP’s CEO Race Randle, in which he stated that MLP is aiming to get “land productive,” including “land that’s already entitled for residential and resort zoning.”
Race Randle ended 2024 with an overall compensation of $2.93 million, making him one of the highest paid CEOs in Hawai‘i.
Community Impact for Maui’s non-profits including Hua Momona Farms
Hua Momona operates a 25-acre organic farm in Kapalua. Producing crops, microgreens, sod, and trees for local restaurants, reforestation, and rebuilding projects.
The organization supplies trees at no cost to Lahaina residents in the 2023 wildfires and cultivates sod to help restore burned properties in Lahaina.
Hua Momona Farms created hot meals made from farm produce at below-market cost to the Foundation.
To date, has helped serve over 80,000 meals to wildfire survivors and families in need.
Hosts community events like the Maui Music and Food Experience, which bring together residents, schools, and ag partners to support food security.
After the 2023 Lahaina wildfires, Hua Momona became a cornerstone of community recovery:
Food relief through meal programs.
Tree recovery/reforestation projects.
Support for rebuilding through sod and agricultural aid.
Hua Momona relies completely on irrigation water from the Honokōhau Ditch System and these restrictions have crippled its operations:
Meal support dropped from ~6,000 meals/month to ~1,000 meals/month.
Threatened with water shutoffs and faces imminent crop loss, soil degradation, and long-term viability risks.
LITIGATION
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