Mayor Richard Bissen wants put an end to the water wars that have divided Maui for decades. State officials have agreed to hold off on considering a long-term license for millions of gallons of Maui water after Maui Mayor Richard Bissen stepped in and asked the state to work with the county on how water should be distributed. Bissen on Thursday sent a letter to Board of Land and Natural Resources Chair Dawn Chang urging her to defer issuing a 30-year water license while the county works to build partnerships among East Maui users who have long fought over access to the water supply.
The BLNR was scheduled to take up the issue at its meeting on Friday. But late Thursday Chang said she would take the issue off the table for now, “in deference” to Bissen’s request. “It’s time for us to work together and not against each other,” Bissen told Civil Beat in an interview Thursday afternoon.
That marks a significant development in Maui’s ongoing water wars that date back some 150 years to the plantation era. The mayor’s support for public management of water signals what could be a new chapter for the county as it battles for control of a public resource that largely rests in private hands. It builds on a Jan.
28, 2022 resolution the County Council adopted expressing interest in taking over the East Maui water leases. The seven-member land board was poised to consider whether the state should issue a long-term license for up to 85 million gallons per day of surface wat.