KULA COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION

Kula Community Association

P.O. Box 417

Kula, HI 96790��

http://kulamaui.com

The vision of the Kula Community Association is to preserve open space, support agriculture, maintain a rural residential atmosphere,

�and to work together as a community.

The specific purpose of this Association is to improve the quality of life for the residents of Kula, to promote civic welfare

and generally to benefit the community of Kula.

August 1, 2002

Dain P. Kane, Acting Chair, and Members

Maui County Council

200 South High Street

Wailuku, HI 96783

Re:�� Water Meter Issuance Rule for the Upcountry System - Chapter 106, Title 16

Dear Chair Kane and Members:

The Board of Directors of the Kula Community Association (KCA) discussed the proposed Water Meter Issuance at its July 11, 2002 meeting and unanimously approved a motion to request the Maui County Council to consider carefully the following issues when deliberating on the Water Meter Issuance Rule proposed by the Board of Water Supply:

Compliance with the Makawao-Pukalani-Kula Community Plan

The proposed Water Meter Issuance Rule makes no mention of the Community Plan priorities, but attempts to create its own priorities (i.e. the Department of Water Supply water meter waiting list). In conducting their affairs and when making rules, both the Board and Department of Water Supply are legally required to follow the community plans.�

The Makawao-Pukalani-Kula Community Plan, which is a Maui County ordinance, explicitly discusses the water problem on Page 11 and establishes the Hawaiian Homelands and agriculture as the highest priorities for delivery of water.� (Also see� Water - Objectives and Policies� #1 on Page 34 which lists residential development as a lower priority.)

The proposed Water Meter Issuance Rule, which will establish who gets the scarce supply of water, would ignore the Makawao-Pukalani-Kula Community Plan by not even mentioning the Hawaiian Homelands and Agriculture priorities.� Our farmers need water reserves to protect them from droughts.� The Hawaiian Homelands in the Keokea area is just beginning a long-term process to settle many thousand Hawaiian families on the land; they will need water that may be allocated to people on the list. The Hawaiians have been waiting much longer for that water.�

A possible solution might be to allocate or set aside a significant proportion of all available water for these important priorities.

When the Water Board conducted its public hearings on the proposed Water Meter Issuance Rule, many residents on the list testified that they were concerned about the multiple meters that might go to some applicants, before applicants further down the list received their meter.� These residents asked the Board to limit the number of meters granted to any one applicant on the first pass through the list. This would avoid issuance of multiple meters for sub-dividers who would subsequently be selling to people not on the list.

More importantly, this would allow more people who have been waiting many years for water to receive a meter. Those testifying felt that fairness was an issue that needed to be incorporated into the Rule. People should not get many meters while others were still waiting for one.

Several options were proposed.� Some said that multiple meters to an applicant should be limited to three meters maximum during the first pass through the list.� Others asked that meters be allowed only for genuine �family subdivisions� which would have some kind of �buy-back� provisions if the family wanted to resell outside the family.

The importance of this issue, coupled with the requirements of the Makawao-Pukalani-Kula Community Plan (�Implementing Action� #5 on Page 44) necessitate that Council meetings or hearings on this matter should be held Upcountry in the area affected by the proposed Water Meter Issuance Rule at times convenient to the general public. Our Board would be pleased to offer any help that the Council might need in conducting such an Upcountry meeting.

Thank you for your consideration of our concerns. We are confident these critical issues can be resolved promptly and fairly so that water will be available to those who have waited so long.��

Mahalo nui loa,

Elliott Krash, President

Cc:�� Mayor James �Kimo� Apana,

�� Peter Rice, Chair, Maui Board of Water Supply

�� David Craddick, Director, Maui Department of Water Supply

�� Department of Hawaiian Homelands

�� Maui County Farm Bureau