Water Use = Land Use

Like sunup and sundown, the use of land and water are related in an endless cycle. But this understanding, which was so obvious to the taro farmer and the sugar planter, is dangerously lost on most city dwellers.

As a result, most voters blink and yawn while the state administration pursues its agenda of abolishing the State Water Commission. Let the counties–in the name of Home Rule–determine their own water policies, the governor is saying.

In fact, abolishing the Water Commission is not about Home Rule. It is being done for expediency. The real agenda is unfettered development, which requires allocating water to the development of land.

Both the Water Commission and the Land Use Commission are targets because they look at the big picture from a resource preservation viewpoint and set priorities on their use. The Water Commission was launched during my tenure as governor. At the time I was alarmed by rapidly increasing water use and by demands to draw down the water lens. I was in accord with the 1978 Constitutional Convention's declaration on water, which said: "The State has an obligation to protect, control and regulate the use of Hawaii's water resources for the benefit of its people."

Unlike in many areas, we can readily agree on the definition of "sustainability" regarding the water supply. It is the level of water use that perpetuates rather than damages the underground water source. Because our precious fresh water is ever so much lighter than salt water, it "floats" on an underground lens. Roughly one foot of fresh water above the ocean level is supported by 40 feet of fresh water below. When the fresh water table drops a foot, it means the underlying salt water has risen 40 feet. When wells become more saline, as some reportedly have, our resource base is in jeopardy.

The 1978 Constitution's determination to protect water was in line with Hawaiian tradition, which reserved ownership to the crown in trust. It likewise was in line with the Supreme Court's 1973 McBryde Plantation ruling, which held that water rights ultimately belonged to the state. We were clarifying that water is not a commodity to be sold to the highest bidder, but a resource, that must be cared for in the broad public interest over the long term.

To now suggest that the Water Commission functions could be taken over by a county-level board of water supply is to misunderstand why state oversight was needed in the first place. At the county level, we have not one but several systems: The public water-supply agencies are the most visible, but we also have military and agricultural systems. The State Water Commission effectively hauled these elements into a regulatory and allocation system, while engaging in the necessary technical studies and stimulating dialogue through public hearings. The commission proved its ability to look at the big picture while resolving differences between regions and interests, as in the Waiahole Ditch case.

County governments are simply not structured for such a task. As with land, county governments have an extraordinary interest in development, because they depend primarily on revenues from property tax. The temptation of the county governments is not to manage water for the long term, but to provide it to developers for the short term.

The call for abolishing the Water Commission, along with the Land Use Commission, comes in the aftermath of sugar and pineapple. The decline and closing of plantations in the 1990s took many of the biggest water users out of the equation. Total use of water declined temporarily. However, the result is only a short-term surplus.

In this situation, the Legislature correctly has resisted pressure from the Administration. We must continue to hold the line on our regulatory system while we diversify agriculture and prudently develop urban lands.

The state administration should quietly realize the folly of its Home Rule concept, and the State Water Commission should return to vigorously discharging its constitutionally assigned duties.

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