Community activists Marti Townsend and Mehealani Wendt’s Community Voice “Lawmakers Should Reject A&B’s Water Rights Bill” is a very sad testament to how ignoring facts and fostering misconceptions will jeopardize the future of Hawaii agriculture and the beautiful expanses of green, open space that we all want to preserve.

We’d like to set the record straight. A bill moving through the Legislature, House Bill 1326, is not a complex bill and it’s not “A&B’s bill.” It is an absolutely necessary measure for the many farmers and ranchers throughout the islands who rely on state short-term water permits and whose livelihoods were put in limbo three years ago when, in litigation, the Department of Land and Natural Resources permit process was deemed to be flawed and these types of permits couldn’t be renewed.

As a result of this, permit holders were told by the state that they needed to apply for and obtain long-term water leases, despite insurmountable procedural obstacles and incalculable costs. Many of these water users are farmers and ranchers who are members of our organization, who have no other viable options for access to irrigation and livestock water and who will be forced to stop farming without access to this water.

Hawaii Farm Bureau

Later that same year, 2016, recognizing the impossible predicament farmers were facing, the Legislature passed a bill that allowed for up to three years to extend the annual short-term permits, hoping it would give DLNR the time to create an equitable process for water users to obtain long-term permits. This measure was needed to ensure adherence to the state’s constitutional mandates: to conserve and protect agricultural lands, promote diversified agriculture, increase agricultural self-sufficiency and assure the availability of agriculturally suitable lands. Goals that are impossible without water.

We want you to know that farmers are not looking for loopholes or trying to skirt environmental protections. We want long-term leases that protect the public trust resources while giving us some security to continue farming. There is enough water for all; the stream ecosystems, as well as all farmers, should be allowed to thrive.

But unfortunately, the three years have nearly passed and our farmers are still without leases, despite sincere efforts to obtain them. We are still in limbo. Without legislative action now, Hawaii’s small farmers, the ones that everyone says they support and want more of, will be unable to continue farming.

Even A&B, with its vast resources, has been delayed in its attempts since 1985 to complete the state lease process. The 18 lawsuits filed by the Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. (Ms. Wendt was the corporation’s long-time executive director) and similar groups, who claim to speak for Hawaii’s farmers, have significantly stalled progress. But in the meantime, the East Maui streams have been restored. And, since 2016, 90% to 95% of the natural flow has been available to the taro-growing communities there. All of those diversions are being sealed and the remaining flow will soon be returned, once the State issues the required closure permits.

To clarify, this bill in no way provides an automatic seven-year extension of anyone’s water permits. There is no free-for-all of unlimited water, unlimited kinds of uses, for an unlimited period of time. For every permit, the state requires a rigorous review process in which the details of each water use are scrutinized by the Board of Land and Natural Resources and approved, or not. This is done every year for each permit.

If House Bill 1326 is not passed, farmers and ranchers who have no alternative sources of water, will have no legal mechanism to request and obtain continued access to the water they have relied upon for decades.

Our affected small farmers and ranchers have been trying for decades — some as long as 40 years — to secure long-term leases from the state. We are not evil, we are not greedy, and we sincerely want to comply with all the necessary requirements.

Here is the problem; the complexity, cost, and years involved in the state water lease process, the requirement to do an environmental assessment/impact statement that could cost in the millions of dollars, and the frightening uncertainty that even if we can meet all of the requirements, there is no guarantee that we will be awarded a lease.

Farmers are used to taking risks. We are constantly at the mercy of the weather, invasive and destructive pests and disease, natural disasters, market fluctuations for our products, the increasing costs of growing food without commensurate increases in what the public is willing to pay, the lack of people we can hire who want to work hard in the soil and extreme heat … these are some of the many reasons why only about 2% of people farm, so that the rest of the population can eat. But when it comes to the maze of convoluted and constantly changing state water lease requirements, our farmers have found themselves in a quagmire.

If House Bill 1326 is not passed, farmers and ranchers who have no alternative sources of water, will have no legal mechanism to request and obtain continued access to the water they have relied upon for decades. What is at risk here is the livelihood and agricultural production of well over a hundred small farmers and ranchers on Kauai, Maui and the Big Island, hydropower facilities that contribute to Hawaii’s renewable energy production; water for 30,000 Upcountry Maui residents and farmers; domestic water for many Big Island families, and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to keep 30,000 acres of land in Central Maui in agriculture for generations to come.

We all want Hawaii to be more food and energy self-sufficient so that we don’t need to import nearly all of our food and fuel. But without access to water, those goals will never be met. Please show your support for local agricultural producers by supporting HB 1326 and proving that Hawaii is indeed serious about becoming more sustainable.