East Maui Irrigation | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

June 13, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Alexander & Baldwin

In 1843, Samuel Thomas Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin, sons of early missionaries to Hawaiʻi, met in Lāhainā, Maui. They grew up together, became close friends and went on to develop a sugar-growing partnership.

Alexander was the idea man, more outgoing and adventurous of the two. He had a gift for raising money to support his business projects.

Baldwin was more reserved and considered the “doer” of the partners; he completed the projects conceived by Alexander.

After studying on the Mainland, Alexander returned to Maui and began teaching at Lahainaluna, where he and his students successfully grew sugar cane and bananas.

Word of the venture spread to the owner of Waiheʻe sugar plantation near Wailuku, and Alexander was offered the manager’s position.

Alexander hired Baldwin as his assistant, who at the time was helping his brother raise sugar cane in Lāhainā. This was the beginning of a lifelong working partnership.

In 1869, the young men – Alexander was 33, Baldwin, 27 – purchased 12-acres of land in Makawao and the following year an additional 559-acres. That same year, the partners planted sugar cane on their land marking the birth of what would become Alexander & Baldwin (A&B.)

In 1871, they saw the need for a reliable source of water, and to this end undertook the construction of the Hāmākua ditch in 1876.

Although not an engineer, Alexander devised an irrigation system that would bring water from the windward slopes of Haleakala to Central Maui to irrigate 3,000 acres of cane – their own and neighboring plantations.

Baldwin oversaw the Hāmākua Ditch project, known today as East Maui Irrigation Company (the oldest subsidiary of A&B,) and within two years the ditch was complete.

The completed Old Hāmākua Ditch was 17-miles long and had a capacity of 60-million gallons per day. A second ditch was added, the Spreckels Ditch; when completed, it was 30-miles long with a capacity of 60-million gallons per day.

Before World War I, the New Hāmākua, Koʻolau, New Haiku and Kauhikoa ditches were built. A total of ten ditches were constructed between 1879 and 1923.

Over the next thirty years, the two men became agents for nearly a dozen plantations and expanded their plantation interests by acquiring Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company and Kahului Railroad.

In 1883, Alexander and Baldwin formalized their partnership by incorporating their sugar business as the Paia Plantation also known at various times as Samuel T Alexander & Co, Haleakala Sugar Co and Alexander & Baldwin Plantation.

By spring of 1900, A&B had outgrown its partnership organization and plans were made to incorporate the company, allowing the company to increase capitalization and facilitate expansion.

The Articles of Association and affidavit of the president, secretary and treasurer were filed June 30, 1900 with the treasurer of the Territory of Hawaiʻi. Alexander & Baldwin, Limited became a Hawaiʻi corporation, with its principal office in Honolulu and with a branch office in San Francisco.

Shortly after, in 1904, Samuel Alexander passed away on one of his adventures. While hiking with his daughter to the edge of Victoria Falls, Africa, he was struck by a boulder. Seven years later, Baldwin passed away at the age of 68 from failing health.

After the passing of the founders, Alexander & Baldwin continued to expand their sugar operations by acquiring additional land, developing essential water resources and investing in shipping (Matson) to bring supplies to Hawaii and transport sugar to the US Mainland markets.

A&B was one of Hawaiʻi’s five major companies (that emerged to providing operations, marketing, supplies and other services for the plantations and eventually came to own and manage most of them.) They became known as the Big Five.

Hawaiʻi’s Big Five were: C Brewer (1826;) A Theo H Davies (1845;) Amfac – starting as Hackfeld & Company (1849;) Castle & Cooke (1851) and Alexander & Baldwin (1870.)

What started off as partnership between two young men, with the purchase of 12 acres in Maui, has grown into a corporation with $2.3 billion in assets, including over 88,000 acres of land.

(In 2012, A&B separated into two stand-alone, publicly traded companies – A&B, focusing on land and agribusiness and Matson, on transportation.)

A&B is the State’s fourth largest private landowner, and is one of the State’s most active real estate investors. It’s portfolio includes a diversity of projects throughout Hawaiʻi, and a significant commercial property portfolio in Hawaiʻi and on the US Mainland. (Information here is from Alexander & Baldwin.)

December 10, 2023 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Isthmus

Volcanoes in the Hawaiian Islands form in response to hot-spot magmatism deep below the lithosphere. As a volcano is moved away from the hot spot by motion of the Pacific tectonic plate, it ceases volcanic activity and a new vent forms.

Thus, a chain of volcanoes forms along the direction of plate motion, with younger volcanoes near the position of the hot spot.

As volcanoes emerge above the sea surface, they form a gently sloping volcanic shield; the period from when a new volcano breaks the sea surface to the end of shield building is estimated to last about 0.5 million years.

Throughout the growth of a volcano and for some time after completion of its shield, weight on the thin oceanic crust causes the volcano to subside. During shield building, rapid growth outpaces subsidence and there is a net increase in height and area. However, when shield building ceases, net subsidence submerges many areas formerly above sea level.

In addition, over long time periods, erosion is an important factor in changing the topography of an island. Erosion is difficult to model because there is no accurate way to determine the timing and magnitude of all events. (Price and Elliott-Fisk)

Maui is a doublet – that is, it originally consisted of two distinct islands which were later united. (USGS) West Maui and Haleakala lava flows joined to form a broad, low isthmus. (Holthus) The 7-mile wide valleylike isthmus earned Maui the nickname of the “valley isle.” (Britannica)

“The north side of the isthmus, the location of Pauleukalo Marsh and Kanaha Pond, consists of stream-transported sediments and beach material. The marshes have formed in coastal depressions. Kanaha Pond formed in weathered lava. During floods, freshwater overflows the wetland and the barrier ridge and discharges directly to the ocean.”

“The beaches along the north side of Maui’s isthmus are discontinuous and fronted by beachrock outcrops. Beach rock up to 790 ft offshore from the present beach indicates a general trend of erosion over the last few hundred years.”

“The south side of Maui’s isthmus supports a 4 mi long, gently curved barrier beach which separates Kealia Pond from the ocean. Water level fluctuates seasonally, forming a 400-500 acre shallow, brackish pond in winter and spring, and exposing extensive red-brown mudflats in summer.”

“The wetland is slowly filling with stream-transported deposits of terrigenous material and wind-blown beach sands. The pond’s

drainage outlet is periodically blocked by sand, but clears during heavy streamflows.” (Holthus)

The abundance of water in Nā Wai ʻEhā ((“The Four Great Waters”) – Waiheʻe River, Waiehu Stream, Wailuku (ʻĪao) Stream and Waikapū Stream are in central Maui) enabled extensive loʻi kalo (wetland kalo) complexes, including varieties favored for poi-making such as “throat-moistening lehua poi.” (CWRM)

Nā Wai ʻEhā once “comprised the largest continuous area of wetland taro cultivation in the islands.” Its “complex agricultural system of wetland kalo cultivation,” together with the abundant protein sources in the streams and nearshore waters, supported one of the largest populations on Maui.

The fertile kalo lands, complex system of irrigation ʻauwai (ditches) and abundant fresh water from Nā Wai ʻEhā sustained Hawaiian culture for 1,000-years.

Given the makeup of the Nā Wai ʻEhā, Waiheʻe River and ‘Īao historically would have flowed continuously to the coast; Waiehu Stream would have flowed continuously to the coast at least 95 percent of the time; and Waikapū Stream would have flowed continuously to the coast less than half of the time. (USGS)

While water was flowing in the river valleys, in about 1840 it was estimated that, “The isthmus is too dry to be fit for cultivation; it is in extent about twenty by fifteen miles. During nine months of the year it is a fine grazing country, and feeds large herd of cattle, that are mostly owned by foreigner.” (Wilkes (1840-41))

“The district of Wailuku is composed of valley and upland. The soil in the former is extremely rich and well watered; the upland, also, produces good crops when sufficient moisture can be had. Potatoes, corn, sugar-cane, and sweet potatoes, are the chief products of the windward side of the island.” (Wilkes)

“Between the beaches of Kahului and those of Maalaea and Kalepolepo lies a vast expanse of level land, forming an isthmus connecting east and west Maui, which as it exists is fit for nothing except the pasturage of animals and in some places not even fit for that owing to an entire destitution of water supply.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June24, 1876)

“The area of this land is perhaps not less than fifty thousand acres, and capable, if irrigated, of producing many thousand tons of sugar. Most of this belongs to the government, and if the spirit of enterprise were rife among those in authority …”

“… this whole plain could be turned into a garden, for there is an abundance of water running waste upon the highlands of Haleakala amply sufficient if utilized for this purpose to supply the entire tract.”

“The subject of irrigation of this plain has been more than once brought forward for consideration, but no thorough investigations have been divulged, if they have ever been made, as to the best means of bringing down the waste water on to it, or the probable expense that would accrue, although the feasibility of the project is not to be doubted.”

“During the reign of Kamehameha V, some investigations were said to have been made, but as to their nature or comprehensiveness the public were allowed to remain in the dark, or to be satisfied with the dicta of his imperious ministry, that the engineering would be too costly and the whole affair too ponderous to be handled by the government.”

“This is certainly one of our first and greatest needs, and with reciprocity to back us there would be no fear of the result… We have heard of a suggestion to irrigate this plain, or a part of it, by water derived from the streams of Waiehu and Waihee, much of whose water now runs to waste.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, June24, 1876)

By the 1870s, growing plantation interests in the region sought out ways to turn what had become almost desolate isthmus lands and neighboring kula lands of Maui, green with cane.

Their economic plan was made viable by the passage of a Reciprocity Treaty between the United States and the Hawaiian Kingdom on January 30, 1875; and subsequent ratification of the treaty by King Kalākaua on April 17, 1875.

The treaty went into effect on September 9th, 1876, and on September 13th, 1876, King Kalākaua granted issuance of the first Water License for construction of the “Haiku Ditch,” and drawing water out of streams of the Hāmākua Loa District.

The initial development of the ditch system was authorized as a part of the Hawaiian Kingdom’s program to promote prosperity for all the people of the Kingdom. (Kumupono)

Sugar was planted and the West Maui streams were diverted. In addition, five ditches originating in East Maui at different levels are used to convey the water from that region to the cane fields on the isthmus of Maui.

In order of elevation they are Haiku, Lowrie, Old Hamakua, New Hamakua, and Kailuanui ditches. They cross about 20 gulches east of Maliko, all of which have more or less water at all times and large quantities after storms. (USGS, 1910-1911)

Wailuku Sugar was organized in 1862 by James Robinson, Thomas Cummins, J Fuller and agent C Brewer. In 1878, through his friendship with King Kalākaua, Claus Spreckels secured a lease of 40,000-acres of land on Maui and by 1882 he founded the Hawaiian Commercial Company (later known as Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company – HC&S.)

The late-1890s saw internal family conflicts. Spreckels lost control of HC&S and in 1898; it became a part of Alexander & Baldwin Co. Following the 1948 merger of HC&S and Maui Agriculture Co., HC&S became a division of Alexander & Baldwin.

Fast forward to December 2016, Hawai‘i saw its last sugar harvest on the Maui isthmus. In December 2018, Alexander & Baldwin (A&B) announced that it had sold its 41,000-acre sugar plantation in Maui’s central plains to Mahi Pono LLC, a joint venture between Pomona Farming LLC, a California-based agricultural group, and the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments), one of Canada’s largest pension investment managers.

Much of the sugar land is now in diversified farming (with orchard and row crops such as lime, lemon, orange, tangerine, coffee, avocado, macadamia nut, ‘ulu, onion, kale, lettuce, watermelon, bananas, coconut, and lilikoi) by Mahi Pono.

As of December 2022, Mahi Pono had planted more than 1.64 million trees on approximately 8,625 acres of land. In addition to our tree plantings, we have also prepared over 9,000 acres of grass pastureland to support our Maui Cattle Company grass-fed beef operations. Their products are typically sold under the Maui Harvest brand. (Mahi Pono)

July 28, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Haʻikū

It’s melted away;
This Buddha of snow is now
Indeed a true one
(Yamazaki Sokan (1464-1553))

A traditional Haiku is a three-line poem with seventeen syllables, written in a 5/7/5 syllable count.

Wait … that’s not what this is about. However, this is about a place (Haʻikū) at about the time the Haiku above was written.

According to oral tradition, Piʻilani unified the entire island of Maui, bringing together under one rule the formerly-competing eastern (Hāna) and western (Wailuku) multi-district kingdoms of the Island. In the 1500s, Chief Piʻilani (“stairway to heaven”) ruled in peace and prosperity.

Among other accomplishments, Piʻilani built interconnecting trails. His son, Kihapiʻilani laid the East Maui section and connected the island. This trail was the only ancient pathway to encircle any Hawaiian island (not only along the coast, but also up the Kaupō Gap and through the summit area and crater of Haleakalā.)

“Hāmākua Poko (Short Hāmākua) and Hāmākua Loa (Long Hāmākua) are two coastal regions where gently sloping kula lands intersected by small gulches come down to the sea along the northern coast line of East Maui.”

“Stream taro was probably planted along the watercourses well up into the higher kula land and forest taro throughout the lower forest zone. The number of very narrow ahupuaʻa thus utilized along the whole of the Hāmākua coast indicates that there must have been a very considerable population.”

“This would be despite the fact that it is an area of only moderate precipitation because of being too low to draw rain out of trade winds flowing down the coast from the rugged and wet northeast Koʻolau area that lies beyond.”

“It was probably a favorable region for breadfruit, banana, sugar cane, arrowroot; and for yams and ʻawa in the interior. The slopes between gulches were covered with good soil, excellent for sweet-potato planting. The low coast is indented by a number of small bays offering good opportunity for fishing.” (Handy)

At the boundary of Hāmākaupoko and Hāmākualoa (within the Hāmākualoa moku) is the ahupuaʻa of Haʻikū (lit. speak abruptly) and Haʻikū Uka (inland.)

At the time of Captain Cook’s arrival (1778-1779), the Hawaiian Islands were divided into four kingdoms: (1) the island of Hawaiʻi under the rule of Kalaniʻōpuʻu, who also had possession of the Hāna district of east Maui; (2) Maui (except the Hāna district,) Molokaʻi, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, ruled by Kahekili; (3) Oʻahu, under the rule of Kahahana; and (4) Kauaʻi and Niʻihau, Kamakahelei was ruler.

In the battles between Kalaniʻōpuʻu and Kahekili, “Kalaniʻōpuʻu decided to go on to Koʻolau, Maui, where food was abundant. He went to Kāʻanapali and fed his soldiers upon the taro of Honokahua….”

“At Hāmākualoa Kalaniʻōpuʻu landed and engaged in battle, but Kahekili hastened to the aid of his men, and they put up such a fierce fight that Kalaniʻōpuʻu fled in his canoes. Landing at Koʻolau he slew the common people and maltreated the captives”.

Of the wars, it was noted, “Like the fiery petals of the lehua blossoms of Pi‘iholo were the soldiers of Kahekili, red among the leaves of the koa trees of Liliko‘i or as one glimpses them through the kukui trees of Ha‘ikū.” (Kamakau)

During Kamehameha’s later conquest of Maui at Wailuku and ʻIao Valley, his canoe fleet landed at various places along the Hāmākua coast.

A notable feature along and through Haʻikū is Maliko Gulch; it apparently had a pre-contact canoe landing at the mouth of the gulch. (Xamanek)

“Maliko is a place with a good stream, it is also an anchorage for seafaring boats, and there is a wharf on one side. The cliff is quite steep, but the flat lands below, are beautifully adorned with groves of kukui.” (A Journey, 1868; Maly)

By 1858, The Haʻikū Sugar Plantation was formed, at the time, there were only ten sugar companies in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Five of these sugar companies were on the island of Maui, but only two were in operation. The five were: East Maui Plantation at Kaluanui, Brewer Plantation at Hāliʻimaile, LL Torbert and Captain James Makee’s plantation at ʻUlupalakua, Hāna and Haʻikū Plantation.

The Haiku Mill, on the east bank of Maliko Gulch, was completed in 1861; 600-acres of cane the company had under cultivation yielded 260 tons of sugar and 32,015 gallons of molasses. Over the years the company procured new equipment for the mill.

(In 1853, the government of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i had set aside much of the adjoining Hāmākuapoko to the Board of Education. The Board of Education deeded the Hāmākuapoko acreage which was unencumbered by native claims to the Trustees of Oʻahu College (Punahou) in 1860, who then sold the land to the Haʻikū Sugar Company (Cultural Surveys))

In 1871 Samuel T Alexander became manager of the mill. Alexander and later his partner, Henry Perrine Baldwin, saw the need for a reliable source of water, and started construction of the Hāmākua ditch in 1876.

With the completion of the ditch, the majority of Haʻikū Plantation’s crops were grown on the west side of Maliko gulch. As a result in 1879 Haʻikū mill was abandoned and its operations were transferred to Hāmākuapoko where a new factory was erected, which had more convenient access to the new sugar fields.

Other ditches were later added to the system, with five ditches at different levels used to convey the water to the cane fields on the isthmus of Maui. In order of elevation they are Haʻikū, Lowrie, Old Hāmākua, New Hāmākua, and Kailuanui ditches. (They became part of the East Maui Irrigation system.)

Although two missionaries (Richard Armstrong and Amos Cooke) established the Haʻikū Sugar Company in 1858, its commercial success was due to a second-generation missionary descendant, Henry Perrine Baldwin. In 1877, Baldwin constructed a sugar mill on the west side of Maliko Gulch, named the Hāmākuapoko Mill.

By 1880, the Haiku Sugar Company was milling and bagging raw sugar at Hāmākuapoko for shipment out of Kuau Landing. The Kuau Landing was abandoned in favor of the newly-completed Kahului Railroad line in 1881, with all regional sugar sent then by rail to the port of Kahului.

Brothers Henry Perrine and David Dwight Baldwin laid the foundation for the company in the late-1800s through the acquisition of land. Experimentation with hala kahiki (pineapple) began in 1890, when the first fruit was planted in Haʻikū.

In 1903 the Baldwin brothers formed Haʻikū Fruit & Packing Company, launching the pineapple industry on Maui. Maui’s first pineapple cannery began operations by 1904, with the construction of a can-making plant and a cannery in Haʻikū.

1,400 cases of pineapple were packed during the initial run. In time, the independent farmers for miles around brought their fruit there to be processed.

Haʻikū Plantation remained in operation until 1905 when it merged with Pāʻia Plantation, to form Maui Agricultural Company. (In 1948, Maui Agricultural Company merged with HC&S (Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company.))

At the outbreak of WWII, the Army rented 1,600-acres from various landowners in the Haʻikū area. Buildings went up for offices, tents for living quarters; mess halls were constructed and roads carved out. Post Exchanges opened up; movie screens and stages were built and baseball diamonds were laid out.

The 4th Marine Division was deactivated November 28, 1945. In April 1946, the Camp Maui land was returned to the owners. Today, the grounds are now a public park named “Kalapukua Playground” (“magical playground”;) Giggle Hill has a large children’s playground (and some claim they can still hear the laughter of Marines and their girlfriends on dark nights.) The centerpiece of the park is the memorial to the Fourth Marine Division.

November 27, 2021 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Haiku Plantation

On May 31, 1858, H Holdsworth, Richard Armstrong, Amos Cooke, G Robertson, MB Beckwith and FS Lyman (shareholders in Castle & Cooke) met to consider the initiation of a sugar plantation at Haiku on Maui.

Shortly after (November 20, 1858,) the Privy Council authorized the Minister of the Interior to grant a charter of incorporation to them for the Haiku Sugar Company.

At the time, there were only ten sugar companies in the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Five of these sugar companies were on the island of Maui, but only two were in operation. The five were: East Maui Plantation at Kaluanui, Brewer Plantation at Haliimaile, LL Torbert and Captain James Makee’s plantation at ʻUlupalakua, Hāna and Haiku Plantation.

The mill, on the east bank of Maliko Gulch, was completed in 1861; 600-acres of cane the company had under cultivation yielded 260 tons of sugar and 32,015 gallons of molasses. Over the years the company procured new equipment for the mill.

Using the leading edge technology of the time, the Haiku Sugar Mill was, reportedly, the first sugarcane mill in Hawaiʻi that used a steam engine to grind the cane.

Their cane was completely at the mercy of the weather and rainfall; yield fluctuated considerably. For example it went from 970-tons in 1876 to 171-tons in 1877.

(In 1853, the government of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i had set aside much of the ahupua‘a of Hāmākuapoko to the Board of Education. The Board of Education deeded the Hāmākuapoko acreage which was unencumbered by native claims to the Trustees of Oʻahu College (Punahou) in 1860, who then sold the land to the Haiku Sugar Company (Cultural Surveys))

With the completion of the ditch, the majority of Haiku Plantation’s crops were grown on the west side of Maliko gulch. As a result in 1879 Haiku mill was abandoned and its operations were transferred to Hāmākuapoko where a new factory was erected, which had more convenient access to the new sugar fields.

Other ditches were later added to the system, with five ditches at different levels used to convey the water to the cane fields on the isthmus of Maui. In order of elevation they are Haiku, Lowrie, Old Hāmākua, New Hāmākua, and Kailuanui ditches.

The “Old” Hāmākua Ditch was the forerunner to the East Maui Irrigation System. This privately financed, constructed and managed irrigation system was one of the largest in the United States. It eventually included 50 miles of tunnels; 24 miles of open ditches, inverted siphons and flumes; and approximately 400 intakes and 8 reservoirs.

Although two missionaries (Richard Armstrong and Amos Cooke) established the Haiku Sugar Company in 1858, its commercial success was due to a second-generation missionary descendant, Henry Perrine Baldwin. In 1877, Baldwin constructed a sugar mill on the west side of Maliko Gulch, named the Hāmākuapoko Mill.

By 1884, the partnership of Samuel T Alexander and Henry P Baldwin bought the controlling interest in the Haiku Sugar Company. (Dorrance)

Baldwin moved from Lāhainā to Hāmākuapoko, he first lived in Sunnyside, in the area of upper Pāʻia, and then moved further “upcountry,” building a family estate at Maluhia, in the area of Olinda.

The largest landowner of the upper Pāʻia region was the Haiku Sugar Company. By 1897, the Haiku Sugar Company and the Pāʻia Plantation had become business partners of Alexander & Baldwin, Ltd. Their company stores offered goods to the population of the plantation towns from Hāmākuapoko to Huelo. (Cultural Surveys)

Brothers Henry Perrine and David Dwight Baldwin laid the foundation for the company in the late 1800s through the acquisition of land. Experimentation with hala kahiki (pineapple) began in 1890, when the first fruit was planted in Haʻiku.

In 1903 the Baldwin brothers formed Haiku Fruit & Packing Company, launching the pineapple industry on Maui. Maui’s first pineapple cannery began operations by 1904, with the construction of a can-making plant and a cannery in Haiku.

1,400 cases of pineapple were packed during the initial run. In time, the independent farmers for miles around brought their fruit there to be processed.

Haiku Plantation remained in operation until 1905 when it merged with Pāʻia Plantation, to form Maui Agricultural Company. In 1948, Maui Agricultural Company merged with HC&S (Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company.)

Remnants of the initial Haiku Mill remain on the east bank of Maliko Gulch. It is partially restored and used in conjunction with various events (engagements, vow renewals, concerts, corporate events and other celebrations.)

The mill operated for eighteen years, from 1861-1879, and then was abandoned. The original structure was 50′ in front by 160′ deep. The front portion measured 50′ x 50′ and rose two stories in height, while the remainder of the structure had ten foot high walls enclosing an excavated interior, with a wooden floor (no longer intact) running the length on either side.

Seventy-five to eighty percent of the walls remain intact, although no roof, or traces of it, remain. The walls are made of basalt stone, with door and window openings framed in cut basalt brick and block, and vary in height from ten feet on the sides to thirty-five feet for the rear wall, and have a thickness of three to four feet. (Lots of information here from NPS, Cultural Surveys and Haiku Mill.)

June 7, 2016 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Irrigation-enhanced Recharge

The early Polynesians brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully in the islands. The first commercially-viable sugar plantation, Ladd and Co, was started at Kōloa on Kauai in 1835. Others followed, including on Maui.

Sugar became part of the Maui landscape. More than 30-plantations of various sizes popped up on Maui. Over time, consolidations and closures gradually reduced the number to fewer, but larger, plantations. (Sugar Museum)

Sugar is a thirsty crop; in order to irrigate, in 1876 the initial Hāmākua Ditch was built, bringing water from streams from the windward and wet East Maui. A total of ten ditches were constructed between 1879 and 1923; this system makes up what is known today as East Maui Irrigation (EMI.)

Under natural conditions, most surface water would flow to the ocean; instead, this water has been diverted and artificially applied to the plant-soil system, creating a net increase in ground-water recharge. Irrigation-enhanced recharge greatly affects the groundwater system in central Maui.

Ground water is one of Hawai‘i’s most important natural resources. It is used for drinking water, irrigation, and domestic, commercial, and industrial needs. Ground water provides about 99% of Hawai‘i’s domestic water and about 50% of all freshwater used in the State.

The amount of recharge available to enter the aquifers is the volume of rainfall, fog drip, and irrigation water that is not lost to runoff or evapotranspiration or stored in the soil. (USGS)

The period 1926–79 had the highest estimated recharge; irrigation rates during this period were at least 50% higher than in any other period considered.

Prior to the early-1970s, about 190-million gallons per day (Mgal/d) of water diverted by East Maui ditches and 170-Mgal/d of groundwater withdrawn from shafts and wells was used to irrigate sugarcane fields in central Maui.

Groundwater recharge concerns have gone from bad to worse. Overall irrigation rates have been steadily decreasing since the 1970s, when large-scale sugarcane plantations began a conversion from furrow to more efficient drip irrigation methods and a reduction in the amount of acreage dedicated to sugarcane production.

Estimated recharge for central and west Maui declined 44% during the period 1979–2004. During this period, on the leeward (Lāhainā) side of West Maui Mountain, sugarcane cultivation ceased altogether.

The decrease in irrigation has coincided recently with periods of below-average rainfall, creating the potential for substantially reduced recharge rates in many areas. (USGS)

The period 2000–04 had the lowest estimated recharge; irrigation rates during this period were 46 percent lower than during 1926–79, and rainfall was the lowest of any period.

With the closure of HC&S’ sugarcane fields in central Maui, and subsequent stoppage of irrigation over the groundwater aquifer, recharge will be reduced and the groundwater flow system will be affected. (USGS)

Population growth on the Island of Maui has led to an increase in ground-water demand. The resident population on the island increased more than 300% percent during the period 1960–2010: from 35,717 to 144,444 (Maui County)

The ‘Ïao aquifer system is the principal source of domestic water supply for the Island of Maui. Ground-water withdrawals from this aquifer system increased from less than 10-Mgal/d during 1970 to about 17-Mgal/d during 2005.

So, there is concern surrounding declines in ground-water levels and an increase in the chloride concentration of water pumped from wells in the ‘Ïao aquifer system.

Even before the contemplated, and later announced, closure of HC&S sugar cultivation, the State Water Commission designated ‘Īao as a groundwater management area because the 12-month moving average pumping withdrawals exceeded the Commission-established trigger.

The effect of changes in irrigation-enhanced recharge was illustrated on a small scale in Wailua on Kauai, and the drying up of ‘Fern Grotto’ was the result. There, the Kapa‘a irrigation system was built in the 1920s to provide water for approximately 6,000 acres of land under sugar cane.

Up until the sugar company closing, the lower portion has been fed by the Hanamaulu Ditch, which ended at ‘Reservoir 21,’ directly above Fern Grotto. The ferns began growing only after sugar was grown on the land 150 feet above the cave.

Plantation workers built a catch basin for storm runoff that became known as Reservoir 21. Water from the reservoir percolated through the ground and came out on the roof and walls of the cave.

The shutting down of the Hanamaulu Ditch has undoubtedly contributed or even was the principal cause of the drying up on the Fern Grotto. The lack of irrigation water caused the cliff-side ferns to dry up.

A 9-month rejuvenation project involved creation of a second waterfall in the grotto and installation of solar panels to power pumps to bring water from the Wailua Reservoir to the Fern Grotto.

Now, the Fern Grotto is back. Solutions in the central Maui isthmus, the principal source of domestic water supply for the Island of Maui, are not as simple.

A century after Captain James Cook’s arrival in Hawaiʻi, sugar plantations started to dominate the landscape. Sugar changed the social fabric of Hawaii. Hawai`i’s economy turned toward sugar in the decades between 1860 and 1880.

The industry came to maturity by the turn of the century; the industry peaked in the 1930s. Hawaiʻi’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar. (That plummeted to 492,000-tons in 1995; a majority of the plantations closed in the 1990s.)

So, the Islands have not just lost that last remnant of generations of economic and agricultural activity; Maui must now look at ways to manage and provide for water needs and demands, given the loss of irrigation-enhanced recharge. (Lots of information here is from several USGS reports.)

I was fortunate to have served as the Chair and Director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Chair of the Water Commission, working on these and other related issues.

Follow Peter T Young on Facebook

Follow Peter T Young on Google+

Follow Peter T Young on LinkedIn

Follow Peter T Young on Blogger