Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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about 190-million gallons per day (Mgal/d) of water diverted by East Maui ditches and 170-Mgal/d of groundwater withdrawn from shafts and wells was used to irrigate sugarcane fields in central Maui.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

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maui-sugar-cane-ron-dahlquist
maui-sugar-cane-ron-dahlquist
Central Maui Isthmus-sugarcane
Central Maui Isthmus-sugarcane
EMI_System-map
EMI_System-map
EMI_Intake
EMI_Intake
EMI-Ditch
EMI-Ditch
Installation of a pipeline for Haiku ditch water under the steel railroad bridge crossing the Maliko Gulch-1909
Installation of a pipeline for Haiku ditch water under the steel railroad bridge crossing the Maliko Gulch-1909
Iao Aquifer-Ditches-USGS
Iao Aquifer-Ditches-USGS
Fern Grotto
Fern Grotto
Fern Grotto
Fern Grotto

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Nine Traditions That Emphasized Chiefly Rank

In 1920, Martha Beckwith became the first person to hold a chair in Folklore at any college or university in the country. The Folklore Foundation, established at Vassar, was an unprecedented institution and became a center of research in the almost entirely new field of folk culture.  (Vassar)

“Position in old Hawaiʻi, both social and political, depended in the first instance upon rank, and rank upon blood descent-hence the importance of genealogy as proof of high ancestry.”

“Grades of rank were distinguished and divine honors paid to those chiefs alone who could show such an accumulation of inherited sacredness as to class with the gods among men. Since a child inherited from both parents, he might claim higher rank than either one.”  (Beckwith)

There were nine traditions that emphasized chiefly rank:

  1. a family genealogy tracing back to the gods through one of the two sons of Ki‘i, Ulu and Nanaʻulu, and by as many branches (lala) as family relationship could be stretched to cover
  2. a name chant, composed at birth or given in afterlife, glorifying the family history not only of persons concerned but also of places made sacred by particular events or association
  3. signs in the heavens by which ʻaumakua of the day recognized their offspring on earth
  4. a special place set aside as sacred to the birth of high-ranking chiefs (i.e. Kūkaniloko)
  5. the sacred cord (aha) stretched at the entrance of a chief’s dwelling, under which all of lower rank must pass but which fell “of itself” before the approach of anyone of equal or higher position
  6. wealth, especially in lands, labor and specialized objects such as foods, ornaments, colors belonging to ranking chiefs alone
  7. the power of the kapu, which gave the ranking chief immense personal privilege, although the ruling chief might have actually more power over lands and wealth (before certain captive chiefesses of Maui of incredible sanctity, according to Kamakau, Kamehameha himself was of lower rank)
  8. the right to officiate in the heiau as both chief and priest 
  9. at death, the final deification of the bones and their laying away in a sacred and secret place difficult of access (one of the most important such place in ancient times being the ʻĪao valley on the island of Maui)

Rank depended primarily upon blood; but of great importance was the conduct of life by which one could, by carelessness in preserving the kapu and in making proper marriages, lose caste and prerogatives under the severe discipline of the Aha-ali‘i (Council of Chiefs,) or could, through a royal marriage, raise the rank of one’s descendants upon the family line.

The image, ‘Aha Ula’ by Brook Parker, represents the chiefly rank.  Information here is primarily from Beckwith, Mookini and Yardley.

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Ana Huna

Traditional Native Hawaiians believed ʻiwi (the bones) to be the primary physical embodiment of a person. Following death, ʻiwi were considered sacred, for within the bones resided the person’s mana (spiritual essence.) Mana was greatly valued, and native Hawaiians spent their lives maintaining and enhancing their mana. (Halealoha Ayau)

For native Hawaiians, it was important for the bones of a deceased person to complete their journey and return to the ground to impart their mana.

From island to island, community to community and family to family, there were many different ways to prepare bodies for burial. Each method was appropriate for the individual and his or her status.  Burial locations were one of the most secretive traditions in a culture over a thousand years old. (DLNR)

Sometimes the bones of the dead were dug up out of the burial grounds to be used for arrows for rat shooting and for fishhooks, and the bones and bodies of the newly buried were dug up for food and bait for sharks.

For this reason, surviving family members sought places of concealment for the bones of their grandparents, parents, children, chiefs and relatives. They searched for deep pits (lua meki) in the mountains, and for hiding pits (lua huna) and hiding caves (ana huna) along the deep ravines and sheer cliffs frequented by koa‘e birds.  (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

For some, including the high aliʻi, often their ʻiwi were placed in secret burial caves (ana huna.)

A few of the notable areas burial areas with secret burial caves include, ʻIao Valley, Pohukaina, Pali Kapu o Keōua and the reported cave burial of Kahekili and Kamehameha at Kaloko.

ʻIao Valley (Maui)

For centuries, high chiefs and navigators from across the archipelago were buried in secret, difficult-to-access sites in the steep valley walls of ʻIao on Maui.

‘Iao Valley became a “hallowed burying place for ancient chiefs” and is the first place mentioned in the historical legends as a place for the secret burials of high chiefs.

Because this was sacred ground, commoners were not permitted to enter the valley, except for the Makahiki festival.  Some suggest the last burial was in 1736, with the burial of King Kekaulike.

Pohukaina (Oʻahu)

“There is only one famous hiding cave, ana huna on Oʻahu. It is Pohukaina… This is a burial cave for chiefs, and much wealth was hidden away there with the chiefs of old … Within this cave are pools of water, streams, creeks, and decorations by the hand of man (hana kinohinohiʻia), and in some places there is level land.”  (Kamakau)

Pohukaina involves an underground burial cave system that connects with various places around O‘ahu and is most notable as the royal burial cave at Kualoa. The opening in the Honolulu area is in the vicinity of the Kauikeaouli (Kamehameha III) residence (the grounds of ʻIolani Palace,) where also many of the notable chiefs resided.  (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

The opening on the windward side on Kalaeoka‘o‘io faces toward Ka‘a‘awa is believed to be in the pali of Kanehoalani, between Kualoa and Ka‘a‘awa, and the second opening is at the spring Ka‘ahu‘ula-punawai.

On the Kona side of the island the cave had three other openings, one at Hailikulamanu – near the lower side of the cave of Koleana in Moanalua—another in Kalihi, and another in Pu‘iwa. There was an opening at Waipahu, in Ewa, and another at Kahuku in Ko‘olauloa.

The mountain peak of Konahuanui was the highest point of the ridgepole of this burial cave “house,” which sloped down toward Kahuku. Many stories tell of people going into it with kukui-nut torches in Kona and coming out at Kahuku.  (Kamakau; Kumu Pono)

Pali Kapu O Keōua (Kealakekua, Hawaiʻi Island)

Keōua (father of Kamehameha I) and Kalaniʻōpuʻu (aka Kaleiopuʻu & Kalaiopuʻu) were half-brothers, sons of Peleioholani.  During the illness of Keōua, at his residence in Hilo, a messenger was sent to Kaʻū to notify Kalaniʻōpuʻu of his brother’s illness; he immediately started for Hilo.

Keōua said to Kalaniʻōpuʻu, “Brother, I cannot live long, for our uncle Alapaʻinui has an evil disposition and is praying me to death. My only request to you is to take my young son Kamehameha and keep him with you, for some day he will become famous and will add luster to our lineage; do not neglect him.”

Kalaniʻōpuʻu sent for their kahuna; as soon as the kahuna saw Keōua he advised Kalaniʻōpuʻu to return home, as it was impossible for his brother to live.  (He died shortly thereafter; his remains were transported to Kona.)

On arriving at Kailua great preparations were being made for the mourning ceremonies. Wailing, removing the teeth, shaving the head, etc, took place. After these ceremonies Kalaniʻōpuʻu headed for Kaʻawaloa to await the remains of his brother Keōua from Hilo.

On their arrival they were deposited in a cave three-fourths of the way up the pali, whence it was called “Ka Pali Kapu O Keōua (at Kealakekua Bay.”)  (Diary of George Hueu Davis, the Son of Isaac Davis; Henriques)

Later, in 1829, Kapiʻolani “and Kaʻahumanu removed the bones of (Kapiʻolani’s) father, and more than a score of other deified kings and princes of the Hawaiian race, from their sacred deposit, – may be the “House of Keave” at Honounou, – placing them out of the way, in one of the caves high in the precipice at the head of the bay where she resided.”  (Anderson, 1864)

(A little side note on Pali Kapu O Keōua … while I was at DLNR, the 2006 Kohala earthquakes exposed a previously unknown burial cave on the side of the Kealakekua cliff.  Because we had concerns about keeping the cave secret, I asked FEMA to document this new cave in a separate, non-public report, aside from the general (public) earthquake damage report.  They agreed; the cave was subsequently sealed.)

Kaloko (Kona, Hawaiʻi Island)

An early traditional reference to the area in the late eighteenth century mentions the burial of Kahekili, the ruler of Maui, in a hidden cave at Kaloko. However, the most significant burial ceremony traditionally reported to have taken place there is that of Kamehameha, although there is no firm proof of this.  (NPS)

Following his death, Kamehameha’s bones were supposedly transported by canoe from Kailua to Kaloko, where the bearers of the royal remains met the man in charge of the secret burial cave, and together they placed the bones in the same depository used for Kahekili.

“Kaloko (pond) is another famous burial area; it is in Kekaha, Hawaii. (In a cave that opens into the side of the pond) were laid Kahekili, the ruler of Maui, his sister Kalola, and her daughter, Kekuʻiapoiwa Liliha, the grandmother of Kamehameha III. … This is the burial cave, ana huna, where Kameʻeiamoku and Hoapili hid the bones of Kamehameha I so that they would never be found.”  (Kamakau; NPS)

In 1887 King Kalākaua designated a man named Kapalu, who had guided him to a burial cave at Kaloko in which he supposedly beheld Kamehameha’s bones, as overseer and keeper of the “Royal Burial Ground” at Kaloko.

A year later Kalākaua wrote that he ordered Kapalu to retrieve the bones, which the king took to Honolulu and deposited in the Royal Mausoleum in Nuʻuanu Valley.  (Barrère; NPS)  (Questions remain as to where Kamehameha was buried.)

The image shows Pali Kapu O Keōua (following the 2006 earthquakes – (PeteOrelup.))  In addition, I have added others similar images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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Kepuwahaʻulaʻula

“(S)everal islands were ruled by independent kings, who were frequently at war with each other, but more often with their own subjects. As one chief acquired sufficient strength, he disputed the title of the reigning prince. If successful, his chance of permanent power was quite as precarious as that of his predecessor. In some instances the title established by force of arms remained in the same family for several generations, disturbed, however, by frequent rebellions … war being a chief occupation …”  (Jarves)

At the period 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.

“At that time Kahekili was plotting for the downfall of Kahahana and the seizure of Oʻahu and Molokai, and the queen of Kauaʻi was disposed to assist him in these enterprises. The occupation of the Hāna district of Maui by the kings of Hawaiʻi had been the cause of many stubborn conflicts between the chivalry of the two islands.”  (Kalākaua)

Following Kalaniʻōpuʻu’s death in 1782, the Hawaiʻi Island kingship was inherited by his son Kīwalaʻō; Kamehameha (Kīwalaʻō’s cousin) was given guardianship of the Hawaiian god of war, Kūkaʻilimoku.  Dissatisfied with subsequent redistricting of the lands by district chiefs, civil war ensued between Kīwalaʻō’s forces and the various chiefs under the leadership of Kamehameha.

In the first major skirmish, in the battle of Mokuʻōhai (a fight between Kamehameha and Kiwalaʻo in July, 1782 at Keʻei, south of Kealakekua Bay on the Island of Hawaiʻi,) Kiwalaʻo was killed.  With the death of his cousin Kiwalaʻo, the victory made Kamehameha chief of the districts of Kona, Kohala and Hāmākua, while Keōua, the brother of Kiwalaʻo, held Kaʻū and Puna, and Keawemauhili declared himself independent of both in Hilo.  (Kalākaua)

Back on Maui, Kahekili prepared for an invasion against Oʻahu and Kahahana.  He landed at Waikīkī in the beginning of 1783.  Kahekili, dividing his forces in three columns, marched from Waikīkī by Pūowaina (Punchbowl,) Pauoa and Kapena to battle Kahahana and his forces.

Kahahana’s army was routed, and he and his wife fled to the mountains.  For nearly two years or more they wandered over the mountains, secretly aided, fed and clothed by his supporters.  Kahekili’s warriors finally found and killed Kahahana.

In 1790, Kamehameha moved to take Maui – heading first to Hāna.  Hearing this, Kahekili sent Kalanikūpule back to Maui with a number of chiefs (Kahekili remaining on O‘ahu to maintain order of his newly conquered kingdom.)

Helping Kamehameha were foreigners, John Young and Isaac Davis.  John Young, a boatswain on the British fur trading vessel, Eleanora, had been stranded on the Island of Hawai‘i in 1790.  Because of his knowledge of European warfare, Young is said to have trained Kamehameha and his men in the use of muskets and cannons.

Isaac Davis arrived in Hawaii in 1790 as the sole survivor of the massacre of the crew of The Fair American.  Davis also brought western military knowledge; Young and Davis fought alongside Kamehameha in his battles.

Kahekili’s brother, Kamehamehanui (uncle to Kamehameha I,) lost Hāna, which was isolated from the rest of Maui.  Kamehameha then landed at Kahului and marched on to Wailuku, where Kalanikūpule waited for him.

The ensuing battle was one of the hardest contested on Hawaiian record.  The battle started in Wailuku and then headed up ‘l̄ao Valley – the Maui defenders being continually driven farther up the valley.  Kamehameha’s superiority in the number and use of the newly acquired weapons and canon (called Lopaka) from the ‘Fair American’ (used for the first time in battle, with the assistance from Young and Davis) finally won the decisive battle at ‘Īao Valley.

The Maui troops were completely annihilated, and it is said that the corpses of the slain were so many as to choke up the waters of the stream of ‘l̄ao – one of the names of the battle was “Kepaniwai” (the damming of the waters.)

Maui Island was conquered and its fighting force was destroyed – Kalanikūpule and some other chiefs escaped over the mountain at the back of the valley and made their way to Molokaʻi, then to O‘ahu.  With Kalanikūpule was Kalola, daughter of King Kekaulike, sister to Kahekili and aunt of Kalanikūpule.  Kalola was also grandmother to Keōpūolani.

Kamehameha followed Kalola to Molokai and made a “request that she (Kalola) should confide her daughters and granddaughter to his care and protection. To which Kalola is said to have replied, ‘When I am dead, my daughters and granddaughter shall be yours.’” (Fornander)

Kamehameha camped on Molokai until Kalola died.  This “capture” of the women by Kamehameha, a conquering chief taking the widow and female relatives of his defeated rival, was politically important.  Taking Keōpūolani as his new wife, Kamehameha returned to Hawaiʻi Island.

The abrupt departure of Kamehameha and his fleet from Molokai and his return to Hawaiʻi took a great weight off the mind of Kahekili, and plans of vengeance occupied his thoughts and brightened his vision in the immediate future. He was doubtless encouraged by Kāʻeokūlani, who by this time had obtained the supremacy of Kauaʻi, and who urged his brother to avenge the defeat of Kalanikūpule.  (Fornander)

Negotiations and preparations having been perfected between the Kauaʻi and Oʻahu sovereigns during the winter months of 1790-91, Kāʻeokūlani left Kauaʻi with a well-equipped fleet of war canoes, accompanied by a foreign gunner Mare Amara and arrived at Oʻahu in the spring of 1791.  (Fornander)

Kahekili decided that no better time could be chosen to attack Kamehameha.  The chiefs had massed their forces on Maui. Here Kāʻeokūlani, took the leadership role.  After a little rest, the Kauaʻi fleet swept across the channel and passed down the eastern side of Hawaiʻi.  They ransacked villages along the way.  Finally Kamehameha’s canoes and ships caught up with them off Waimanu, not far from Waipiʻo.

In former years a naval battle meant the clash of canoe against canoe.  This battle was different.

Unlike the prior battle at ʻĪao, here both sides had modern firearms and people who knew how to use them (this battle was the first in Hawaiʻi that saw both sides have foreign gunners, Mare Amara with Kahekili, and Isaac Davis and John Young with Kamehameha.)

The people on the bluffs saw the red flashes of the guns and noted the increasing noise of the artillery until they could no longer hear the voices of men. As the clouds of smoke crept over the sea the battle became, in the view of the watchers, a fight between red mouthed guns, and they shouted one to another the news of the progress of the conflict according to the predominance of flashing muskets and cannon.

It was soon seen that the invaders were being defeated. The man who had the best arms and the best gunners won the victory.  The Kauaʻi and Oʻahu Chiefs fled with their scattered fleets to Maui.

Kamehameha soon followed them, and during the next three years, step by step, passed over the islands until the kingdom was his.  (Westervelt)

The battle was so fierce that it was called Kepuwahaʻulaʻula (the Battle of the Red-Mouthed Gun.)  The image depicting the battle is artwork by Herb Kane (Kamehameha is in the Fair American.)

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Nā Wai ʻEhā

Maui is the second largest of the Hawaiian Islands, and covers about 730 square miles.  Maui consists of two separate volcanoes with a combining isthmus between the two.

The Mauna Kahālāwai (West Maui Mountain) is probably the older of the two; Haleakala (East Maui) was last active about 1790, whereas activity on West Maui is wholly pre-historic.

Nā Wai ʻEhā (“The Four Great Waters”) – Waiheʻe River, Waiehu Stream, Wailuku (ʻĪao) Stream and Waikapū Stream are in central Maui.

The headwaters of Waine’e and ‘Īao extend to or near the summit of the Mauna Kahālāwai at Pu‘u Kukui and are among the largest streams, in terms of stream flow, on Maui.

The headwaters of N & S Waiehu Streams are cut off from the summit area by the valleys of Waine’e River to the north and ‘Īao Stream to the south, they later merge to form Waiehu Stream.  Waikapū Stream is the only Nā Wai ‘Ehā stream that drains to the southern coast of Maui.

The abundance of water in Nā Wai ʻEhā 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.

In addition to extensive agricultural production, other practices thrived in Nā Wai ʻEhā, including the gathering of upland resources, such as thatch and ti, and protein sources from the streams, including ʻoʻopu (goby fish,) ʻōpae (shrimp) and hihiwai (snail.)

The waters of Nā Wai ʻEhā were renowned for the practice of hiding the piko, or the umbilical cord of newborn babies. “(T)he spring ʻEleile contained an underwater cave where the people of the area would hide the piko of their babies after birth.”  This practice affirms the individual’s connection to the land.

The practice of hiʻuwai, also known as kapu kai, often occurred here around the time of makahiki, when individuals “would go into the rivers or into the ocean in order to do a cleansing for the new year”.

This type of cleansing, which required immersion in the water, was also conducted “before you start or end certain ceremonies”.  For ceremonies dedicated to Kāne, “having a hiʻuwai in a stream magnifies the mana”.

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)

But the streams were diverted, to quench the thirst of the thirsty sugar plantations.

By 1866, a letter published in the Hawaiian language newspaper Nūpepa Kūʻokoʻa lamented “the current condition of once cultivated taro patches being dried up by the foreigners, where they are now planting sugar cane”.

These diversions and ditch systems historically supplied two sugar plantations: Wailuku Sugar and Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company (HC&S,) which belonged to the plantation-era “Big Five” companies C. Brewer and Alexander & Baldwin, respectively.

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.)

This quickly became the largest and best-equipped sugar plantation in the islands (in 1898, Spreckels lost control of HC&S and Alexander & Baldwin took over as agents at that time.)

Water wars have been waged way back.

Back in 1882, Wailuku Sugar and Spreckels fought over portions of the ditch system and purported rights to the water in the streams.

Lately, complaints were filed by downstream users arguing public trust, traditional and cultural practices (including kalo farming.)  In part, the diversions and ditches are capable of diverting all of the dry-weather flow available at the intakes – and often times, downstream conditions resulted in dry streambeds.

More recently (March 13, 2008,) the State Commission on Water Resource Management designated Nā Wai ʻEhā a surface water management.

In addition, on August 15, 2012, the Hawaiʻi Supreme Court vacated a Water Commission decision and that included instream flow standards.

Instream Flow Standard is “a quantity or flow of water or depth of water which is required to be present at a specific location in a stream system at certain specified times of the year to protect fishery, wildlife, recreational, aesthetic, scenic, and other beneficial instream uses.”

The technical language of the law is complicated; I simplify this to say that the instream flow standard allows a stream to be a stream.  (Lots of information here is from associated court papers and descriptions.)

The image shows a map of Nā Wai ʻEhā (CWRM.)  I added a couple of other images in a folder of like name in the Photos section on my Facebook and Google+ pages.

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