Opinion ID: 2629221
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: DHHL and the HHCA

Text: Pursuant to the Admissions Act of 1959, the people of Hawai`i, as a condition of Statehood, adopted the HHCA as part of the State Constitution, thereby accepting an obligation to manage and administer the Hawaiian home lands program. The HHCA allocated approximately 200,000 acres of State land to be held in trust for the benefit of native Hawaiians, of which 25,383 acres of land are located on Moloka'i in Ho'olehua, Kalama'ula, Kalaupapa, Kamiloloa, Kapa'akea, Makakupa'ia, and Ualapu'e. DHHL, the agency exerting exclusive control over Hawaiian home lands pursuant to HHCA § 204, has a reservation of 2.905 mgd in the Kualapu'u aquifer system, pursuant to HAR § 13-171-63 (1996). [13] Although HAR § 13-171-63 does not expressly set forth any uses for the 2.905 mgd reservation, the record reflects that DHHL obtained 0.905 mgd to satisfy domestic water needs at Ho'olehua and Kalama'ula; the remaining 2.0 mgd was allocated to satisfy DHHL's homesteader's agricultural needs. On September 12, 1996, DHHL filed a water use permit application to withdraw an additional 0.9 mgd of groundwater from its two existing wells in the Kualapu'u aquifer system for domestic and agricultural uses in Ho'olehua and Kalama'ula. Although, at the time of the filing of its application, DHHL had not determined a location for a future well in Kualapu'u, MR-Wai'ola's hydrology expert testified that it would be advisable for DHHL to place its next well to the east of its existing wells in Kualapu'u in the direction of Wai'ola's proposed well. Approximately five months prior to the filing of the applications at issue in the present appeal, MR filed well construction, pump installation, and water use permit applications with the Commission for the proposed Kualapu'u-MR Well (Well No. 0901-03) in the Kualapu'u aquifer system where MR owns approximately forty-four percent of the developable land. On October 20, 1995, the Commission approved MR's application for the proposed exploratory well in the Kualapu'u aquifer system. MR, however, subsequently abandoned its plan to construct the Kualapu'u-MR well; it appears from the record that, when the sustainable yield of the Kualapu'u aquifer decreased, MR's proposed use would have inevitably interfered with DHHL's reservation, thereby foreclosing MR's ability to obtain a water use permit under HRS § 174C-49(a)(7), see supra note 1.