With all the attention the Kekaha ditch and irrigation system has been getting, it has been easy to overlook the miles of ditches on the Eastside formerly used by Amfac Sugar Kaua’i for its Lihu’e Plantation operations. The 21 miles
With all the attention the Kekaha ditch and irrigation system has been getting, it has been easy to overlook the miles of ditches on the Eastside formerly used by Amfac Sugar Kaua’i for its Lihu’e Plantation operations.
The 21 miles of ditches are the lifeblood for Eastside farmers, and fed by the Wailua and Upper Kapahi reservoirs. The system rolls through some 12,000 acres of rural and residential land.
The irrigation system is comprised of reservoirs, ditches, tunnels and flumes originally designed to irrigate 6,000 acres of cane land in the upper Kapa’a area and 6,500 acres of state land adjacent to the North and South Forks of the Wailua River.
This complex water distribution system includes Wailua Reservoir and Upper Kapahi Reservoir and 21 miles of ditches, flumes, tunnels and conduits. There are over 300 parcels of land adjacent to the system.
Without the intervention of the recently formed East Kauai Water Users’ Cooperative, the irrigation system is in danger of being abandoned by both Amfac and the state.
Armed with a $100,000 grant from the state Legislature given through the state Agribusiness Development Corporation, and $10,000 from the County of Kaua’i, the co-op stands ready to take over maintenance of the system, and has a plan to make it self-sufficient within five years.
Amfac still maintains the system, although the company no longer owns the land. Portions of the system flow through former Amfac land now owned and managed by Lihue Land Company, which is owned by Steve Case.
The co-op has state Board of Land and Natural Resources approval for a revocable permit to manage the system, with just the paperwork formality needing to be completed.
The ADC board of directors at a meeting last month approved the release of the $100,000, though the co-op is not yet in possession of that money.
The co-op also hasn’t officially commenced management of the system, but is in the process of taking over from Amfac.
A public meeting will be held in the near future, but a date hasn’t been set, as the immediate concern is the orderly transfer of responsibilities for maintenance of the system.
A licensed contractor has been lined up, and the co-op will likely hire a ditchman who knows the system very well, said Jerry Ornellas, a banana farmer, research technician at the University of Hawai’i Agriculture Experiment Station, and co-op board president.
Qualified agricultural producers may enlist to draw water from the system, and any resident may enroll as an associate member to help preserve this valuable community asset, according to a brochure inviting people to join the co-op.
Just before Amfac Sugar Kaua’i ended agricultural operations in November 2000, the Kaua’i County Farm Bureau organized a meeting to discuss what would happen to the irrigation system after Amfac got out of sugar.
Nearly 100 people attended the meeting, and those who commented expressed a unanimous desire to preserve the system as an integral part of the area’s rural nature, as well as essential to farmers and an ecological necessity.
From that meeting, a committee was formed to evaluate the system and explore means to take over its operation. Though not formally organized until around a year ago, that committee became nearly man for man the co-op’s founding board of directors.
Because of the nature of the system, winding its way through residential communities as well as agricultural areas, users include growers of flowers, taro, papaya, tropical fruits, banana, as well as cattle ranchers, Bette Midler, the Hindu temple and University of Hawai’i agricultural experiment station in Wailua Homesteads.
Ferns in the Fern Grotto would be at risk of not getting their essential daily dosages of water if the system doesn’t continue flowing. The temple uses the water for cattle, orchards of fruit trees, and other purposes.
“It impacts the entire community,” and not just agricultural users, Ornellas said.
For the first year, a nine-member, founding board of directors is running the cooperative. Next year, a new board will be elected at the annual meeting.
In addition to Ornellas, other board members are Kelly Gooding, vice president; Anthony Branco, treasurer; Lincoln Ching, secretary; Les Milnes, field manager; and Alan Rietow, Dan Yamaguchi, Arumugaswami and Bill Hancock.
The co-op is actively enrolling users, and offering associate memberships to those who have no need to use the water but have interests in seeing the area remain green and the reservoirs full instead of mud holes.
The system includes not only the man-made ditches, but also Konohiki and Kainahola streams and the stream which runs north of Ka’apuni Road and along Apopo Road, all of which are used to transport the system’s water.
According to Alfredo Lee, ADC executive director, it is important for the ADC to be able to help keep the water flowing on Kaua’i.
The county Office of Economic Development has the same concern, to keep the water moving for agricultural users, said Bill Spitz, OED agricultural specialist.
As the result of a 65-year-old law designed to provide cheap water for the Wailua Houselots subdivision, the county likely will become a member of the co-op, he explained.
“Water has always been a concern for us,” said Spitz, who added that people need only look at areas where sugar has failed to see dust bowls, brown grasses and other unappealing scenery.
When you lose an irrigation system and it doesn’t come back, you’re oftentimes left with a dust bowl, he commented.
A final interesting fact is that the state retains ownership of the reservoirs and the ditches, even if a ditch flows through private property. A 15-foot right of way on either side of the ditches remains under state ownership.
Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).
