Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 30, Number 6, 1 June 2013 — Kauaʻi Springs ruling upholds water protections [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Kauaʻi Springs ruling upholds water protections

The Hawai'i Intermediate Court of Appeals has ruled the Kaua'i Planning Commission has a duty to preserve and protect water resources when deciding whether to grant land use permits. The ruling means agencies will be required to consider the impacts a project would have on puhlie trust resources when granting permits. Water-bottling company Kaua'i Springs applied for a use permit to operate a spring water bottling facil-

ity on land J zoned for I agricul- ■ ture. The * company bottles and sells fresh

water from a former irrigation ditch from Mt. Kāhili that is bottled in Kōloa. In 2006, the company asked for after-the-fact land use permits after the county issued a notice of violation saying the facility was

operating without proper permits. A beneficiary brought the case to the attention of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. OHA advised the commission it was required

to address the impacts the commercial water-bottling operation may have on the state's water resources and on Native Hawaiian traditional and customary rights. In 2007, the commission

denied the use permits and the company appealed. A state Circuit Court overturned the commission's decision. In the appeals court ruling issued in late April, a three-judge panel reversed the lower court ruling

saying the commission "had a duty to conserve and protect water resources in considering whether to issue the Special Permit to Kauai Springs." The court said the commission "should make appropriate assessments and require reasonable measures to protect the water resources at issue in this case; and, because Kauai Springs seeks to use the water for eeonomie gain, this case requires that the Planning Commission give the permit application a higher level of scrutiny." The case was sent back to the planning commission. It will be up to the commission to decide whether to deny or grant the permit. — Garett Kamemoto ■

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