Jan 2016. By LEE IMADA – Managing Editor (leeimada@mauinews.com) , The Maui News
An Oahu judge has invalidated state water diversion permits to Alexander & Baldwin for its waning Maui sugar operations in a ruling that a member of the plaintiff’s group called “a historic victory.” The permits have been extended annually for 13 years without an official environmental review.
20 Jan 2016.
By Bret Yager West Hawaii Today byager@westhawaiitoday.com
Don’t hold your breath.
The last major decision on whether control of the water should be placed in state hands happened last August. That was when the state Commission on Water Resource Management declined a National Park Service request to create a smaller water use management area within the larger aquifer.
Since then, the war over water has gone quiet.
Peter Young — a former chairman of the state Board of Land and Natural Resources who is now a consultant opposing the designation — said that no news in good news.
“It’s not over, which is relatively good, because in the beginning there was a push to get it done fast,” Young said at a meeting last week in Kailua-Kona.
Jonathan Scheuer, a consultant for NPS on the aquifer designation, said on Tuesday that it took nearly 20 years for the Iao aquifer on Maui to be designated a state water management area. The designation places control of pumping and permits in the hands of CWRM rather than the county departments of water supply.
See the rest of the article here
Jan 2016. By Peter Mellgard, The World Post. Huffpost.
MAJURO, Marshall Islands — A few yards from the crashing waves of the Pacific, on a precariously narrow strip of land, precious rainwater pools on the runway of the Marshall Islands’ main airport. This is how the government hydrates tens of thousands of its citizens: the rainwater runoff from the airstrip. The water — complete with bird droppings and whatever else has landed on the tarmac — is funneled via pipes to earthen storage reservoirs. From there, it gets filtered and treated and pumped to people down the atoll.
During a normal week the water only flows for 12 hours. In prolonged droughts, which are almost certain to happen in 2016, the reservoirs can get depleted to the last drop. The country can hold on for only a few months without rain. Thirsty Marshallese, many of whom rely on their own much smaller rainwater catchment containers, won’t have anything to drink or wash with. Dehydration, starvation, malnutrition and disease have been known to follow. Crops fail. Sensitive groundwater reservoirs become contaminated.
This is a bleak outlook for a vulnerable country in the remote Pacific, halfway between Hawaii and Australia. The Marshall Islands are a heavenly chain of white sandy beaches and coral reefs, but they are paradoxically one of the most inhospitable and challenging places to build a nation. Climate change will have numerous, complicated effects here. Access to freshwater, already in limited supply on the archipelago, is likely to become the most serious issue.
The rest of the article is here…
Folks,
Here are some of the slides from presentations at the Second Conference on Water Resource Sustainability Issues on Tropical Islands.
Best,
Larry Kobayashi
Editor