But agreement seen as threat to agriculture, unfair to family projects
May 27, 2008, The Maui News
By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer
WAILUKU — A well that is being drilled in Piiholo by Maui Land & Pineapple Co. in a controversial deal with the county is expected to be online with a total capacity of 1.5 million gallons per day by the end of 2010.
The county is expected to get 168,750 gallons or more out of the agreement signed by former Mayor Alan Arakawa in 2006. That’s more than the county’s gotten out of similar agreements in the past. But some are questioning why the agreement allows ML&P to draw some of its water allocation from the county’s Upper Kula system, bypassing Kula landowners who’ve been waiting for years on the Upcountry water meter waiting list.
“That is not fair,” said Doug MacCluer, a retired vice president of Maui Pineapple Co., who now serves on the county’s General Plan Advisory Committee and the Central Maui Soil and Water Conservation District. “There are a lot of people on that list — family subdivisions — for years and years. To jump ahead is just not fair.”
ML&P officials contended that...
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