Wailuku Water asks to become a public utility
Donna Kiefer of California (left) checks out the action at the Maui Tropical Plantation pond with friend Carol Jones, also of California, on Saturday morning. The plantation is a customer of Wailuku Water Distribution Co., which is applying with the state to become a public utility.
The Maui News AMANDA / COWAN photo
By CHRIS HAMILTON, Staff Writer
WAILUKU — Wailuku Water Distribution Co. is seeking permission from the state to organize as a public utility in order to continue service, set new water rates and keep its contracts.
Essentially, being a utility would allow Wailuku Water to stay in the water business as it faces an ongoing dispute over water rights with farmers, environmentalists and Native Hawaiians.
The company, an affiliate of Wailuku Water Co. and rooted in the former Wailuku Sugar Co., owns a vast watershed in West Maui and controls a system of ditches that has captured and channeled water from the four Na Wai Eha streams for about 150 years.
Wailuku Water Distribution Co. wants what’s called a certificate of public convenience and necessity from the state Public Utilities Commission in order to continue to provide nonpotable water service in Central Maui, specifically, to the communities and farmers in Waihee, Waiehu, Puuohala, Wailu
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