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DEPARTMENT OF LAND AND NATURAL RESOURCES News Release LINDA LINGLE GOVERNOR _________________________________________________________________________________________________________
LAURA H. THIELEN, CHAIRPERSON
Phone: (808) 587-0401
Fax: (808) 587-0390
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For Immediate Release:
November 28,
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HONOLULU -- The State Commission on Water Resource Management (CWRM) will hold public hearings statewide in December to solicit public testimony on proposed revisions to the Hawai‘i Water Plan, Water Resource Protection Plan, as mandated by the State Water Code, Chapter 174C, Hawai‘i Revised Statutes. The Water Resource Protection Plan (WRPP) is one of five major plans that comprise the Hawai‘i Water Plan, which provides the overall guidance and direction for managing Hawai‘i’s water resources. “This update of the Water Resource Protection Plan is intended to provide for more successful coordination and integration of State and county efforts related to sustainable water resources development and to enable the State Commission on Water Resource Management to more effectively implement the statutory objectives of the state water code,” said Laura H. Thielen, chairperson, State Commission on Water Resource Management and director, Department of Land and Natural Resources. All public hearings will begin at 6:00 p.m. as follows:
A public review draft of the Water Resource Protection Plan is available online on the CWRM website at http://www.hawaii.gov/dlnr/cwrm/. The public review draft may also be reviewed at the CWRM office at the Kalanimoku Building, at 1151 Punchbowl Street, room 227, in Honolulu or at the following locations:
All interested persons are urged to attend the hearings and submit comments, orally or in writing. The Commission will continue to accept written testimony until January 11, 2008. Testimony should be mailed to the Commission on Water Resource Management, Department of Land and Natural Resources, P.O. Box 621, Honolulu, Hawai‘i 96809. Any person with special needs that is planning to attend the public hearing is asked to contact the Commission at the above address, or call (808) 587-0214 at least three days in advance of the public hearing to make request for accommodation. Article XI, Section 7, of the State Constitution establishes the State as trustee of water resources, with the constitutionally mandated responsibility to set policy, establish regulatory procedure, and establish and protect water use priorities while assuring water rights. Initially prepared in 1990, the Water Resource Protection Plan update reflects the latest efforts in water resource planning as part of the State’s mandate to protect and sustain the water resources for the benefit of the citizens of the State of Hawai‘i. This current update to the plan includes policies, program directives, resource inventories, and recommendations across a broad spectrum of resource management issues. # # # For more information, contact:
Background information: As new and better information becomes available, such as hydrologic information and land use changes, the Commission on Water Resource Management (Commission) must periodically update the state’s water plan. The Water Resource Protection Plan describes all of the Commission’s policies, programs, and activities to protect water resources. The 1990 Water Resource Protection Plan provided the means by which to address many issues including, but not limited to, estimates of sustainable ground-water yields by island, description of aquifer sectors and aquifer systems, and an initial evaluation of current and projected water needs for the State and the counties. The Commission initiated its current update of the Water Resource Protection Plan with an ambitious scope of work to produce an updated plan that is several times more comprehensive in content than the 1990 plan. Because of the state’s reliance on groundwater as the primary source of drinking water, the 1990 plan was largely focused on the establishment of groundwater sustainable yields, although the report did contain general discussions on streams, watershed protection, and flood control. Fairly in-depth discussions of water conservation and resource augmentation were also included. The 2007 Water Resource Protection Plan update is much more comprehensive in scope. Important new additions are policies that have been set by the Commission and/or the Supreme Court. Although measurable instream flow standards have yet to be set for most of Hawai‘i’s streams, the 2007 plan discusses the general methodology for standards-setting and establishes the surface water hydrologic units and coding system that will be used for management of stream data. Regulatory policies and protection programs are contained and existing and future demand estimates are provided. This current update also includes chapters on resource monitoring, water conservation, resource augmentation, and the drought program. Pending an update of the Water Quality Plan, the 2007 update also provides more up-to-date information on water quality protection programs. At this time only the updated Water Resource Protection Plan will be presented for public comment. The other four plans are the responsibilities of the Department of Health, Department of Agriculture, Department of Land and Natural Resources Engineering Division, and the counties, and are in various stages of being updated. |
