Musings: Cry Me a River

The latest bit of fear-mongering to hit Kauai involves water theft.

I'm talking about unfounded claims that the seed companies and other farmers and ranchers are "stealing" water from the streams, causing the waterfalls to run dry.

The so-called “public affairs” programmers at KKCR have been promulgating this agitprop for a while, because of course they're all hydrology experts now, and it feeds their anti-GMO agenda. 

Then today, The Garden Island weighed in with an article about how Secret (Uluwehi) Falls has dried to a trickle. And — gasp — that does not please the tourists.

Though the article includes a quote from the state correctly attributing the situation to drought, it gives more weight to the vague conspiracy theories spouted by Wailua River kayaking proprietor Will Leonard:

But Leonard said he’s not sold on the idea that the waterfall’s dry spell is the result of a drought.

Other river users have seen a tractor at the top of the falls as well as a pump system that appears to be diverting the water that ordinarily pools above the falls, Leonard said. Leonard hasn’t seen it himself, but he’s seen cellphone video footage of the purported pump.

“To me it’s a question of, is the water being diverted and does somebody have a right to do that,” Leonard said. “It was drier this winter than it was in the last month and a half, and the falls was good all winter.”

Here's that video, the so-called “smoking gun":

Uh, Earth to Will Leonard and the KKCR propagandists: Do you really think a 1.5-inch pump can dewater a stream?

Here's what's actually going on.

The rancher in question is using 600 gallons per week, whereas the average household in Hawaii uses 600 to 800 gallons per day. So there's no way he's having any impact on the falls.  

And don't you think it's better to pump water to cattle, than to have them drink directly from the ditch, where they can trample the banks and make doodoo?

Oh, and btw, there are no diversions taking water from the eastside to the seed fields. There is one diversion that moves water from Blue Hole down to Puhi, where it's run through a ditch for tourist tubing activities.

The tractor, meanwhile, is engaged in clearing albezzia and planting trees for the Green Energy project. Which is a good thing, because albezzia is destroying island watersheds.

If activists are so concerned about protecting Kauai's water, they could go out and clear some of that albezzia themselves and/or do other watershed restoration projects. But no, they'd rather bitch about non-existent water theft. 

Or in the case of KKCR Djs Kaiulani Edens and Donovan Cabebe, tacitly encourage people to engage in criminal property damage by destroying the pump. Uh, doesn't KKCR have any standards for its programmers?

Curious, to see yet another iteration of this unholy alliance between so-called environmentalists, Hawaiian independence activists and tourism, which has done more to co-opt the culture and harm the environment than other industry.

Anyway, since some of the kayak companies filed a complaint, guys from state parks and the Commission on Water Resource Management are coming out to take a look today — just as they did when drought dried up Uluwehi Falls in 2010.