Letter to the Editor
By Tamara Paltin, 8/13/2007
This letter is in response to the article about Honolua stream. Where does the water that is bisected by the man made ditch go? It seems that this is the first diversion of stream flow and the second is the steel grate which allows only a 4 inch pvc pipe to return the rest of the stream flow back to the stream bed. I understand that we are experiencing less rainfall than in previous years, however at Honokohau, they get ar least some of the water returned so that the stream actually does flow to the ocean, this is only a few miles North of Honolua. The Honolua Ditch and its "engineering genius" seems to be the culprit and underlying reason why Honolua stream no longer flows into Honolua Bay. If Maui Land and Pineapple are so sure that diversion is not the reason the stream is not running, are they willing to install a flow gauge
above the Honolua Ditch and above their steel grate diversion in Honolua stream and publicly report the monthly flow levels. This is done on other streams. Pioneer mill reported their monthly diversions for years. If the gauge above the diversion records a reasonable amount of water and down below it's a trickle, something fishy is going on.