Identifying who is responsible for the extensive damage from the March floods across hundreds of acres of farmland in Waialua and nearby homes is a laborious task, with ownership and obligations buried in a decades-old quagmire of paperwork and land deals.
The miles of irrigation lines and drainage ditches that contributed to the floods are leftovers from Hawai‘i’s plantation era that began in the mid-19th century. Gone are the days when the Waialua Sugar Co. owned the whole system and oversaw its upkeep. About a decade ago, the state considered acquiring much of those lands but the plans fell through, leaving a patchwork of property rights and questions about responsibility.
Choked by invasive grasses, these neglected waterways turned into dams during the back-to-back Kona low storms. Trees were even growing out of some of the abandoned ditches, now framed by tall mounds of dirt and debris left behind by a trillion gallons of rainwater that had nowhere to go…