Molokai Ranch Water Wars

Well here we go again, another chapter in the never-ending battle over Molokai’s precious limited water.

West Molokai gets the bulk of its drinking water from Well 17, which is located next to Kualapu`u town. The use of this Well 17 has been illegal for the past four years. How can this be? It must be politics. Try to go to our courthouse on Tuesdays and see if any one who does illegal things can get away with it… I don’t think so!

And there’s more – to get the water from Kualapu`u to West End, they put the clean water from Well 17 into the dirty agricultural water of the Molokai Irrigation System (MIS). They do this so they can use the existing MIS water transmission pipe to get to West End, instead of putting in their own line like they promised. And it gets worse – for the past two years the use of this transmission line has also been illegal.

So we have Molokai Ranch operating an illegal well, using an illegal pipeline and yet charging customers ridiculous water prices on West End and Kualapu`u. What’s wrong with our government and where are the lawyers? Something is wrong with this picture. We have a new governor; will he step in and make things legal or is Molokai Ranch above the law? 

Walter Ritte