WMPA Major Activities
WMPA was established to participate in the special management area permit application processes for Lots 2, 3 and 4 of the North Beach Subdivision (Hāʻenanui and Wainalu). Through tireless advocacy and negotiation, WMPA entered into settlement agreements in each development that secured a wide range of protections and benefits — such as the dune preservation program, protection of public access and use of the shoreline among other community benefits.
WMPA focused on water quality issues around the nearshore waters of Hāʻenanui, Honokōwai. It supported community actions regarding EPA review of Safe Drinking Water Act regulations and eventually suing the County of Maui under the Clean Water Act regarding the illegal use of injection wells to discharge millions of gallons of effluent into the nearshore waters. The matter went up to the U.S. Supreme Court which agreed with WMPA’s main contention that the Clean Water Act applied to the County’s injection wells.
– County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund 590 US (2020)
– Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, 886 F.3d 737 (9th Cir. 2018)
– Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, 24 F. Supp. 3d 980 (D. Haw 2014)
– Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, Case 1:12-cv-00198-SOM-KJM (July 15, 2021)
WMPA stopped a major local landowner who sought to disregard the binding legal authority of the 1996 West Maui Community Plan and its designations in favor of inconsistent zoning designations.
WMPA has sought to require the State to fully consider the environmental impacts including impacts to local residents and Hawaiian traditional and customary practices by the issuance of commercial permits in the Kāʻanapali Anchorage as well as proposed beach “nourishment” activities and impacts of sea level rise and coastal erosion.
WMPA sought to enforce special management area permit conditions of various resort and condominium developments that required public access to the shoreline in various areas of the Kāʻanapali district.
WMPA challenged the State’s approval of a seawall at Kahananui over concerns of inadequate environmental review of impacts to local residents including Hawaiian traditional and customary practices.
WMPA negotiated with the developer of the Pulelehua Subdivision regarding its district boundary amendment petition and entered into a settlement agreement in each development that secured a wide range of protections and benefits — including the establishment of a perpetual housing trust for work force housing.
WMPA, supporting Hawaiian traditional and customary practitioners and their local communities, has challenged a local large landowners wasting of diverting water sources and supported the creation of the Water Management Area designation for surface and ground waters in the West Maui hydrologic units.
WMPA challenged a local largeowners illegal development activities along the shoreline and within the state conservation district as well as the state agencies who have failed to fulfill their constitutional mandates to protect public trust resources and Hawaiian traditional and customary practices.
WMPA intervened in a industrial energy project and prosecuted its case in a full contested case proceeding before the Public Utilities Commission. On the Commission’s motion, the parties entered into mediation and resolved the case addressing those concerns within the bailiwick of the commission including requiring most project jobs to be paid at then prevailing wage.