Businessman eyes Waihee parcels for bottled-water plant

Extracted from article by Ilima Loomis of the Maui News

Tony Liserre… said he was proposing a plant that could bottle up to 220,000 gallons of water per day but that he expected the facility would start production at about a third of that amount…

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But while the wells on the site do already have state water-use permits, state officials said Liserre would likely have to apply for new permits if he was to go ahead with his plan.

Hydrologist Charlie Ice of the Commission on Water Resource Management said the existing permits were based on plans that the wells would be used for irrigation and pumping would be “relatively minimal.”

“What they are potentially proposing goes beyond what was originally approved,” he said.

He also said water levels in the Waihee aquifer are already close to triggering designation for state management, and additional pumping could bring it closer to that point.

County Planning Director Will Spence said he believed the Maui Planning Commission would need to approve a special use permit in order for a water-bottling operation to be constructed on the property, which is in an agricultural zone…

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Several environmental and community leaders said they felt Liserre might have good intentions, but they remained skeptical of his plans.

“I’m not convinced it would work out, personally,” said Lucienne de Naie, who met with Liserre to hear his proposal.

She said she appreciated his plans to keep the area undeveloped but felt the community needed more assurances that he would follow through on those and other promises, and questioned whether any future investors might have the same good intentions.

She also questioned his argument that the water would be used for development if he were not bottling it.

“I think he’s a little fast and furious with the facts,” she said. “Two-hundred, twenty-thousand gallons a day would be a lot of water for 24 homes to use.”

Waihee resident Johanna Kamaunu, who also met with Liserre, said she appreciated his proposal to keep the land out of development but also had significant concerns about the bottled-water proposal.

With its rich soil, ample rainfall and productive reef, “this land was meant to feed people, so the idea of bottling water and selling that – that’s not what the land was meant for,” she said….

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Maui Tomorrow Executive Director Irene Bowie said that, while Liserre had met with some community members, it was hard to comment on the project because she had had difficulty getting detailed information about it.

“It leaves a lot of questions,” she said. “I think he’s probably a well-intentioned person, but there just needs to be more information to the community before you can make an informed judgment on it.”

Read the whole article which has much more information on the project