By Andrew Gomes
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Maui County is open to acquiring water system infrastructure from a company that can’t meet demand amid a historic drought, though it’s unclear how such an acquisition might help affected customers suing the system’s owner.
County officials have had preliminary discussions with Maui Land &Pineapple Co. representatives about a public acquisition of MLP’s private water system, which includes wells and surface water delivery infrastructure fed by watershed lands also owned by the company.
MLP for at least a year has been seeking to lease its water system assets that include 10,328 acres of watershed conservation land in West Maui, several potable water wells, nonpotable irrigation water ditches, reservoirs and transmission systems serving Kapalua Resort, Maui County and agricultural users in West and Upcountry Maui.
On Sept. 10, the company announced that a special subcommittee of its board was formed to identify options for a potential sale or lease of these assets.
Maui County spokesperson Laksmi Abraham said the discussion with MLP has not progressed beyond a preliminary stage, but that Mayor Richard Bissen generally supports expanding public control of the public trust resource.
“Mayor Bissen’s priority has always been to increase capacity in our publicly controlled water resources,” Abraham said in a statement. “The County is actively exploring opportunities to bring additional systems under public ownership to strengthen our community’s water security, and we remain open to discussions with interested purveyors, including Maui Land &Pineapple.”
Even if a deal were to happen relatively quickly, it’s questionable whether West Maui businesses and homeowners contending with irrigation use restrictions imposed by MLP would see near-term relief.
On Monday, a top-level golf tournament slated for Jan. 5-11 at Kapalua Resort was canceled due to the
water trouble. The Sentry tournament at Kapalua Golf’s Plantation Course was supposed to be the first PGA Tour signature event of the 2026 season, and in past years generated an estimated $50 million benefit to Maui’s economy.
The owner of two golf courses at the resort, TY Management headed by
Japanese billionaire Tadashi Yanai, filed a lawsuit in
August along with three Kapalua homeowners associations and a farm alleging that MLP has mismanaged its West Maui water resources and caused damage to plaintiffs under restrictions the company has imposed on irrigation water use over the past year.
Kapalua Golf had closed its Plantation Course Sept. 2, after its irrigation supply was cut off Aug. 29 following earlier reductions, in hopes of nursing the course back to good condition for The Sentry. On Monday, Kapalua Golf also announced its Bay Course was closing indefinitely.
TY Management said it has fruitlessly made repeated offers to help finance and support critical repairs to the only water system serving Kapalua, and that MLP has inexcusably failed to sufficiently maintain the system, which plaintiffs allege is in disrepair and should be able to meet demand during ongoing drought conditions.
Race Randle, CEO of MLP, has said that Maui’s severe drought is having islandwide impacts, and that the company is bound by state Commission on Water Resource Management rules prioritizing water for streamflows, traditional and customary uses, and drinking water.
On Wednesday, Randle said in a statement that the company’s effort to enhance productive use of its assets began in 2024 after a leadership overhaul at MLP in 2023 that included his appointment, and that discussions with the county’s Department of Water Supply began in 2024 and continued this year.
“Maui is facing a water crisis,” he said. “We are looking for good stewards for these resources, many of which could be seamlessly incorporated into existing County of Maui or other utility systems, giving them more flexibility when managing available water sources and making our water systems more resilient to drought and climate challenges.”
For much of its history, MLP had used its water system largely for its own needs to grow pineapple and as the developer of Kapalua Resort and longtime owner and operator of the resort’s two golf courses.
Downturns in the real estate and tourism industries as well as trouble making money off pineapple led the company to quit farming and sell myriad assets including the golf courses and a water utility subsidiary after the 2008-09 Great Recession to pay down debt that threatened the future existence of the company.
TY Management bought the Plantation Course in 2009 for $50 million, and a year later purchased the Bay Course for $24 million.
In 2019, MLP arranged to sell its two state-regulated utilities, Kapalua Water Co. and Kapalua Waste Treatment Co., to California–based Hawaii Water Service. MLP earned $4.2 million from this sale, which closed in 2021 after state Public Utilities Commission
MLP, however, retained ownership of much infrastructure delivering water to Hawaii Water Service, and agreed to deliver water from its wells and ditches at defined rates over an initial
20-year term.
In August, MLP reported $1.6 million in operating income from potable and nonpotable water system revenues over the first six months of this year, up from about $500,000 in the same period last year.
Also during the first half of this year, MLP reported receiving $300,000 in state grant funding for management of about 9,000 acres the company owns in the Pu‘u Kukui Watershed for conservation management.
The company said it actively manages the watershed to maximize rainfall capture and recharge of the aquifer, which provides about 70% of the water consumed in West Maui.
Since at least last September, MLP has sought to lease its water infrastructure, including watershed lands, to some other entity for the next 10 or more years. Then last week, MLP announced its effort to sell these assets in what it described as an opportunity to grow capacity that benefits the community and strengthens water security across Maui.
