HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The owner of the Kapalua Golf courses is offering to spend more than $40 million to improve West Maui\u2019s water system.<\/p>\n
The proposal was made during a state water commission hearing Tuesday over complaints that the courses were allowed to use drinking water during a recent drought.<\/p>\n
TY Management, owned by billionaire Tadashi Yanai, said it would buy the Maui Land and Pineapple\u2019s Honokohau water system, improve reservoirs, and build a pipeline from Lahaina to supply recycled water to Kapalua.<\/p>\n
The company said it would then turn the system over to the government at no charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about ultimately getting to the R-1 water (the highest grade of treated, recycled wastewater) to our golf course,\u201d TY Management attorney Ben Kubo said.<\/p>\n
Drinking water use draws criticism<\/p>\n
The hearing centered on complaints that the state allowed Kapalua to draw from the drinking water supply during a drought, which led to cancellation of the Sentry golf tournament.<\/p>\n
State land and water chair Dawn Chang wrote a letter that was used to justify the decision.<\/p>\n
TY Management said it had no role in that choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t operate the valves. We don\u2019t know where the water is coming from day to day. We just take the water from the reservoir,\u201d Kubo said.<\/p>\n
Community members and environmentalists called on the commission to overturn the opinion that using drinking water was acceptable in an emergency.<\/p>\n
\u201cUsing clean, drinkable groundwater to irrigate a golf course, especially in an historic drought, is an insult to our community,\u201d said Karyn Kanekoa.<\/p>\n
Earthjustice attorney Dru Hara urged the commission to act independently of political and private economic interests. An exchange between Hara and a commissioner grew heated before Hara walked back the remarks.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll due respect, Commissioner, that was not my intent to point that finger at the commission, and I apologize,\u201d Hara said.<\/p>\n
Complications remain<\/p>\n
The $40 million-plus offer faces at least one significant obstacle: TY Management and Maui Land and Pineapple are currently in litigation over the water system\u2019s maintenance, and Maui Land and Pineapple would have to agree to sell.<\/p>\n
Maui Land and Pineapple denies mismanagement of its water diversion system caused the shortage of water.<\/p>\n
Kubo asked those present to consider the proposal on its merits.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would like all of the community that\u2019s present here today to truly try to listen to what our ideas of a solution are \u2014 to bring more water to West Maui \u2014 and to have an open mind on it,\u201d Kubo said.<\/p>\n
The county has stated its long-term intention to own all water systems in the area, though a timeline and cost remain unclear.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 Hawaii News Now. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The owner of the Kapalua Golf courses is offering to spend more than $40 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":245923,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[224931,15229,427,21846,94105,15228,94109,98974,34592,19857,98972,99,73738,2099,156999,282,94623],"class_list":{"0":"post-490254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-cancellation","9":"tag-drought","10":"tag-golf","11":"tag-golf-courses","12":"tag-honokohau","13":"tag-irrigation","14":"tag-lahaina","15":"tag-maui-land-and-pineapple","16":"tag-pga","17":"tag-purchase","18":"tag-sentry","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-tadashi-yanai","21":"tag-tournament","22":"tag-ty-management","23":"tag-water","24":"tag-west-maui"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/245923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}