Can One Government Official Really Hold Up Necessary Water Uses? The Hawaii Public Water Trust In Action
That's the Hawaii public water trust working as it was intended. There isn't a necessity, or let's-save-some-lives exception, at least just yet
We've been somewhat reluctant to post too much on the legal aspects of the Maui wildfires (other than to comment on the first lawsuit), just because it still seems "too soon." The focus should be on aiding the victims and helping those who want to rebuild to do so, and not on premature blamestorming (see also this), legal theories, and the "opportunities" this disaster presents (see also this.and this).
But we did want to clear one thing up. There are a lot of stories (see here and here, for example), about the State of Hawaii official -- the Deputy Director of the Commission on Water Resource Management and an employee of the State Department of Land and Natural Resources -- who allegedly refused for several hours to release water as requested to fill reservoirs, until first obtaining the approval of a taro farmer. ---More...