eVols at University of Hawaii at Manoa

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100th Infantry Battalion Veterans

Puka Puka Parade 2022 - Number 03

Puka Puka Parade 2022 - Number 09

Puka Puka Parade 2022 - Number 12

Kahele, Kaialiʻi

Kahele, Case introduce legislation to permanently shut down Red Hill

Kahele congratulates Hawaiʻi’s back-to-back NCAA men’s volleyball national champions on floor of the U.S. House of Representatives

Kahele secures $8.8 million for community-led projects across Hawaiʻi

Kahele’s statement on Navy’s Red Hill defueling plan and investigation report on the Red Hill fuel leaks

Floor speech on the PACT Act

Special order hour speech on Secretary Norman Mineta

University of Hawaii at Manoa Hamilton Library
eVols Repository https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu
Public relations Speeches
Remarks to the Hawaiʻi Rural Water
Association’s 2022 training and
technical conference
Congressman Kaialiʻi Kahele Papers
Public relations, Speeches and Statements
https://hdl.handle.net/10524/84351
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Aloha kakahiaka kākou! Thank you to everyone for 
being here on this early Thursday morning! It is truly 
a pleasure to join you for the 2022 Hawaiʻi Rural 
Water Association’s Training and Technical 
Conference! Mahalo! 
 
It is my honor to represent the people of Hawaiʻi’s 
second congressional district which spans across all 
of the Hawaiian Islands from Niʻihau to my 
hometown of Miloliʻi – just down the coast from here, 
Hawaiʻi’s last fishing village in South Kona.  
 
Each and everyone of us, are here because we 
share one significant passion – that is, to protect our 
island home’s most precious resource, our wai, our 
water. One way we can do this together is by 
ensuring the proper operation and maintenance of 
our water and wastewater systems.  
 
At this time, I would like to mahalo the Hawaiʻi Rural 
Water Association and its Executive Director 
Juanita Reyher-Colon for inviting me to join you 
here today, and to recognize Tony Carrasco for his 
support of the organization's mission. Mahalo for 
your important work as stewards of our rural water 
and wastewater systems. Too often, rural 
communities are overlooked and underserved.The 
training and technical assistance that you provide – 
which covers every aspect of operating, managing 
and financing water and wastewater utilities – 
strengthens our communities, no matter how small.  
 
In our Hawaiʻi, sea level rise will result in intrusion of 
saltwater into freshwater aquifers. Each year, we 
experience unprecedented flooding due to severe 
weather that directly affects our drinking water and 
wastewater systems. We have also experienced 
record droughts across the state. And now, on 
Oʻahu, the poisoning of our scarce, freshwater 
resources at Kapukaki, otherwise known as Red Hill 
with Jet Fuel.  
 
We need to move forward together to find solutions 
to these challenges.  
 
Now before I go any further, I want to take you on a 
short voyage back in time to talk about our host 
culture and its deep relationship with water.  
 
Just a few hundred years ago, before western 
contact, battles for water were fought on every 
island in our pae ʻāina. 
 
Wai was key to waiwai or prosperity for Native 
Hawaiians. From the mountain to the ocean – the 
ahupua’a, the Native Hawaiian land division – wai 
sustained life. Hence, the saying, Ola I Ka Wai, 
Water is Life.  
 
There were many rules governing wai. The ali’i were 
responsible to ensure the fair distribution of water to 
Kanaka Maoli so that they could Waiwai (prosper). 
And in charge of fair distribution were the Konohiki – 
or  resource managers – and in a way, the Hawaiʻi 
Rural Water Association is a modern Konohiki.  
 
With the influx of foreign ships, water demands 
increased. Foreign land interests looked at water as 
key to their economic successes.  
 
Recognizing the foreign pursuit of water, 
Kamehameha III, Kauikeaouli, issued the law, 
Respecting Water for Irrigation, to ensure a fair 
distribution of water for Kanaka Maoli. 
 
Further, the 1850 Kuleana Act guaranteed the 
tenant landowner access to water in perpetuity. 
 
For more than 100 years, sugar and pineapple 
barons monopolized water for their economic 
interests. In one landmark case, McBryde Sugar 
Company versus Robinson, on the island of Kauaʻi, 
both plantations argued that they owned the water. 
 
This case led to the 1973 Hawaiʻi Supreme Court 
decision when Chief Justice William Richardson 
ruled that all waters flowing in natural water courses 
belong to the sovereign state of Hawaiʻi, in 
trusteeship for the people of Hawaiʻi, and therefore 
there is no right of private water ownership in 
Hawaiʻi. 
 
In 1978, the Hawaiʻi State Constitutional Convention 
amended the Hawaiʻi State Constitution to create a 
state water management agency charged with 
establishing criteria for the use of water. 
 
In 1987, the Hawaiʻi State Legislature passed the 
State Water Code 
o This law created a six-member Commission 
on Water Resource Management 
And charged the Department of Land and 
Natural Resources to administer and 
implement the state water code under the 
direction of the commission 
 
The Commission on Water Resource Management 
is responsible for the public trust use of water 
including Native Hawaiian traditional and customary 
practices.  
 
The struggle for access to water continues 
today. 
 
We must fairly resolve competing interests as we 
modernize our Hawaiʻi and solve challenges 
resulting from population growth and other human 
activities that have polluted waterways and coastal 
waters causing reef and sea life die offs. 
 
I believe that we can learn from the basic tenets of 
Ola I Ka Wai.  From this source of wisdom carried on 
for generations by Kanaka Maoli, we can solve 
problems and build an inclusive Hawaiʻi that works 
for all. 
 
From stream restoration to wastewater 
management, we must solve these challenges today 
because the cost of waiting is too great. 
 
With this in mind, my staff and I have worked hand in 
hand with our constituents – by listening and making 
their priorities, my priorities, and addressing the 
concerns of our community members – people like 
you. 
 
So far in 2022, I’ve participated in over 100 
community meetings and community events in our 
Congressional district. I met with residents from 
every major Neighbor island during 17 island site 
visits across our state. And my team and I have 
participated in over 150 Neighborhood Board 
meetings to report on federal priorities and hear 
directly from our local community leaders. 
 
We toured the aging Hilo Wastewater Treatment 
Plant and visited the Sand Island treatment facility 
on Oʻahu to gain first hand knowledge of how we 
can further what is working and improve where we 
are lacking. We have had numerous conversations 
with the EPA and the County of Hawaiiʻs Mayors 
office on complying with the Administrative Order of 
Consent and compliance with the Safe Water 
Drinking Act for the gang cesspools on Naalehu and 
Pahala. We have been in the Red Hill tunnel and 
water shaft more times than I can count and have 
toured and learned about the Halawa shaft from 
Honolulu BWS Ernie Lau. Finally we spent time with 
the Department of Water Supply and Chief Engineer 
Keith Okamoto and this team touring the Kahaluʻu 
Shaft, and High Level wells in above Kailua-Kona.  
 
In Congress, improving water and wastewater 
infrastructure in Hawaiʻi is my top priority, and my 
team and I have worked tirelessly to help remediate 
these long-standing issues by bringing federal 
dollars to every county in our State.  
 
 
 
 
 
  
In support of the Hawaiʻi Rural Water 
Association, I prioritized 
 
o $21,180,700 for the USDA Circuit Rider 
Program, a program that helps communities to 
operate safe and clean drinking water systems 
and helps to ensure compliance with current 
water regulations. 
 
o $6,500,000 for the USDA Grassroots Source 
Water Protection Program, which provides 
rural communities with the technical 
assistance necessary to improve water quality 
and provide safe drinking water.  
 
o $6,000,000 for the Rural Solid Waste 
Technical Assistance Program, which provides 
rural communities with technical assistance to 
manage solid waste disposal sites. 
o $716,000,000 for the Water and Sewer Loan 
and Grant program to construct water and 
wastewater infrastructure through grants and 
loans provided at reasonable rates and terms 
for many communities that do not have the 
financial means to construct new water 
systems, expand existing ones, or comply with 
mandates. 
 
o $10,000,000 for the Household Water Well 
System Grant program to support low-and 
moderate-income households in rural areas 
for the installation, treatment, or upgrades of 
private water wells. 
 
Additionally, I serve on the all-important House 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, 
which had primary jurisdiction over the once-in-a-
generation investment in our infrastructure – the 
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. In it, we secured at 
least $2.8 billion for Hawaiʻi to rebuild our roads, 
bridges, airports and clean drinking water systems.  
 
This funding also has the power to increase 
Hawaiʻi’s Drinking Water State Revolving Loan 
Fund. This will improve drinking water systems, fix 
old pipes and other infrastructure projects needed to 
protect public health. It also authorizes programs 
that will help the State live up to its 2050 mandate to 
eliminate cesspools and connect homeowners to 
sewer systems, ensuring we are all able to keep our 
streams and oceans clean.  
 
However, the $2.8 billion that is coming straight to 
Hawaiʻi is only the first step. In order for our State to 
harness the full potential of these funds, we need 
organizations and nonprofits like yourselves to 
research, find, and apply for these newly available 
competitive grants. I encourage each of you to 
contact my office in DC to learn more on how to 
apply for this funding. 
 
Now, I have good news - significant news to share 
with you. Last week, we witnessed a historic first for 
our State. Every two years, Congress approves the 
Water Resources and Development Act or WRDA, a 
federal water package which outlines government 
spending on water and wastewater infrastructure 
through the Army Corps of Engineers. Through the T 
& I Committee-passed WRDA, for the first time, we 
were able to include Environmental Infrastructure 
projects for Hawaiʻi – positioning our State to receive 
direct funding of up to $80 million a year. It also 
includes a new provision that enables Native 
Hawaiian Organizations to waive local cost-sharing 
requirements of up to $200,000 for critical 
environmental projects which will open the doors to 
new environmental restoration projects and career 
opportunities in every county. 
 
By working together, we can lead Hawaiʻi forward 
and tackle our most pressing issues. Collectively 
and united, we can bring about true change. I know 
this, because we have done it before. Last year in 
November, communities on Oʻahu experienced one 
of the greatest threats to their clean drinking water. 
The crisis at Red Hill should have never happened. 
And unfortunately, we still have not fully recovered 
from this environmental disaster which has affected 
the lives of 93,000 residents and tainted Oʻahu’s 
sole source aquifer.  
 
But with the collective efforts of our community and a 
whole-of-government of Hawaiʻi approach, we have 
made significant strides toward defueling and 
decommissioning this facility. In the House Armed 
Services Committee, I have made it crystal clear to 
my colleagues and the Pentagon that the safety of 
our drinking water is non-negotiable. 
 
As I stand here before you today, I believe that our 
State has a renewed sense of commitment to our 
environment and our water. Each of you here is vital 
to ensuring the highest quality of drinking water for 
our state and the responsible management of our 
wastewater systems. I am excited to learn and work 
alongside you and look forward to your continued 
innovations and success.  
 
Mahalo nui loa for your commitment to creating a 
more equitable Hawaiʻi and I wish you all a 
productive conference! 
 
 


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Remarks to the Hawaiʻi Rural Water Association’s 2022 training and technical conference

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa

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