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In 2022, Maui\u2019s wetlands ordinance was seen as a blueprint for the rest of the state. Nearly three years later, the law has never been fully implemented. (Courtesy of Save The Wetlands Hui)<\/p>\nMaui County\u2019s expansive wetland law was expected to pave the way for stronger protections statewide.\u00a0More than two years and a $250,000 map later, it\u2019s never been enforced. <\/p>\n
Last July, excavators and woodchippers appeared on a 7-acre wild thicket of kiawe trees near K\u012bhei that serves as a crucial habitat for the endangered Hawaiian Hoary Bats during pupping season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Community members raised alarms about the unpermitted work, but the clearing continued unchecked. Within weeks, the Waipu\u2018ilani Mauka wetland \u2014\u00a0which makes up a small portion of the estimated 83 acres of wetlands left in South Maui \u2014 was reduced to a plot of mostly barren red dirt.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To prevent this kind of destruction of wetlands without oversight, Maui County lawmakers passed an ordinance in 2022 requiring developers and county planners to take steps to protect these vital habitats.<\/p>\n
That ordinance has never been fully implemented, let alone enforced.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In 2022, Maui\u2019s wetlands ordinance was seen as a blueprint for the rest of the state. Nearly three years later, the law has never been fully implemented. (Courtesy of Save The Wetlands Hui)<\/p>\n
Environmentalists say the county law, which some hoped would serve as a revolutionary blueprint for protecting wetlands across the state, has instead become a cautionary tale of how promised stewardship of the environment can fall flat amid inaction and confusion.<\/p>\n
Almost three years after the ordinance was enacted, all county officials and lawmakers have managed to do is create a map of the wetlands with a price tag of more than $250,000.<\/p>\n
Amid ongoing confusion over the 2022 law, environmentalists have filed a lawsuit against the landowners of the K\u012bhei property and the county arguing that owners should have sought environmental permits that would have required the county to consider how that work would affect the wetland.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Developers said in a written statement that they were complying with other county ordinances and addressing fire risk by removing the trees on land zoned for residential use.<\/p>\n
The next steps in implementing the law \u2014 which might clear up such debates \u2014\u00a0are stalled at the County Council. Environmentalists say that\u2019s just a bureaucratic excuse.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe ordinance itself establishes the policy of the county of Maui,\u201d said Christina Lizzi, an environmental attorney who is challenging a permit issued for another property in an area covered by the wetland ordinance. \u201cIt should have been guiding what they were doing here, and it was completely ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stronger Protections\u00a0<\/p>\n
Residents in South Maui have grown used to flooding in recent years. Big rain storms in the mountains send a rush of muddy water down to the low-lying neighborhoods along the shoreline, sometimes washing out the major road through K\u012bhei.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Environmentalists and local officials blame the flooding on the near total destruction of the area\u2019s once prevalent wetlands, which serve as crucial repositories for storm water. Development in South Maui has exploded in the last 50 years, eating away at these environments that serve as crucial flood protection, a habitat for endangered native species and a barrier for sediment runoff that kills coral reefs.<\/p>\n
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Wetlands are crucial flood prevention, a habitat for endangered native species and a barrier for sediment runoff that kills coral reefs. But as South Maui has become more and more developed, those vital areas are disappearing. (Courtesy of Save The Wetlands Hui)<\/p>\n
The 2022 ordinance was intended to prevent more building in wetland zones, said Kelly King, a former county council member from South Maui who spearheaded the initiative.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe idea was to try to increase that back up and absorb the storm water, so that we wouldn\u2019t have all this flooding,\u201d King said.<\/p>\n
The law created an explicit policy to protect wetlands and laid out a series of steps to do that. First, it required the county planning department to create a map of wetlands on Maui, L\u0101na\u02bbi and Moloka\u02bbi. The council was then supposed to use the map to create a special zoning district that prohibits significant destruction of the wetlands and restricts clearing vegetation or grading the land.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The ordinance also set up a process to identify lands that the county should acquire for conservation and required developers for certain projects to generate reports about the feasibility of taking steps to preserve the wetlands before building.<\/p>\n
By establishing this policy, Maui aimed to go further than the federal government. Under the Clean Water Act, three things need to be present to be considered wetland: water at or near the surface of the ground, certain types of soil and wetland vegetation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Maui took a more expansive definition. If just two of those criteria are met, the area qualifies as a wetland under Ordinance 5421, opening the door for more land to be protected.<\/p>\n
Putting the broader definition into place became even more urgent in 2023 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that wetlands needed to be connected on the surface of the land to a body of water for federal law to apply. That weakened federal protections for Maui\u2019s wetlands, where water often flows into the ocean underground.<\/p>\n
The ordinance should have become a way for the county to \u201cfill those gaps in wetlands protection that the federal side was no longer really providing,\u201d said Wesley Crile, a coastal dune restoration specialist at University of Hawai\u02bbi Sea Grant<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Faltering Progress<\/p>\n The planning department was given a year after the ordinance was enacted in October 2022 to map the wetlands. The county paid environmental consulting firm H. T. Harvey & Associates $274,064.72 to do the work, in consultation with local scientists. But the wildfire that destroyed much of Lahaina in 2023 threw the project off course, and the planning department was granted an extension.\u00a0<\/p>\n When the wetland map was eventually completed in June 2024, environmentalists raised concerns about several key wetlands that were included in previous drafts but were left off the final map. Other areas already set aside for conservation weren\u2019t included because they were protected by other means, according to Crile, who was involved in the creation of the map.<\/p>\n Then progress ground to a halt.<\/p>\n For the ordinance to be put into effect, the county council needs to adopt a wetlands overlay district, County Planning Director Kate Blystone said in an email. Lila Lawrence, a spokesperson from the Maui County Department of Planning, declined interview requests.<\/p>\n
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Even if the ordinance was fully enforced, some raise concerns that it only applies to certain types of land use or development. There\u2019s confusion over whether smaller projects like single family homes would be covered. (Courtesy of Save The Wetlands Hui)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/wetlands4-1024x658.jpg\")
Maui County spent more than $250,000 to map the wetlands on Maui, L\u0101na\u02bbi and Moloka\u02bbi. But the planning department says it is waiting on the County Council to create a special zoning district to enforce the law. (Marina Riker\/Civil Beat\/2023)<\/p>\n![\"Civil](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/logo10.png\"){kind=logo}
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