A few years after an attempt to develop a water bottling facility in Hilo was shot down, a similar proposal is being made for the same location.
The Windward Planning Commission in 2019 denied a developer’s request to drill a 1,000-foot well into an aquifer at the intersection of Mililani and Piilani streets in Hilo, not far from the Wailoa River State Recreation Area.
The developer, Piilani Partners LLC, sought to build a water bottling plant on the 2.5-acre lot, but the commission blocked it following extensive negative feedback from residents and environmentalists.
However, a new developer evidently hopes to have better luck.
According to a letter obtained by the newspaper, a company called Hawaiian Kingdom Brands has made preliminary plans to drill a 1,000-foot well on the site and build a 30,000-square-foot water bottling and coffee roasting facility that includes a drive-thru cafe.
The letter — written by developer Land Planning Hawaii LLC on behalf of Hawaiian Kingdom Brands to solicit feedback from the Sierra Club of Hawaii — claims the project would withdraw no more than 200,000 gallons of water from the aquifer per day. The aquifer, discovered in the 1990s, is untapped, but is estimated to discharge at least 1 million gallons into the ocean every day, the letter claims.
Piilani Partners made similar estimates about the aquifer during their bid for a bottling plant.
Cory Harden, a volunteer with the Sierra Club of Hawaii, said she has the same concerns about the proposed facility as she had about the previous one, with the added worry that the presence of a drive-thru cafe would drastically increase traffic in the area.
“The state Office of Planning has called the aquifer in question ‘fresh, irreplaceable and highly vulnerable to contamination,’” Harden said, adding that, should one entity be allowed to tap into the aquifer, more will follow.
Other concerns include the impact on ocean life if the aquifer’s runoff into the sea is disrupted, as well as the production of noise and plastic waste from the facility itself, Harden said.
Harden said that the root of the problem is that a bottling plant is a misuse of public trust water. She also said that because of the mounting effects of climate change, there may come a time where the island will benefit from having an untapped source of fresh water.
While the proposal’s similarity to the previous project led Harden to call the new plan “a reincarnation of Piilani Partners,” it is unclear whether Hawaiian Kingdom Brands and Piilani Partners have any direct affiliation.
State records indicate that Hawaiian Kingdom Brands was registered with the state in December of last year, and list DuWayne Kaleo Kawai Holi Waipa as the business’ principal agent. Waipa appears to be a former officer with the Hawaii Police Department.
Waipa could not be reached for comment.
State tax records show that the lot in question was purchased last November for $1 million by Phoenix, Ariz.-based company Talon 1 Properties.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
