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Maui Department of Water Supply Deputy Director Kimo Landgraf drew scattered applause from a packed house at the Lahaina Civic Center last week when he gave an update on the town’s water system. 

“The entire water system is pressurized, and we have water in all the lines in Lahaina,” he said. “That’s the good news.” 

He quickly added the bad news: “Not all is drinkable yet.”

In fact, Landgraf said, drinking water won’t be fully restored until August.

The good news-bad news aspect of Landgraf’s presentation established a theme that recurred at the town hall meeting, where county officials updated more than 400 property owners on the and the beginnings of the path forward for them to rebuild their homes.

The county has made significant progress in its efforts to shore up and rebuild infrastructure such as water systems, officials said. But some residents may have to wait several months to have basics like drinkable water and flushing toilets.

Still, people will be able to obtain building permits even before water and waste systems are completely restored, said Mahina Martin, public affairs director for Maui County. 

In addition, Martin said, residents will be able to construct temporary dwellings on their properties while they rebuild permanent homes, as long as they provide a wastewater plan with their application for the temporary dwelling if sewer service isn’t active.

Lahaina Recovery May Be At A Turning Point

The meeting for homeowners comes at a turning point in Lahaina’s recovery. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has largely cleared debris from the properties destroyed by the fire. In addition, earlier this month officials announced they were beginning the monthslong process of gaining community input to craft a long-term recovery plan to guide the town’s redevelopment. That plan is expected to be completed in the fall. 

The county’s intention is to allow people to start rebuilding their homes long before then, Martin said. 

“That was a really forward-step meeting for us,” said Martin, who assembled the heads of several county agencies to update the public and answer questions at last week’s event. 

One thing that emerged during the meeting and afterward, as residents buttonholed officials, is that many situations are unique, Martin said. 

“There are absolutely going to be scenarios that need special attention,” Martin said. 

“All of those situations add up to a very complicated return, but not impossible,” she said.

Permitting Center To Open Monday

Like Landgraf, Jordan Molina, director of the Department of Public Works, shared good news that he quickly qualified.

“Generally the state of our roads is good,” Molina said. The bad news: There’s fatigue in the pavement where vehicles burned, he said, and many traffic signals need to be replaced. There will be traffic issues to coordinate as people return and rebuild, he said.

Molina also drew applause when he announced that Maui County has hired a civil engineering  that specializes in fire recovery to open a Recovery Permitting Center to help homeowners navigate the permitting process. 

But Molina tempered expectations of what the permitting center will be able to do when he said, “If you don’t know, Lahaina has very complex land-use regulations. We have many different special places that we have protections for, notably your historic districts, your special management areas, your shoreline areas.”

People should “be prepared to do a little more homework to understand what your requirements are going to be,” he said.

Mike Renner, project manager for 4Leaf Inc., which will be running the permitting center, did not return a call for comment on the scope of services 4Leaf will provide. But Martin said more details will be available by the time the center opens.

It’s not just drinking water that will take months to fully restore. Lahaina’s wastewater treatment system is also a work in progress, said Robert Schmidt, deputy director of the Department of Environmental Management.

Schmidt shared side-by-side maps showing the status of the town’s wastewater system on April 11 and April 16. The second map, on the right, showed one area where a patch of red had been replaced by green, indicating that it was OK to flush toilets and run water down drains in those places.

Schmidt acknowledged the department is moving carefully and methodically, which is reflected in small changes to the map’s area of green. Still, he encouraged residents to use mapping systems operated by the county to check the status of their property regularly. 

“Even small changes, if it’s your property, that’s an important change,” he said.