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Maui County has decided not to pursue a 30-year water purchase agreement with a Chicago-based real estate investment firm that had raised the ire of some Upcountry residents.

“We’ve been listening to the community and we want to make sure that we address the concerns,” said John Stufflebean, director of the Department of Water Supply, in an interview with Civil Beat this week.

He was referring to a by to purchase 272 acres in Kula, drill one or more deep wells and sell the water to Maui County for three decades. The $100 million project also called for building 21 homes on the property.

“The community would like to see more local investment in this project and they would like us to conduct an environmental assessment on the project,” Stufflebean said.

Stufflebean said community members also asked for a more thorough financial analysis to see if the proposal made sense.

In the end, concerns outweighed benefits. For now at least, the county will no longer pursue any agreement with Free Market Ventures and will look at other options for increasing its water supply, the water director said.

He noted that Free Market Ventures is looking for local investors and it’s possible the company will restructure its proposal and make another pitch to the county. But the existing proposal is dead.

That came as welcome news Wednesday evening at the Mayor Hannibal Tavares Community Center in Pukalani where about 100 people turned out for an update on the controversial proposal. Council members Yuki Lei Sugimura and Tom Cook organized the meeting.

Sugimura chairs the Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee and holds the residency seat for Upcountry. Cook chairs the Water and Infrastructure Committee and represents South Maui.

Wednesday’s meeting was envisioned as a follow-up to one held March 27 when dozens of residents expressed strong opposition to the proposed water-delivery contract. They cited concerns about a lack of information about the project, the potential increased cost of the water and the idea of a mainland company with no ties to Maui drilling for and selling water back to the county.

After Stufflebean informed the council that he decided not to pursue the deal any further, Cook and Sugimura decided to still attend the meeting to answer questions from the public and talk story.

Some residents who spoke Wednesday night simply wanted clarity that the Free Market Ventures deal was off the table. That was confirmed.

Others wanted to know what the county is doing to find new water sources for Upcountry and to alleviate the of households seeking to hook up to county water.

“We’ve been showing up at these meetings for 25 years,” said Tina Boteilho, who was born and raised in Upcountry and whose family has waited for a water meter for years.

Kupuna are dying waiting to finally get county water, Boteilho said. She glanced at her mother, seated next to her, as she spoke, noting that her mom is 74 and is still waiting for a water meter.

“At some point you have to tell us how this is going to get resolved,” Boteilho said.

Sugimura noted that it’s the Department of Water Supply that makes such decisions and the council approves or denies the funding.

Cook said the department is investing in various strategies to bring more water sources to Upcountry. But he said he understood the frustration many feel about being on the water meter list for so long.

“I hear you,” Cook said, noting that some of his own family members are also waiting for meters.

Stufflebean said his department is actively working to find new water sources and expand others. Part of that will be designing and constructing a reservoir at the Kamole water treatment facility, Maui’s largest, to store more surface water.

It’s also planning to increase connections with the Central Maui water system, drill wells in Makawao, support the newly established East Maui Water Authority and resolve a consent decree that will allow more wells to ultimately be drilled in Haiku.

Stufflebean previously had said he supported the proposal by Free Market Ventures because it shifted the risk and expense of drilling new wells to a private entity and away from the county, and it would have freed up funding for other water-related projects. But after hearing concerns expressed by the community, he said he realized the proposal was untenable.

Free Market Ventures had proposed purchasing 272 acres from Von Tempsky FP, an area known as Kula Ridge Mauka, which includes the Kula Community Center. If the Department of Water Supply had agreed to a 30-year contract, Free Market Ventures would have drilled one to four deep-water wells on the property, tapped into the aquifer and supplied water to Upcountry ratepayers.

If three wells had been drilled, it would have eliminated the water meter list, Cook said.

Dick Mayer, a retired economics professor at University of Hawaii’s Maui College, presented a plan Wednesday to improve Upcountry’s water situation.

Mayer said Maui County should assist the East Maui Water Authority to acquire four East Maui watershed leases from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Concurrently, the county should help the East Maui Water Authority gain operational control of the East Maui ditch system so that it becomes an integral part of the water delivery system for both Upcountry’s water needs as well as those of Central Maui agriculture, Mayer said.

Sugimura encouraged Mayer to submit his proposal to Stufflebean.

Former Board of Water Supply Chair Shay Chan Hodges said that going forward county officials should recognize local knowledge about water and make sure “the community is first at the table as projects are considered — not last.”

Civil Beat’s Maui County coverage is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.

Civil Beat’s coverage of environmental issues on Maui is supported by grants from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy and the Hawaii Wildfires Recovery Fund, the Knight Foundation and the Doris Duke Foundation