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The state is inching closer to acquisition of the Wahiawa Dam and spillway, a withering piece of plantation-era water infrastructure that agriculture advocates say is crucial to the future of farming on Oahu. 

The state budgeted $5 million last year for the purchase and $21 million more to repair and upgrade the dam and spillway system that is more than a century old. Its failure would put almost 2,500 lives at risk.

That came after its owners — including Dole Food Co. — spent more than a decade racking up fines and violation notices because of the dam’s problems.

The dam and spillway are one example of aging plantation water infrastructure that agriculture advocates want the state to invest in to safeguard agriculture and help boost local food production in Hawaii.

The purchase has been in the pipeline for several years, with key support from Sen. Donovan Dela Cruz, who represents Wahiawa and is chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

The Legislature approved funding in 2022, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. David Ige. Lawmakers tried again last year and Gov. Josh Green signed off on the purchase.

On Thursday, the Agribusiness Development Corp. agreed to buy the property on behalf of the Department of Agriculture, a move intended to streamline an acquisition nearing the final stages of negotiations between the state and the dam’s owners — Dole and Sustainable Hawaii.

The dam would be turned over to the agriculture department to repair and upgrade to standards set by the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

ADC executive director Wendy Gady said the agreement reached last week marked a “huge step forward” for the dam’s purchase.

A timeline for the work is murky, said DOA director Sharon Hurd.

That’s because assessments and appraisals need to be made, with questions about the order of events — buy first, then assess, or the other way around.

“It’s a little bit gray right now, we want to to be clear, because it’s public funds,” Hurd said.

The head of DLNR, Dawn Chang, said her agency is “committed to ensuring public health and safety and effectively managing this critical source of water for local farmers to support sustainable agriculture.”

Selling the dam would mark the end of a years-long back and forth between Dole and the state as the pineapple purveyor struggled to bring the dam into compliance with modern safety standards. It was fined $20,000 in 2021 for inaction.

The purchase would also mark the start of what could be years of upgrades to lift the dam from its “poor” safety rating. That includes expanding the spillway to better handle overflow from Lake Wilson, which can hold over 3 billion gallons of water but threatens to spill over during major storms.

The state estimates that if the dam were to fail, 2,492 people, two schools, one fire station and 865 parcels of land would be in the direct path of the water’s flow.

Gady wants the state to buy and upgrade the dam and spillway not just for public safety reasons but because they are part of an irrigation system that could support 17,000 acres of agricultural land.

The Agribusiness Development Corp.’s ultimate goal is to acquire the irrigation system, which includes 30 miles of ditches that have fallen into disrepair but have the potential to reach thousands of acres of ADC-owned land.

The irrigation system, when it was built, could irrigate 12,000 acres of sugarcane fields and 5,000 acres of pineapples with 50 million gallons of water every day. As of 2008, the system was delivering about 10 million gallons per day.

“The irrigation system is really critical to our food production goals in the state,” Gady said.

Of the state’s 127 dams, 19 are deemed to be in an “unsatisfactory state” and 81 have a “poor” rating, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ .

Fifteen of the worst dams in Hawaii are considered particularly hazardous to the public. 

Many of those dams, along with irrigation ditches that stretch across the islands, are important to local food production and drought mitigation, Hawaii Farm Bureau Executive Director Brian Miyamoto said.

The farmers’ advocacy group will again introduce an omnibus irrigation bill next legislative session highlighting all of Hawaii’s plantation-era water and irrigation systems that have fallen into disrepair, something the organization does often to keep the issue on lawmakers’ minds.

That includes addressing Hawaii’s other out-of-compliance and abandoned dams and reservoirs. 

The governor enacted two laws recently with $10 million allocated by the Legislature to create grants for landowners with historic irrigation systems on their property.

While he approved funds for the Wahiawa dam acquisition, Green as part of a line-item veto last year. Miyamoto hopes more spending will be approved in the future, especially given the anticipated cost of repairing and upgrading the Wahiawa system.

Miyamoto said the bureau will also ask lawmakers to invest in the old 26.5-mile-long Waiahole Ditch system — owned by the Agribusiness Development Corp. — that runs westward from Oahu’s Kahana Valley, south of Wahiawa, to the eastern edge of Kunia.

“They were built by the plantations — maintained, operated and paid for — but they aren’t around anymore,” Miyamoto said. “They are aging out and in need of repairs.” 

“Hawaii Grown” is funded in part by grants from the Stupski Foundation, Ulupono Fund at the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.