A Hawaii legislative committee has made quick work recommending confirmation of a special state water commissioner after more than a year of controversy.
The Senate Committee on Water and Land voted 5-0 Friday for Hannah Kihalani Springer to be the traditional Native Hawaiian water management expert on the Commission on Water Resource Management for the next few years.
The committee’s endorsement came just over two weeks since Gov. Josh Green appointed Springer to fill the vacant position subject to Senate confirmation.
Previously, Green passed over Springer twice as a candidate in favor of seeking more candidates, moves that drew criticism from environmental and Hawaiian cultural organizations as well as litigation.
Sen. Lorraine Inouye, chair of the committee, called Springer a qualified candidate deserving the consideration before this year’s legislative session ends May 2.
“I think we’re at the point today, and I’m happy, that before end of session we’re able to have you here,” Inouye (D, Hilo-Pepeekeo) said during Friday’s hearing.
Having Springer serve through June 30, 2028, is subject to a vote by the 25-member Senate, though
a favorable decision appears likely. No one opposed Springer’s confirmation at the committee hearing where 308 people and organizations submitted supportive written testimony.
Supporters included Dawn Chang, director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, who chairs the water commission, and the commission’s administrator, Ciara Kahahane.
”Miss Springer is
highly qualified for this
appointment, and she will bring to the commission an extraordinary record of public service, community advocacy and steadfast dedication to environmental and cultural stewardship,” Kahahane told the committee.
The seven-member commission attached to DLNR governs the state water code, which can include determining how the public-
trust resource is divided by competing interests such as developers, industrial agriculture, small farmers and natural ecosystems.
The seat on the commission being filled by Springer is referred to as the loea, or expert, seat and must be occupied by a person who has substantial experience or
expertise in traditional Hawaiian water resource management techniques, including riparian use.
Springer is a former Office of Hawaiian Affairs trustee who also has served on numerous advisory councils, nonprofit boards and state commissions, including the Hawaii County Planning Commission, the Ka‘upulehu Marine Life Advisory Committee, the Akaka Foundation for Tropical Forests and the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation
Commission.
Harley Broyles, an Earthjustice attorney, called Springer a “true loea” who will ensure the protection of traditional and customary rights of water users, including taro farmers. “She is precisely what our wai (water) and our community needs on the water commission,” Broyles told the committee.
Earthjustice represented a group of Hawaii residents who filed a lawsuit against Green in January over his previous handling of the loea seat appointment.
The seat was vacated June 30 when Neil Hannahs finished his second four-year term, but Green didn’t appoint anyone from a list of four candidates produced by a nominating committee in February 2024.
Green said he needed a new list because two candidates had withdrawn, though state law requires only that the nominating committee give the governor a list with at least three candidates. Springer was one of two remaining candidates from the list.
After the commission solicited new applications in September for a new nominating committee to consider, about 70 Hawaii environmental and Hawaiian cultural organizations expressed concern in a letter to Green about his do-over.
The new committee submitted a list of three candidates that again included Springer, and in October, Green appointed V.R. Hinano Rodrigues, a Native Hawaiian from Maui who grows his own taro and previously served as the History and Culture Branch chief at the State Historic Preservation Division of DLNR.
Then in January the community group Hui Kanawai ‘Oia‘i‘o filed a lawsuit contending that Green unlawfully circumvented state law because he didn’t want to appoint Springer or the second person remaining on the original recommendation list, Lori Buchanan, a former chair of the Molokai Planning Commission.
The lawsuit cited a Hawaii News Now interview in which Green referred to Springer and Buchanan as great people who would bring an “ideological perspective that was going to cause chaos” amid an effort to find compromises between competing interests that include restoring streams and building homes.
Green requested Jan. 23 that the Senate consider confirming Rodrigues, but no hearing was scheduled. On March 12, Green withdrew his request a day after DLNR announced that Rodrigues had resigned.
Instead of asking for another new candidate list, Green appointed Springer on March 27, and in a statement praised her for work championing the integration of traditional knowledge and community voices into decisions affecting land and water in Hawaii.
“Hannah Springer’s lifelong commitment to aina (land) stewardship, cultural wisdom and public service makes her an invaluable addition to the Commission on Water Resource Management,” Green said in the statement. “Her perspective will help ensure that our approach to managing water resources reflects the values and priorities of Hawaii’s people and places. I am proud to appoint her to this important role.”
At Friday’s hearing, Springer told the committee, “Too often in this time as a citizen observing the goings on in Hawaii nei, I see responsible water resources management and progressive housing development being cast as mutually exclusive to one another, when rightfully so, they’re mutually dependent upon one
another. … We need to be better at siting land use that is appropriate to the water resources that are readily available and learn better how to grow the water and manage it with pono
(righteousness).”
