EC Pāʻia Town Has to Find Its Own Water, and That Changes How to Read an Existing Paia Meter

"Because the county system is basically at capacity, the plan would be to go mauka, about the 300-foot elevation, install two wells and storage/treatment facilities to support the project." That was Harold Edwards, president of ITC Water Management, explaining to the Maui Planning Commission why the proposed EC Pāʻia Town would not connect to county water.

Most coverage treated his answer as a detail of a development story. For anyone buying in Paia, Kuau or Spreckelsville, it is the most useful sentence from the hearing. A 170-home project with experienced counsel and engineers looked at the county pipe and decided to plan around it. An existing home's water service can't be redesigned that way. Its meter already sets how much the house can grow, and under the Department of Water Supply's rules in effect since January 1, 2026, that limit is harder to move.

What actually went to the County Council

On Tuesday, September 8, the commission voted 5-3 to recommend rezoning for the project and voted unanimously to recommend the related community plan amendment. Developer Sam Hirbod, through his company EC Paia, proposes about 170 homes on roughly 40 acres of former Alexander & Baldwin sugarcane and mill land. The site sits mauka of Hāna Highway, makai of the former Pāʻia Mill and west of Baldwin Avenue. The plan calls for 120 single-family and 50 multifamily units, a medical clinic, neighborhood commercial space, a public parking lot and a relocated Pāʻia bypass. Cattle graze the land today.

During the hearing, project attorney Cal Chipchase offered more gap-income units. That raised the income-restricted total to 60 of the 170 homes. The commissioners also added an order of implementation. Infrastructure must be built first, the public parking lot second, and the workforce and gap-income housing third, before the rest of the project. They also asked for free parking for Maui residents at the new lot.

That sequence puts water at the front of the line, and several approvals still stand between the recommendation and a shovel:

1. County Council action on the rezoning and community plan amendment.
2. A state Land Use Commission district boundary amendment. Under state law the land is still designated agricultural. The county's position is that the rezoning can't take legal effect until the LUC acts, and the Department of Planning planned to advise the Council to wait for that decision.
3. A Special Management Area permit for the makai portion, which goes back to the Planning Commission.
4. Environmental review for the private wastewater plant. Deputy Corporation Counsel Michael Hopper said the plant is likely to trigger one under Hawaiʻi law.

As of late September, we found no published Council hearing date or LUC schedule for the project.

Why the county pipe was never an option

In its September 2026 coverage of the hearing, Maui Now reported that the Department of Water Supply's Aug. 14 letter to the Planning Department put the Central Maui system at 98% to 100% of its maximum reliable capacity, with "no additional source capacity" for new or expanded service. Pāʻia, Kū'au and Spreckelsville are in that system. DWS includes them in its Central/South service area.

The limit didn't start this summer. In March 2025, chief engineer James Jensen told the Board of Water Supply that the Central South system, which also serves Kihei and Wailea, was already using 90% to 92% of its reliable capacity and was projected to reach about 99% within three years. DWS then began limiting new service applications from large water users, defined as 1,200 gallons a day. That limit stays until the department's capacity assumptions change or a new source comes online. The project's planned potable demand is 75,738 gallons per day, far above that threshold.

Wastewater has the same problem. The Wailuku-Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility is running near its 7.9 million-gallon-per-day capacity. Central Maui may not have significant new wastewater capacity until the Central Maui facility opens around 2030. EC Pāʻia Town plans its own treatment plant on an adjacent parcel and would reuse R-1 water for irrigation.

The aquifer under the backup plan

Going off the county system means drawing from the Pāʻia aquifer. Here is what the state Commission on Water Resource Management has reported for the two Central Maui aquifers:

Chipchase told commissioners the overdraft comes from the East Maui drought cutting irrigation deliveries to Mahi Pono. He said it is not a structural shortage, and he expects conditions to normalize before the project needs water in 10 to 12 years. He described two possible sources. One is trading agricultural water to farm users in exchange for potable water from their existing wells. The other is treating the property's existing skimming well to potable standard with reverse osmosis.

CWRM Deputy Director Ciara Kahahane said East Maui has had wetter months. She also said a 12-month moving average "can remain elevated even after monthly pumping has declined," and that current staff work isn't designed to separate drought-driven pumping from longer-term demand. A USGS-assisted study of Central Maui aquifer boundaries could eventually change the sustainable-yield figures. New deep monitor wells for the Pāʻia and Kamaʻole aquifers are still in pre-construction. She couldn't say when the study will finish or what it will show. She also said the commission doesn't have enough detail about the proposed well to comment on whether it is viable.

So the water for the most significant new housing proposal in Paia depends on a recovery the state hasn't measured and a study with no end date. That doesn't predict the project will fail. It does make it a 2030s question. In the meantime, the homes that make up the Paia market are the ones already standing, each with its county meter.

What the January 2026 rule did to an existing meter

On January 1, 2026, under Ordinance 5759, DWS stopped sizing meters by counting plumbing fixtures. It now uses a daily-demand unit called the Equivalent Single Dwelling, or ESD, set at 300 gallons per day and based on a four-bedroom, two-bath home. Each service gets another 0.5 ESD for outdoor use. Bedrooms are counted broadly, including any room that is, or could reasonably be, used for sleeping.

The standard capacities for single-family service are:

• 5/8-inch meter: up to 2.5 ESDs
• 3/4-inch meter: up to 3.5 ESDs
• 1-inch meter: up to 6 ESDs

The DWS announcement also says "Additional fixtures or ESDs will not be available for purchase under the new rules." It notes that the method may reveal some unused capacity on paper "but it does not increase the total water supply on Maui." In its September 10 monthly report, DWS said its 2026 update to Central System reliable capacity was still "near completion," and it reported one new service and one meter upgrade countywide for the month.

None of this amounts to a blanket ban on Paia homes. The documented limit targets large users, and the sources give no determination for any individual parcel. What changes is how a buyer should read a listing. Say two Paia houses list at similar prices, and the buyer plans to add a bedroom, finish a studio, or explore an ʻohana under the rules covered in our North Shore ʻohana and rental guide. If one house has a meter with room under its ESD rating and the other is already at its limit, they aren't the same purchase. The sales price won't show that difference. The meter size and DWS records will.

Questions worth putting into the due diligence file on a Paia, Kuau or Spreckelsville home:

• What size is the meter, and what ESD count does DWS have on record for the service?
• How does the current bedroom and bath count, under DWS's broad bedroom definition, compare with that rating?
• Is a planned addition or ʻohana likely to need more water than the existing service is rated for?
• Has DWS Engineering confirmed this for the specific parcel? The division's number is (808) 270-7835, option 5.

Use this as a due-diligence prompt; only DWS can answer the parcel-level question.

A few questions we're hearing

Is this the same water problem as Haiku? No. The county lists Haiku under Upcountry, and DWS's Upcountry system has its own meter waitlist, covered in our Haiku water meter post. Paia is on the Central system. Its constraint is the system's capacity, combined with the large-user limit and the ESD rules, not a priority list.

Did the drought declaration end the problem? The Stage 1 Central/South water-shortage declaration was lifted effective December 5, 2025. That was a temporary shortage measure. It is separate from the capacity-based limit on large new service applications that DWS described to the Board of Water Supply in March 2025.

When could EC Pāʻia Town actually be built? As of late September, we found no published Council or LUC hearing date. The project still needs Council action, the LUC boundary decision, an SMA permit and likely environmental review for the wastewater plant. The commission's conditions require infrastructure first, and the developer's own estimate is that the project won't need water for 10 to 12 years. The full hearing coverage is on Maui Now, and the county's ESD announcement lists the meter tables.

If a home in Paia, Kuau or Spreckelsville is on your list, Wendy and Kate at Kate and Wendy Peterson can help you add the meter question to your offer timeline. That way, what you plan to do with the house is checked against what its water service allows before you commit. Explore the North Shore and Paia neighborhood page, then schedule a showing and bring your plans.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.