So Many Pools, So Little Truth: Inside Maui’s Water Crisis Theater
by Maui Mom, July 13, 2025 (excerpt)
… As a former judge, one would think that Mayor Bissen would know that Haiku computer programmer Matt Jachowski would never qualify as an expert in any courtroom to provide any of the opinions presented on June 9. Perhaps Mayor Bissen missed that day in evidence class, or, worse, he intentionally put forth an unqualified individual to provide “expert” opinions with the intent that the county council would rely on those opinions during deliberations. Either way, Mayor Bissen’s presentation was a disservice to the county council that now must deal with the noise created by the mayor’s sophomoric political stunt.
In his presentation to council, Jachowski made the bald assertion that STR properties use 60-120% more water than residential uses. The only cited support for this opinion was Jachowski’s comparison of empty non-owner occupied second homes in one phase of the Wailea Palms property to another phase that allows short-term rental.
Jachowski’s own presentation plainly undermined his argument by stating that the non-STR phase is 73% non-owner occupied properties. Jachowski’s comparison of STR properties to largely empty vacation homes was intentionally misleading because non-owner occupied properties are not occupied full-time like owner-occupied or long-term rental properties. If there was a full-time occupant in these units, they would have been classified as "owner occupied" or "long-term rental", ergo, "non-owner occupied" is roughly synonymous with "vacant" most of the time.
Even self-proclaimed water god, Paele Kiakona, admits that normal residential water use is about 300-600 gallons per day which he describes as “low use.”
Kiakona has since deleted the video above from his Instagram account. Kiakona then testified, again without evidence, that short-term rental properties use 200-400% more water than nearby owner-occupied properties:
Kiakona’s 200-400% claim appears to similarly be based on the erroneous comparison of the primarily non-owner occupied portion of Wailea Palms to the short-term rental portion of Wailea Palms. Kiakona intentionally misrepresented facts in his testimony in an attempt to make a dramatic claim about short-term rental water use. 2020 Maui County records1 provide additional examples debunking Kiakona’s and Jachowski’s arguments.
Maui County FY20 DWS Customers
The real point that Jachowski and Kiakona refused to make was that the large hotels are the real water hogs.
Maui County FY20 DWS Customers
Big hotels abuse the water supply, making Lahaina Strong’s wish that short-term rental patrons simply shift to hotels that use exponentially more water per unit, not only absurd but reckless for the island’s water supply.
Grand Wailea
As referenced above, hedge fund-owned Grand Wailea is the single largest water user in Maui County at 172,340,000 gallons per year, and 559 gallons per unit, per day making the Grand Wailea the biggest revenue generator for the Maui County Department of Water Supply which of course tracks the revenue per customer. This author is not sure what was happening at the Hotel Wailea, but the daily water use in 2020 averaged out to 2,527 gallons per unit, making the Hotel Wailea the least efficient water user on a per unit, per day basis in 2020. Therefore, the concept that shifting visitors from short-term rentals to water-guzzling hotels will somehow save water is completely unfounded.
Despite suggestions that water use is somehow on an upward trajectory, water use has actually remained largely constant for the last 5 years in Maui County:
The similarities between the Mayor’s presentation, Jachowski’s presentation, and Kiakona’s testimony demonstrates an unusual and potentially inappropriate collaboration between elected official, lobbyist, and whatever Jachowski is at this point. So, all three drank from the same tainted water fountain, utilized the same flawed analysis, made the same inappropriate comparison of non-owner occupied properties to vacation rental properties, and, not surprisingly, reached the same unfounded conclusions relating to short-term rental water use.
Despite the fact that Kiakona’s argument is completely undermined, we will continue this discussion because the flaws in his secondary argument are also obvious. Notably, Kiakona claims that conversion of Minatoya condos to long-term housing will save so much water that the County can justify building more houses with that extra water. The problem is that Kiakona also claims that conversion of Minatoya condos to long-term would not result in a meaningful reduction in visitors, because those visitors will simply shift to the water-hungry hotels or “legal STRs.” Setting aside Kiakona’s willfully ignorant reference to “legal STRs,” his argument does not make sense.
If hotels in fact "pick up the slack" from the elimination of Minatoya STRs, and subsequently see a significant uptick in their own occupancy, then Bill 9 has simply moved visitors from a low water consuming property to one of significantly higher consumption. Similarly, how can Kiakona claim that shifting visitors from one STR property to another will somehow save water?
Overall, if a goal of Bill 9 is to shift visitors from STRs to hotels, the revenue projections for the Board of Water Supply indeed look bright, but this author cannot say the same for the island’s water supply….
Read … So Many Pools, So Little Truth: Maui’s Water Crisis Theater