WAILUKU, Maui — Steve Holaday, the former manager of Maui's last sugar plantation, testified at Thursday's session of the Na Wai Eha contested case that more is involved than allocated water from four West Maui watersheds, The Maui News reported.

"My fear is that no matter what happens here, it's going to be the triggering event for what happens to use in East Maui, and the triggering event for the rest of the state. This is the tip of the iceberg," he said.

The result, Holaday said, could be the collapse of agriculture throughout the Islands.

This came on direct examination by Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. attorney David Schulmeister, who was trying to show the effects on the 36,000-acre sugar plantation if water from the four streams in West Maui known as Na Wai Eha are redirected away from sugar.

At the end of 90 minutes, Schulmeister asked Holaday, "Is there anything else you would like to tell Dr. (Lawrence) Miike?," the hearings officer.

"Not without getting tears in my eyes," Holaday said.

HC&S draws as much as 30 million gallons a day from Na Wai Eha — the Waihe'e, Waiehu, 'Iao and Waikapu streams. It gets as much as 300 million gallons a day from the East Maui Irrigation system, which taps watersheds from Ha'iku to Nahiku under permits from the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

Hui O Na Wai Eha and Maui Tomorrow Foundation have petitioned the state Commission on Water Resource Management to set permanent instream flow standards for the Na Wai Eha streams that would reduce the amount now diverted to the plantation irrigation systems.