LIHU'E, Kaua'i — The state will soon reveal its share of a reported $25 million payment to the victims of the 2006 Kaloko Dam collapse.

A Kaua'i judge, acting in response to a request from The Advertiser, said yesterday she will order the state to disclose the number within two weeks.

The state originally refused to say how much taxpayer money would be used to settle several lawsuits related to the dam failure. The disaster killed seven people, including a pregnant woman, and caused major damage to private property.

The families of those killed and the landowners who had property damage sued the state and other parties, and on Oct. 29 a global settlement of the lawsuits was announced. Details of the settlement were not released.

On Nov. 2, The Advertiser asked the court to force the state to reveal its share of the settlement, based on the state's open records law. The state reversed itself on Dec. 21, and said it would not object to releasing the information.

Circuit Judge Kathleen Watanabe said in court yesterday that she will order the unsealing of the state's payment information within two weeks. She said all parties to the agreement have indicated they do not object to the unsealing.

Kenneth Robbins, the special state attorney general involved in the case, said the unsealing could come sooner than two weeks.

The newspaper also demanded that Kaua'i County, the only other public entity involved in the settlement, reveal its promised payment amount, but the county has not yet done so. Kaua'i County Attorney Al Castillo didn't respond to a request for comment yesterday.

Once the state information is obtained, The Advertiser will revisit asking Kaua'i County to make its payment amount public, said Advertiser attorney Jeff Portnoy.

The state and county shares should never have been sealed, Portnoy said.

"The state recognized that's public information and finally got around to filing a motion to release it," Portnoy said. "The good news is within a few days, the public will finally learn how much of that money is going to be paid by the taxpayers of Hawai'i and its insurance companies."

The parties other than the state and county will not have to release information.

"Individual defendants, the non-government defendants, are under no court order to release their respective share of the global settlement," Watanabe said.

The $25 million payment will be divided among the families of the seven people killed and landowners who had property damage. While the state must say how much of the $25 million it will pay, it will most likely not have to say who the money is paid to, Portnoy said.

The state attorney general's office will have to present a request to the state Legislature for the state's portion of the promised payment that's not covered by insurance, Robbins said.

That request probably will be made as soon as possible in the legislative session that begins next month, said Robbins, who is a private attorney hired to help the state with this case.

In addition to the state and county, the settlement payments could come from other lawsuit defendants, which include: current and former owners of the land under Kaloko Dam, including retired car dealer Jimmy Pflueger; engineering firms and contractors involved with work near the dam; and the company that managed a farm irrigation and ditch system associated with it.

Pflueger was indicted by a Kaua'i grand jury on manslaughter charges in connection with the dam collapse and trial is set to begin April 12. Legal experts said the settlement cannot be used in the criminal proceedings against Pflueger.