Group News: Hawaiʻi Island, Maui, Oʻahu
Hawaiʻi Island Group
In the Crosshairs
By Cory Harden | Reading time: 1.5 minutes
The County administration seems to be setting its sights on communities’ control over their own future.
County Planning Director Zendo Kern, whose nomination was opposed by Sierra Club, plans to pause filling vacancies on Community Development Plan Action Committees for three to six months.
He also spoke of making the Kailua Village Design Commission more efficient. Mayor Roth’s office went further, questioning whether it should even be continued.
The Kailua Village Design Commission reviews all public and private projects proposed in the Kailua Village Special District and makes recommendations to the County, with the purpose of preserving the special character of the area.
The County’s Community Development Plan website says the Action Committees are “… intended to serve as a forum for community input into land-use, delivery of government services and any other matters relating to the planning area.”
The Mayor and Planning Director cannot act unilaterally on the Kailua Village Design Commission and Action Committees. Both are set up by County law, so any major changes require County Council action.
For Action Committees, County law says there shall be nine members on committees. There are no provisions for pausing appointments, as Kern proposes.
The Kona Community Development Plan Action Committee saved a spectacular old-growth forest at Waikākuʻu from being razed by a developer, after neighbors Patricia and Richard Missler sued, basing their arguments on Community Development Plan provisions.
But soon after, County Planning succeeded in having County Council amend the wording of the Kona Community Development Plan to make many parts of it discretionary and not mandatory. Simply changing “shall” to “should” or “may” does the trick. The Community Development Plan is still law, but after the re-write, planners can ignore many provisions.
The Sierra Club supports Community Development Plans having the force of law, to ensure communities can set the course for their own future. Public testimony to the County Council warned that the Planning Department was trying to undermine the Community Development Plans. The Council's continued unwillingness to challenge the Planning Department and the County administration is undermining the public interest and trust.
Wastewater Woes
By Steve Holmes | Reading time: 1.5 minutes
New County Department of Environmental Management Director Ramzi Mansour took a tour of wastewater facilities around Hawaiʻi Island and had a shocking story to share with the County Council: decades of kicking the can down the road. A total lack of maintenance. Plants unable to meet compliance. A legacy of polluted coastal water allowed to occur under previous administrations.
Corrosion at Hilo wastewater plant.
In Hilo, the treatment plant is structurally unsound. It was built in 1990 at a design capacity of 5 million gallons a day. But homes were not connected to it, leaving much of the town on cesspools, and insufficient revenue coming in to pay for operations.
Current average flows are around 2 million gallons a day. Hundreds of thousands of gallons of that represents infiltration from a decrepit collection system, impacting the ability to meet permit conditions. The plants are operating under an administrative waiver from outfall standards from the State Department of Health.
An Environmental Protection Agency federal consent decree requires shutting down gang cesspools in Nāʻālehu and Pāhala. The original deadline was 2005. Consulting engineers came in with a plan that cost more than the homes are worth. Now the deadline for compliance is upon the County, and they have no workable plan.
In Kona, the Kealakehe plant illegally dumps into a sump where scientists have shown a direct hydrologic connection to impaired coastal waters. Again, consulting engineers came in with an absurd $160 million price tag that is way beyond the means of the County to afford.
Drastic actions are needed. The County needs to adopt a wastewater enterprise fund to put facilities on proper financial footing. Plants need to have properly certified operators. The County needs to find a way to leverage private-public partnerships to bring in the necessary capital resources. The County needs to enter into an islandwide facilities planning process, and agree to a new federal consent decree with enforcement provisions. Other facilities around the island are also in bad shape, beyond those mentioned. This needs to end.
Proposed Aliʻi Drive B&B Exposes Serious Issues
By Chuck Flaherty | Reading time: 1.5 minutes
On March 18th, the Leeward Planning Commission gave a favorable recommendation to county Use Permit Application for a 4-room Bed & Breakfast on Aliʻi Drive makai.
The discussion between the commissioners, Planning Department, Mayor’s office, and Corporation Counsel revealed the Leeward Planning Commission had a myriad of questions about the Use Permit application, but did not receive adequate answers from the Planning Department and Corporation Counsel.
The B&B use would result in a large increase in wastewater, but the property is serviced by a cesspool located only a few dozen feet from the shoreline. As Leeward Planning Commission Chairman Mike Vitousek stated, “Definitely a cesspool on an oceanfront lot is basically going to pump sewage into the ocean.”
The commissioners were continuously allowed to believe they were powerless and had no responsibility for issues that involved other agencies. Commissioner Mark Van Pernis was alone in saying, “I disagree we should do nothing and hope other agencies will do something.”
The Planning Department and Corporation Counsel should have informed the Leeward Planning Commission that a 2006 state Supreme Court ruled the county, including the Leeward Planning Commission, has an affirmative, proactive duty to protect the waters adjacent to development under the public trust doctrine.
In 2017 state Act 125 resulted in coastal Kailua-Kona being designated as a “Priority Upgrade Area”. It provides a $10,000 tax credit to property owners within this area who upgrade their cesspools to septic. But the Leeward Planning Commission and the applicant were not provided with this information and opportunity.
The applicant admitted their shoreline certification was 20’ from the high tide mark, but that current law requires a 40’ setback. A Google Maps satellite view of the property shows that sand now washes under the actual dwelling, which is on piers. Despite this, the Planning Department did not require a new shoreline certification when issuing the Special Management Area Permit or the favorable ruling.
The Planning Department and Corporation Counsel must do better. Watch for this to come before County Council soon and consider doing testimony.
Outings Program Seeking Leaders
By Diane Ware | Reading time: 1 minute
Do you enjoy hiking? Why not become a Hawaiʻi Island Group Outings leader and share your passion with others? We are looking forward to restarting outings by mid-summer under National guidelines. We are looking to get our First Aid training online for new and current leaders.
We are currently seeking new Outings leaders. We could especially use some west side leaders and anyone wanting to lead outings for high school or college students. Leaders may choose the type of activity and location. You can weave a theme like photography or geocaching into the hike, or combine disciplines such as hiking and biking. Leader requirements are fairly basic and easy to meet. There is an online component (Outings 101), annual trainings with the group leaders and First Aid/CPR certification paid for by the Group. New leaders assist with an experienced leader two times and then lead on their own. We ask that leaders commit to leading 4 outings per year. We encourage service like the above photo of Kamilo beach trash collection with Hawaiʻi Wildlife or climate/conservation projects such as native forest restoration. Call Outings Chair Diane Ware at 808-967-8642 if interested.
Maui Group - New Report Offers a Voice for Our Wahi Pana
By Lucienne de Naie | Reading time: 2.5 min
Ashford DeLima, a lineal descendant of the area and a cultural user of the Paeahu ahupuaʻa lands, cleans an undocumented traditional Hawaiian site used for kilo iʻa (spotting schools of fish in the ocean below). This is one of scores of sites important to Hawaiians, that have been left off any archaeological maps or reports of the proposed 670 acre Honuaʻula development.
In 2012, the Sierra Club Maui Group and allies, Maui Unite!, challenged an environmental impact statement for a controversial south Maui development, “Honuaʻula” (formerly known as “Wailea 670”), on nearly 700 acres of grazing lands above the exclusive Wailea Resort. The legal challenge was settled in late 2016 after three years of negotiations, and resulted in a native plant and archaeological preserve area of around 160 acres in the project’s southern end.
Unfortunately, despite the best efforts of the two groups, the land owners, Honuaʻula Partners, would not agree to preserve more than a few archaeological sites to tell the story of Paeahu, the traditional ahupuaʻa that spans most of the project’s northern 500 acres. The project’s Historic Resources Preservation Plan is up for final acceptance by both the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and State Historic Preservation Division this year. Both kanaka maoli groups and Maui Group members are concerned that the plan leaves out scores of undocumented traditional Hawaiian archaeological sites/site complexes and does not adequately describe the cultural significance of many others.
Hawaiian use of the Paeahu lands in the Honuaʻula Partners project area showed a mastery of ecological adaptation. This traditional rock shelter was a simple solution to the needs of those who dwelt in or visited the Paeahu area over the last 500 years—but it is missing from any archaeological reports or maps. Such shelters, and the flat protected terraces that fronted them, were often located along kahawai (stream gulches) and provided places to live and work for the people of the land.
“Cultural users and lineal descendants of these ancient lands have been using and caring for many of these magnificent wahi pana, in the northern Honuaʻula Partners lands for many years,” said Clare Apana, president of Mālama Kakanilua and Maui Group board member. “Over the years, we have been led by our kupuna to so many important sites that have never even been documented in the official archaeological surveys. We cannot support any “preservation plan” that doesn’t include our voices on site significance or our knowledge of what is on this land. We need a preservation plan based on an updated archaeological inventory survey that includes this knowledge.”
To illustrate the extent and significance of numerous undocumented archaeological remains on the Honuaʻula Partners lands, a volunteer archaeologist, Dr. Jeanne Schaaf, offered to map sites and collate the information on the scores of forgotten Hawaiian sites into a report entitled “Nā Moʻolelo No Nā ‘Ōiwi” (Stories of the Natives of the Land). Schaaf has worked with local cultural groups to document and map archaeological sites in south Maui over the last four years. The report is organized by kahawai, or natural stream gulches that are prominent on the land. Cultural users have pointed out that the location of many of the clusters of Hawaiian sites related to the presence of life giving waters carried by ancient streams and underground springs. The report does not attempt to replace a full archaeological survey of the area, but rather to speak to the sites and their significance to the Hawaiians of today, and advocate for their complete documentation and expanded preservation areas.
The report is expected to be complete in early April, when it will be forwarded to the landowners, Office of Hawaiian Affairs and State Historic Preservation Division staff. A link will also be posted on the Maui Group website and websites of other local organizations.
Take action: Ask Maui County Council to send a strong message to our State Historic Division staff that an updated Environmental Impact Statement is needed for the Honuaʻula Partners project. Click here to sign the petition.
Kauaʻi Group - Public Input Sought for Proposed Military Radar
By Kip Goodwin | Reading time: 1.5 min
The U.S. Missile Defense Agency has proposed a radar facility, called the Homeland Defense Radar-Hawaiʻi (HDR-H), to be built possibly at Kahuku Training Facility on O‘ahu but could likely end up at Pacific Missile Range Facility Barking Sands on Kaua‘i.
Not only is this project opposed by the environmental community statewide, there has been opposition to the project within the Missile Defense Agency. It was funded for 2019, then defunded the following year because in a fast-paced nuclear arms race it was deemed obsolete technology.
Concerns range from the need for a 9-mile no-fly zone due to the radar emitting high-intensity radiation, to contaminants leaching into the soil and the ocean.
The project is proposed for the southern tip of the Pacific Missile Range Facility in a particularly narrow area of the ocean-front Navy base. The radar and its ancillary buildings, on 60 to 80 acres, will be situated on the western edge of the Mānā Plain -- an elevation of only a few feet.
The concerns are tsunami, hurricane and sea level rise.
On Kauaʻi’s south side is the Makauwahi Cave, an archaeology site. There is evidence that the cave was flooded by a tsunami in the past. Its elevation is 150 feet. Closer to the Pacific Missile Range Facility, north of Poʻipū, the coastline was swept clean by Hurricane ʻIniki. All that was left of houses was some plumbing pipes sticking up. And sea level rise? It's not on the way, it's already here.
Clearly these naturally occurring events should be disqualifiers for this location. We hope to convince the War Planners -- what they call themselves -- that this is so.
The public is encouraged to learn more at the online open house and provide comments through April 12 which the Missile Defense Agency will consider during the Environmental Impact Statement process.