Blog
News, updates, finds, stories, and tidbits from staff and community members at KAHEA. Got something to share? Email us at: kahea-alliance@hawaii.rr.com.
Action Alert: Save East Maui Streams!
From our friends at NHLC:
The State Water Commission meets on May 19, 2010 May 26th (UPDATE: Date change!) to act on the latest round of petitions by East Maui residents seeking to restore stream flow to 19 East Maui streams, when HC&S is WASTING water being diverted. Na Moku Aupuni O Ko`olau Hui is seeking restoration so the fish, o`opu, hihiwai, and o`opu can return to those streams and support the constitutionally-protected cultural practices of Hawaiians.
Without doubt, A&B/HC&S is wasting water. The Water Commission has already concluded that it uses 70% more water than it should in the wet season and 40% more water than it should during the dry season. Moreover, unless this Water Commission demands that they do more, A&B/HC&S’ leaky irrigation system and poor maintenance practices will continue wasting this valuable resource, because the State only charges this sugar plantation less than ¼ of a penny per thousand gallons, discouraging any conservation while depleting the State of fair market value for the use of this invaluable resource (collected from 33,000 acres of ceded lands, or about $4.84 per acre per year).
Learn more, see the flyer
Click to see more detailed information at CWRM website on Na Moku Aupuni O Ko`olau’s petitions to restore 27 East Maui Streams now dewatered by Alexander and Baldwin, Inc. and its Maui subsidiaries, Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company and East Maui Irrigation Company.
What you can do:
Please keep those letters to the editor going, leading to this Water Commission action meeting on whether to restore 19 East Maui streams. We are starting to see some really intelligent responses to the A&B/HC&S propaganda.
You can write to the editors of your daily papers:
Maui News: Use form at: http://vnr.oweb.net/vnr/add_submission.asp?categoryID=769&publicationID=110
Honolulu Advertiser:
E-mail: letters@honoluluadvertiser.com
Fax: (808) 535-2415
Online: Use online form: http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/form/op/letters
Honolulu Star Bulletin:
Email to: letters@starbulletin.com
Fax: (808) 529-4750
Click to see latest CWRM agenda information for most recent information on where the May 19 meeting will be held and at what time.
Questions? Contact either Camille Kalama (cakalam@nhlchi.org) or Alan Murakami (almurak@nhlchi.org) or at 808-521-2302.
Greed for Feed: Connecting the Dots
Today, Hawai’i is looking at a proposed new offshore ahi tuna farm–the very first ever to be approved for waters under U.S. jurisdiction. Of course, to raise fish that eat fish (carnivorous fish), you need… fish. Fish like anchovies, generally taken from fisheries around the global south, particularly Central and South America.
The fact that a significant amount of the fish caught on this planet goes to make fish meal (for feeding fish and other farmed livestock) is a growing concern for world health and food security (Global and Regional Food Consumption Patterns and Trends, World Health Organization, Section 3.5).
The 247-acre operation proposed for Hawai’i, to be run by Hawaii Ocean Technology, Inc., will require 12,000 tons of fish feed annually, at full operation (according to its own EIS, prepared by Tetratech).
This short movie–”The Greed for Feed”–is testament to some of the impacts that fish feed harvesting has had on coastal Peruvian communities.
When we talk about aquaculture and “food security” in Hawai’i… is this what we mean?
NRC admonishes U.S. Army for DU Monitoring Plan
Now that the U.S. Army has admitted to the presence of depleted uranium at its Hawaiʻi live fire training ares, the Army has applied to the NRC for a permit to possess DU at Pohakuloa Training Area. If granted, the permit would allow remains of depleted uranium spotter rounds from the Army’s cold-war-era Davy Crockett nuclear howitzer on site at the training area. The army had denied the presence of depleted uranium in Hawaiʻi until a citizen’s group unearthed an e-mail about their discovery in 2006.
Last week, the Big Island Weekly reported on the NRC’s findings on the U.S. Army’s monitoring plan–a plan intended to detect potential impacts from so-called “fugitive dust”:
The U.S. Army’s plan to monitor the air over Pohakuloa Training Area for depleted uranium has drawn sharp criticism from some Native Hawaiians, environmentalists, activists and independent experts. Now the Army has gotten an admonishment from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
“We have concluded that the Plan will provide inconclusive results for the U.S. Army as to the potential impact of the dispersal of depleted uranium (DU) while the Pohakuloa Training Area is being utilized for aerial bombardment or other training exercises,” wrote Rebecca Tadesse, Chief of the NRC’s Materials Decommissioning Branch, in a recent letter to Lt. General Rick Lynch, who heads the Army’s Installation Management Command.
See full Article: “NRC to Army: DU monitoring plan won’t work“
May = MAMo
…and MAMo is Maoli Arts Month!
Support Native Hawaiian artists and cultural practioners, check out the event calendar at http://maoliartsmonth.org/?q=node/20
Also, Doris Duke theater at the Honolulu Academy of Arts is sponsoring first “indigenous Hawaiian film festival” this month. Runs from May 1 – May 26, including the premiere of Mālama Hāloa, film by Na Maka O Ka Aina.
See schedule at: http://www.honoluluacademy.org/cmshaa/academy/index.aspx?id=2402
Leg 2010: Post-Mortem
From Marti:
This legislative session didn’t turn out to be as bad as it could have been for our natural and cultural resources. By mid-session this year, there were proposals to drastically weaken our EIS law, transfer 54% of the Division of Aquatic Resources to HIMB for groundskeepers (really, Dr. Leong? You know, City Mill has a sale on lawnmowers), and grant corporations extended leases to exploit our ocean. Thanks to the advocacy of so many, none of these proposals passed.
Not only that, legislators did manage to pass some good bills (in addition to HB 444). Sitting on the Governor’s desk for approval right now are laws that make it a felony to intentionally kill Hawaiian monk seals, require solar water heaters on new homes, and prevent beachfront landowners from using naupaka to block public access to and along the shoreline. It’s about time! Thanks also to your efforts, an audit will happening for Mauna Kea–albeit a self-audit. And while we still believe a self-audit is really no kind of audit at all, we do see it as a step in the right direction by the legislature. A very small, very weak and very tentative step, but a step nonetheless.
Mahalo to all those whose late nights, phone calls, petition gathering, and committed advocacy helped keep this 2010 legislative session from going off the rails.
Self-audit = No kind of audit at all
University of Hawai'i administration dodges a public audit. What does it take to get some independent oversight around here?
State finally getting it right for Northwestern Hawaiian Islands... -ish.
Last week, the Board of Land and Natural Resources held a special meeting to consider several permit applications from HIMB researchers for activities in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, Papahānaumokuākea. After several years of public testimony at every permit hearing — and even finally, a lawsuit! – the Land Board and its staff finally admitted: a cumulative impact assessment IS needed to understand the affects of harmful human activity on this extremely fragile place BEFORE permits are issued to allow prohibited activities. Hallelujah!
Unfortunately, knowing you were wrong and getting it right are not the same thing.
At the meeting, staff gave a very technical presentation about past permitted activities, how they are documented, and what the likely affects are. Then representatives from the applicants — Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) — testified to studies they have conducted on themselves to assess the impact they are (not) having on the environment. These are good and noble acts that should be continued, but do not get at the heart of the issue over the issuance of permits for taking species, dumping waste water, anchoring, constructing, and dredging activities in the largest NO-TAKE marine reserve in Hawai’i. These activities have the potential to harm the very thing that is trying to be studied (and ostensibly saved). Yet? Still no cumulative impact assessment. Still no environmental assessment.
The researchers and the staff obviously have some information about the impacts of human activities in the NWHI. Why not put that together into an environmental impact statement and release it for public comment?
Permits are required because the activities requested are prohibited. Permission is to be given for prohibited activities when they are necessary for conservation, management and cultural perpetuation. This is at the heart of a “permit” system.
The issue: We are supposed to have a public process to evaluate what activities are really needed, and balance them against the cumulative impacts. How can we do this without the legally required environmental assessment (EA)? Or for that matter, without a public process?
All the while granting of permits continues to be driven by availability of grant/Federal dollars, rather than the actual need for the activity.
Today, decisions for the Monument are being made in the dark–and it shows. We continue to ask: open up the Monument to transparent, accountable decision making for this public trust. Hold public meetings of the Monument Management Board, where permitting decisions can be made in the light of day. Really, what is there to hide?
