Ka'u News Briefs Jan. 5, 2012

A program about plastic in the Pacific Ocean begins today at 5 p.m. at Volcano Art Center's Niaulani Campus.

UNCONSTITUTIONAL is what the Hawai`i Supreme Court ruled the new reapportionment plan for the state House of Representatives and Senate. The ruling, the first in Hawaiian history, gives Rep. Bob Herkes hope that he will be able to run for a House seat with nearly the same constituency he now serves from Volcano through Ocean View. The reapportionment deemed unconstitutional yesterday afternoon would have put Herkes in a district that ended near Punalu`u, cutting him off from Na`alehu, Kalae and Ocean View, where he has championed many projects. A group of people from Ocean View objected to the redistricting, noting that Herkes was a force in funding for the water well, regional disaster shelter and the South Kona Wilderness Area.
     The state’s highest court, however, ruled on two lawsuits against the Reapportionment Commission, brought to the court by two Big Island attorneys, Stan Roehrig and Michael Matsukawa. Roehrig represents four members of the Democratic party, chair Steve Pavao, Sen. Malama Solomon, Patti Cook and Louis Hao. Matsukawa said he aimed to represent the general public’s interest in his suit on the same issue. 

The state Supreme Court has ruled that the new
reapportionment plan is unconstitutional.

     The suits were based on the state including temporary residents, including the military, non-resident students and non-resident incarcerated people when counting the population and drawing the lines for the voting districts. This gave more weight to O`ahu, leaving the Big Island short on the one man, one vote principle. 

     The Supreme Court decision states that “the Hawaii Constitution, article IV, section 4, expressly mandates that only permanent residents be counted in the population base for the purpose of reapportionment.” The court concludes that the 2011 Final Reapportionment Plan “disregards this constitutional mandate by including non-permanent residents in the population base that the Reapportionment Commission used to allocate the members of the state Legislature among the basic island units.”

     When new reapportionment maps are drawn, Hawai`i County could wind up with four instead of three state Senate seats, and possibly add eight instead of nine House seats. The unanimous order instructs Reapportionment Commissioners to prepare and file a new plan.
     The state Legislature may have to extend the filing deadline for candidates running for the House and Senate this year in order to allow the Reapportionment Commission to draw the new maps.

THE QUARANTINE TO PREVENT the spread of the coffee berry borer has expired, and the state Department of Agriculture holds a public meeting today regarding modifying and making the quarantine permanent. The meeting will be held at 16 East Lanikaula Street in Hilo at 3 p.m. Rep. Clift Tsuji, chair of the state House Committee on Agriculture, said, “I would encourage Big Islanders to come out and let their concerns be known so that we can understand from a legislator's point of view how we can maintain our vigilance over the coffee berry borer, Testimony will be very important.” 

Coffee berry borer

     The quarantine prohibited unroasted coffee beans from being moved to other islands and from Kona to Ka`u and other areas of the island without treatment such as fumigation. However, the quarantine between regions on this island has been difficult to enforce, said Leslie Iseke, a plant import specialist. She told Hawai`i Tribune-Herald reporter Colin Stewart that one of the biggest changes proposed to the expired quarantine would be allowing green coffee beans to be transported outside of the primary areas of infestation to other areas on-island. “Coffee growers, roasters and processors would be expected to use their own common sense and judgment in limiting the spread of the infestation on the island.”
     Iseke said the Big Island’s coffee industry has taken the quarantine seriously and “done a good job of self policing, as the agriculture department’s resources are limited.” No extra hires have been made to cover inspections. At least one inspector from the Hilo side has been joining the two in Kona to increase inspections of coffee shipments traveling off island.
     The expiration of the quarantine means treatment of coffee being transported to other islands is no longer required, Iseke said, “which could possibly allow the spread of the coffee pest. The gap doesn’t mean we’re not doing whatever we can under the existing authorities we have available,” she said. “In terms of coffee leaving the Big Island, we’ve stepped up our inspections and sampling, because we’re still authorized to inspect propagated plants and plant parts.”
     So far, Tsuji said, federal and state agencies have contributed about $500,000 to combat the coffee berry borer infestation to prevent its spread to other islands.
     For a copy of the proposed administrative rules and more information, visit http://hawaii.gov/hdoa/Info/proposedrules/proposed-administrative-rules. 

Tim Freeman's ceramic vessel
Photo from VAC

THE OPENING RECEPTION for Volcano Art Center Gallery’s new exhibit is Saturday at 5 p.m. This group exhibit celebrating Hawai‘i Volcano Observatory’s centennial features paintings by Catherine Robbins and Alan Fine, ceramics by Tim Freeman and a live performance by poet Kimberly Dark. Park entrance fees apply.

PLASTICS IN THE PACIFIC OCEAN is the topic of a new book and a presentation by Captain Robert Moore and Megan Lamson tomorrow, Friday at 5 p.m. at Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus. Moore is the man who discovered the Pacific Garbage Patch when sailing his 50-foot catamaran from Hawai`i to California. He has studied the plastics washing up on the Ka`u Coast and has researched the damage discarded plastics are doing to the marine food chain as well as becoming a hazard to ocean life. Lamson organizes volunteer clean-up parties to scour the Ka`u Coast, under the auspices of the Hawai`i Wildlife Fund.

Ka'u News Briefs Jan. 4, 2012

Honu`apo received funding for restoration from the U.S. Department of the Interior. Photo from The Nature Conservancy

HONU`APO ESTUARY WETLANDS is the recipient of $549,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of the Interior. Honu`apo is one of 24 projects in 13 states sharing in a portion of more than $20 million in funding, according to Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar, who made the announcement yesterday. “Coastal wetlands serve as some of nature’s most productive fish and wildlife habitat while providing storm protection, improved water quality, and abundant recreational opportunities for local communities,” Salazar said.
     Honu`apo is co-managed by the County of Hawai`i and Ka `Ohana O Honu`apo, a community organization founded by John Replogle, who helped lobby for funding to buy the coastal lands that were being sold off for development. The land runs from the Honu`apo pier to the raised lava flow toward Pahala and includes hundreds of acres of coastal lands, estuaries, historic sites and cliffs and bays.
     It is a favorite fishing and gathering place and refuge for sea turtles and other marine life, as well as migrating birds.

Volcanic activity could be the source of electricity for the Big Island
and beyond. Photo by Teresa Tico

GEOTHERMAL is expected to be touted as the energy of the future for the Big Island and beyond, as the Geothermal Working Group releases its final draft today in the office of Mayor Billy Kenoi. Geothermal Working Group co-chair Wally Ishibashi will present the report in detail, with supportive comments presented by the mayor. 

     Geothermal Working Group co-chair Richard Ha will discuss issues surrounding peak oil and its relevance to Hawai`i Island. Ha recently traveled to Iceland where he observed how the country recovered from the biggest financial crash in modern history. Ha stated, “They are recovering because they inoculated themselves from high oil prices by using low cost hydro and geothermal for 100 percent of their electricity and house heating. It is clear to me that had they used expensive biofuel to generate electricity, they would not be competitive in making aluminum for export. And instead of coming out of this disastrous financial situation, they would be facing years of depression. This is exactly why Hawai`i should not be using expensive biofuels to make electricity when we have low-cost geothermal,” Ha said in a press release from the mayor’s office.

Richard Ha, the geothermal advocate, on his
family farm.

     Ha was also sponsored by the County of Hawai`i to attend this year’s Association for the Study of Peak Oil Conference, which took place this past October in Washington, D.C.
     A biofuel project on some 13,000 acres between Pahala and Na`alehu was seen as a possible creator of numerous jobs in Ka`u, but the state Public Utilities Commission turned down the proposal that would have put a refinery up Wood Valley Road and trucked the fuel up Hwy 11 to a power plant in Kona. The PUC said that the `Aina Koa Pono proposal would have increased electric rates to customers and that proposals to reduce electric rates should be considered instead. `Aina Koa Pono says it may re-apply and has also talked about growing biofuel crops to refine into transportation fuel, which would not need PUC approval.

HAWAIIAN ELECTRIC Industries is now asking the Public Utilities Commission for permission to install solar panels on homes at no upfront cost to the homeowners. The plan is for the homeowners to save on electric bills through solar. The proposal awaits PUC approval.

MICHAEL DUBOIS, of Ocean View, has gained the support of Council chairman Dominic Yagong in demanding competitive bids when it comes to the county’s trash and recycling efforts. The issue is the new sorting station that the county plans to operate by investing $9 million and creating new county jobs. 

     According to a report in this morning’s Hawai`i Tribune-Herald, DuBois filed a complaint on Dec. 27 with the county Department of Environmental Management, asking the county to hold off on its new sort station in Hilo in order to call for proposals from the private sector. DuBois, who is known for cleaning up junk vehicles from throughout Ka`u, wrote, “The administration cannot simply expand government services without explaining to the general public islandwide what it intends to accomplish and what it will cost.” He said that the Department of Environmental Management “is in a conflict of interest; the administration is taking an unfair competitive advantage to expand government services rather than explore the possibility that the best possible services exist within the private sector. It is unfair to strike out early and establish an irreversible advantage over its competition and take control of the sort station,” wrote Dubois.

Dominic Yagong pushes for private bids for sorting and
recycling. Photo from Big Island Video News

     According to the Tribune-Herald story, county Environmental Management director Dora Beck said the county plans to go forward with the sort station and that a permit from the state Department of Health should be approved “any day now.” The county plans to extend the life of the Hilo landfill by removing most of the green, paper and organic waste before garbage is disposed there. Using mini-excavators and loaders, workers would sort out recyclables and the rest would be loaded into a truck for the landfill. 

     Both Dubois and Yagong point to private companies that want to install a Materials Recovery Facility and invest private money to build it rather than adding onto county cost and county jobs. The MRF proposals would allow the private companies to collect tipping fees and sell off recyclables.
     Yagong wrote a letter to Mayor Billy Kenoi yesterday, asking for the bidding process to go forward. According to the story Kenoi objected. The garbage plans may become one of the campaign issues should Yagong go forward with running against Kenoi in this year’s mayoral contest.

CAPTAIN ROBERT MOORE AND MEGAN LAMSON present an update on plastics in the ocean this Friday at 5 p.m. at the Volcano Art Center Niaulani Campus. Moore is the author of Plastic Ocean: How a Sea Captain’s Chance Discovery Launched a Determined Quest to Save the Ocean. Cassandra Phillips, who lives on the Big Island, is co-author. Moore was sailing his 50-foot catamaran from Hawai`i to California when he discovered the Pacific Garbage Patch, full of plastics and other trash from around the Pacific basin, concentrated in a gyre than circulates out at sea. Since the discovery, he has researched the damage discarded plastics are doing to the marine food chain as well as creating hazards to ocean life. Lamson works with Hawai`i Wildlife Fund organizing volunteer clean-up days along the Ka`u coast, where plastic washes up on shore.

Ka'u News Briefs Jan. 3, 2012

Civil Defense and the National Weather Service warn beachgoers of high surf through Thursday morning. High surf in
the past has produced this explosive activity at the South Point Blowhole. Photo by Peter Anderson

INSURANCE PREMIUM COMPARISONS FOR HOMEOWNERS and renters are available online for the first time, courtesy of the state Insurance Division. Homeowner’s insurance is not required by law in Hawai`i. When a home is mortgaged, however, lenders almost always require insurance for the duration of the loan. Homeowner’s insurance provides protection for the dwelling, personal property, and on-site buildings if damaged or destroyed by a covered peril. 

     The state comparison of insurance costs also includes condominiums. Hawai`i insurance commissioner Gordon Ito said insurance prices were provided by those companies that volunteered to give them out, about half the insurance companies doing business in Hawai`i. “While Hawai`i residents face increasing prices and rising fees, taking advantage of the premium rate comparison table is one way they can help themselves manage costs,” Ito said. “Insurance companies are spurred to lower costs when consumers shop around and compare.” See the comparison charts at www.hawaii.gov/dcca/ins. Some insurance companies charge almost half as much as others.

AN ORANGE ALERT for elevated SO2 blanketed Pahala for seven and a half hours yesterday. In addition, monitors registered more than an hour of moderately bad air on the same day. For orange alerts, the state Department of Health says, “Members in sensitive groups, including healthy individuals with mild asthma, may experience health effects. Toward the upper end of this range, most asthmatics who are active outdoors are likely to experience some breathing difficulties. General public not expected to be affected in this range.” The health department recommends: “Avoid outdoor activities that cause heavy breathing through the mouth. If you experience difficulties, such as chest tightness or wheezing, stop activities, use a rescue inhaler and find a place to sit down and rest. Potential health effects not expected, however actions to reduce exposure to vog may be useful,” says the recommendation. 

     Planners for the new regional disaster shelter and gymnasium to be built in Pahala are deciding how many square feet of shelter area where air can be cleaned from SO2 and particulates will be designed into the building. The project, with more than $17 million released in funding, is overseen by the county Department of Public Works and Department of Parks & Recreation. The architect and engineer is Mitsunaga & Associates of Honolulu. An Environmental Assessment by PBR Hawai`i & Associates is expected in February.

MONSTER WAVES are starting to roll into the islands. The northwest swell is expected to peak with high tide tonight. Water and riptides are expected to be very dangerous. Waves could top 30 feet. This is the first big swell of the year. Be careful at the South Point Blowhole and even along the Kalae cliffs and the beaches at Punalu`u and the shore of Honu`apo.

     Hawai`i County Civil Defense has issued a warning, and the National Weather Service has issued a High Surf Warning for the north, east and west facing shores effective this evening until Thursday morning. Due to the high surf the following safety precautions are in effect, says Civil Defense. Oceanfront residents and beachgoers along the affected shores are urged to be on the alert for high and dangerous surf conditions. Boat owners should take measures to secure their vessels. The National Weather Service reports that surf will increase dramatically tonight and peak Wednesday afternoon.

Lava flowing into the ocean, visible during recent weeks from boats offshore. Photo by Teresa Tico

THE CONTINUOUS ERUPTION of Kilauea Volcano marks 29 years today. Just after midnight on Jan. 3, 1983, the East Rift eruption began. Since then it has taken houses, destroyed beach parks and started forest fires, as well as adding land onto the island. 

     This is also Volcano Awareness Month. Tonight geologist Tim Orr reviews highlights and talks about recent developments on Kilauea’s east rift zone at After Dark in the Park at 7 p.m. at Kilauea Visitor Center Auditorium in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. $2 donation supports park programs.
     As part of Volcano Awareness Month, guided hikes are scheduled throughout the month. Tomorrow’s hike, exploring the hidden world of lava tubes, begins at 1 p.m. at the Kilauea Iki Overlook on Crater Rim Drive. Park entrance fees apply.

CAPT. ROBERT MOORE AND MEGAN LAMSON will present an update on plastics in the ocean this Friday at 5 p.m. at Volcano Art Center’s Niaulani Campus. Moore is the author of Plastic Ocean: How a Sea Captain’s Chance Discovery Launched a Determined Quest to Save the Ocean. Cassandra Phillips, who lives on the Big Island, is co-author. Moore was sailing his 50-foot catamaran from Hawai`i to California when he discovered the Pacific Garbage Patch, full of plastics and other trash from around the Pacific basin, concentrated in a gyre than circulates out at sea. Since the discovery, he has researched the damage discarded plastics are doing to the marine food chain as well as creating hazards to ocean life. Lamson works with Hawai`i Wildlife Fund organizing volunteer clean-up days along the Ka`u coast, where much of the plastic washes up on shore.