Ka`u News Briefs May 20, 2012

Two primary elections could be held if the  federal court doesn't rule soon on the legality of new voting
districts, which give the Big Island a new state Senator who would sever a section of Ka`u.

CONDUCTING DUAL PRIMARY ELECTIONS would avoid delaying the primary election set for Aug. 11, according to testimony given in federal court on Friday. According to a story in Civil Beat, the idea came from state Deputy Attorney General Brian Aburano. He told federal judges that, should the redistricting decision be delayed, an Aug. 11 primary could be for federal elections unaffected by the redistricting dispute. The primary for state House, Senate and other offices could be held later, once the judges have made their decision and any district redrawn, he testified. Further complicating the situation, candidates must sign up to run for office by June 5 for the August primary.
      The dispute is over the Big Island receiving a new state Senate seat because of its population growth. A group of O`ahu residents who lost a senator during reapportionment oppose the redistricting. Planning to be on the ballot for the new Big Isalnd Senate seat, which is partially in Ka`u, are state House Rep. Bob Herkes, Steven Hirakami, Wendell Ka`ehu`ae`a, Russell Ruderman and Gary Safarik.

THE COUNTY IS ORGANIZING A GEOTHERMAL evacuation drill ahead of new plans to explore for geothermal resources on the island. According to a story in this morning’s West Hawai`i Today, the mock evacuation is planned by county Civil Defense director Ben Fuata for three days in July. It is the first evacuation drill for geothermal ever held on the island. The story by Tom Callis says the evacuation drill will be held in Puna, where geothermal went online in 1993 and has grown to provide 38 megawatts of power.

Geothermal resource map shows Ka`u possibilities.

     Recent enthusiasm for geothermal as an energy that could power not only the Big island, but neighboring islands, too, has led to a Hawaiian Electric Light Co. proposal to increase electricity from geothermal sources by up to 50 megawatts. Some residents, however, are reminding the county and state about the 1991 incident when Puna residents had to leave their homes as odiferous steam escaped the geothermal well during a blowout. According to the story, Mayor Billy Kenoi has asked Fuata to create an evacuation plan and hold a drill for the 87 to 140 homes within a mile of the geothermal plant.      

     Geothermal possibilities have been discussed for lands on Mauna Loa’s Southwest Rift Zone and in the Ka`u Desert near the Great Crack, and more frequently for Hualalai in Kona, where there is greater need for more electricity with its larger population. 

RETIRED MAYOR HARRY KIM went to Honolulu last week to testify before the state Environmental Council to support careful environmental and health department oversight for new geothermal exploration. Kim opposed a request from the state Department of Land and National Resources to reduce environmental oversight for geothermal drilling. Kim, a Puna resident, gave impassioned testimony before the Environmental Council, which reports to the state Department of Health. 

      The Environmental Council voted to allow non-invasive exploration for geothermal without Environmental Impact Statements and Environmental Assessments, but not drilling.
      A story yesterday in Pacific Business News called the vote to allow surface exploration without an EIS or EA “an important decision that allows the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to do away with one part of expensive and time-consuming exploration ventures for geothermal projects.” The story quotes Andrea Gill, a renewable energy analyst for the State Energy Office, as estimating the cost of each exploratory well as $5 million to $10 million. “A lot of these wells don’t pan out,” she told PBN. Gary Hooser, the director of the state Office of Environmental Quality Control, told PBN, “They could go onto the property and do temperature readings, sonar readings or surface measurements, but not drilling.”

Welcoming sign at Ka` Hospital
Photo by Julia Neal

KA`U HOSPITAL is thanking community members and reporting on progress. In a column in Hawai`i 24/7 this morning, director of Nursing Nona Wilson wrote that when she and administrator Merilyn Harris were hired, they “were faced with a facility that was in awful shape and looked the part.”
She wrote that the hospital was lacking in needed equipment. “Our job was to accomplish ‘our dream’ of being the best Critical Access Hospital with little in the way of new financial support.” She noted that the “availability of state monies has not improved much since that day seven years ago. However, what we have accomplished with the assistance and support of our community is nothing short of a miracle.”
      She gave many examples of change: finished painting the whole inside; new cabinets in the staff lounge, at the nurses’ station and for X-ray storage; new designed wooden signs for the inside of the facility; a safety fence around the yard outside the front patio that overlooks the ocean with a pergola complete with outside furniture and plants.
      In the Emergency Department are four beds, new surgical lights, piped-in oxygen and three physio monitors with capnography capacity, a ventilator and an ultrasound, a new OB stretcher and a nursing and MD office.
      All nurses are certified in ACLS, PALS, and TNCC, matching the skill set of Emergency Department nurses in a large hospital. Three Emergency physicians are credentialed in the use of Ultra Sound.

Nona Wilson

      Wilson pointed out that most critical patients are sent directly to Queens Medical Center, Straub Clinic & Hospital and Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children for advanced care.
      “Upgrading, renovations and the opportunity for adding additional services needed by our community continue,” wrote Wilson. “We pay tribute to those who have so willingly given to us to make all of this possible: Volcano Rotary, Ka Papale ulaula o Ka`u, Ka Lae Quilters and the Golf group, `O Ka`u Kakou, our Foundation, The Robert Iwamoto family and the numerous individual contributors who bought our residents a beautiful new bus and the many others who have contributed labor, supplies, their talent. So many. We are grateful beyond words for their generosity and aloha. We can truly attest to the fact that aloha lives and breathes in Ka`u,” Wilson wrote.

DISCOVERY HARBOUR COMMUNITY HALL hosts programs by Ka`u School of the Arts tomorrow and each Monday. The Circulo for Speaking Spanish takes place from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., and the Ka`u Community Chorus rehearses from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Call 929-7544 for more information.

Participants create kapa implements
at a workshop this Saturday. 

KAPA BEATING & TOOL CREATION are topics Saturday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. on the lanai of Kilauea Visitor Center in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Joni Mae Makuakane-Jarrell teaches participants to create one-foot pieces of Kapa. $20 covers materials. Kauhane Heloca helps participants design and create four kapa implements. $300 covers materials. Park entrance fees apply. Pre-register at 985-6020. 

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT WWW.PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND WWW.KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM.

Ka`u News Briefs May 19, 2012

Redistricting that created an additional state Senate seat on Hawai`i Island faces federal litigation.

FEDERAL JUDGES HEARD arguments in a redistricting suit yesterday that could once again change the boundaries of voting districts and delay the Aug. 11 primary election. The suit has held up campaigning, said Rep. Bob Herkes. “I have to wait to see what I am running for.” Herkes, who represents South Kona, Ka`u and Volcano toward Hilo in the state House of Representatives, decided he would run for the new Senate seat. It was created by the recent redistricting following the 2010 census that showed an increase in population on the Big Island. The redistricting took away a Senate seat on O`ahu and gave it to the Big Island. Other candidates have also signed up to run for the new Senate seat are Steven Hirakami, Wendell Ka`ehu`ae`a, Russell Ruderman and Gary Safarik.

Rep. Bob Herkes, at a Hilo rally last election, said this
week that he will "wait to see what I'm running for."
Photo by Julia Neal

      In yesterday’s arguments before U.S. District Judges Leslie Kobayashi and J. Michael Seabright and 9th Circuit Court Judge M. Margaret McKeown, of San Diego, attorneys for the state Office of Elections and Reapportionment Commission said any additional changes in voting district maps could throw elections into chaos and create more voter apathy.
      One issue is that candidates must live in the district that they want to represent. For example, Ka`u Sen. Gil Kahele, with homes in Miloli`i and Hilo, cannot run for re-election in Ka`u because new Senate boundaries have his house in Miloli`i in a new district sought by Senate incumbent Josh Green. The other Senate district that will include Ka`u does not include Kahele’s Hilo seat. As a result, Kahele decided to run for the Hilo senate seat instead of moving his residence. If the maps are changed again, he may have to decide whether to run for yet a different seat.
      With new redistricting maps in place since March, some candidates have filed their election papers and are already campaigning. The elections office is preparing for the primary and is asking the court to leave the redistricting in place.
      However, seven voters on O`ahu representing those who want their Senate seat back are asking the federal judges to rule that the redistricting is unconstitutional. They claim it illegally excluded non-permanent residents - the military, students and the incarcerated - from the population count used to draw boundary lines. These total 108,000 nonpermanent residents, most of them on O`ahu.
      Plaintiff attorney Robert Thomas told the judges that excluding the nonpermanent residents violates their equal protection under the U.S. Constitution. He also contended that the Reapportionment Commission drew districts of unequal size, creating disproportionate representation in the state Legislature.
      According to a story in this morning’s Honolulu Star Advertiser, chief election officer Scott Nago testified that precincts for the new districts are being established, maps are soon to be drawn and his office is hiring 4,000 precinct workers for the Aug. 11 primary and Nov. 6 general election. Starting over would cause delays, he said, with more problems if election dates are changed.
      The plaintiffs also argued that while the state Constitution calls for “permanent” residents being used to determine voting districts, it fails to define the term permanent, leading to the arguments in this case. The judges said they plan to rule soon.

Valedictorian Mariah Chingee and her brother Marlon graduated yesterday.
There are 58 in Ka`u High School's Class of 2012. Photo by Julia Neal

HIGH SCHOOL GRADUATION ceremonies filled the old gym at Ka`u High School yesterday evening. Valedictorian Mariah Chingee, of Ocean View, encouraged the graduating seniors to seek educations and careers that will lead to happiness. She said she plans to attend college in Hilo and major in biology in order to become a physician specializing in anesthesiology. 

      The program included the national anthem sung by graduating senior Eunice Longakit of the famed One Journey band, an address from class president Layla Abellera, the salutatorian address by Leslie Arce, the commencement address by Kat Konanui and Keala Kawaauhau of KWXX radio and the singing of the class song I Believe by Yolanda Adams.  Fifty-eight alumni now make up the Class of 2012.

NA`OHULELUA HISTORICAL Garden holds its monthly Talk Story and Plant & Seed Exchange tomorrow. Attendees are asked to arrive before 1 p.m. for a field trip to a community garden in Wai`ohinu. Call 929-8164 or 345-9374 for details.

VOLCANO ART CENTER’S Youth Arts Festival takes place next Saturday, May 26 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at its Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village. Free activities run from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., with a free concert by Brittni Paiva beginning at 2 p.m. Youth Poetry Open Mic starts at 3:30 p.m. All participants receive a free family VAC membership. No experience in the arts is necessary, and everyone is welcome. Donations are accepted. For more information, call 967-8222. 

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT WWW.PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND WWW.KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM.

Ka`u News Briefs May 18, 2012

MORE THAN 40,000 ACRES are planted in food on the Big Island, but less that half in crops that make it to the local dinner table. The county’s new Food Self-Sufficiency Report says 17 percent of fresh beef, 32 percent of fruit, 34 percent of vegetables, 51 percent of seafood and 95 percent of fresh milk, consumed here, are produced here.
      Land planted for food includes 21,000 acres in macadamia and 6,000 acres in coffee. These farms not only provide some food for the Big Island, they provide jobs for local residents, products that are exported and sold to visitors and a visitor attraction to farms and retail shops.
      Mayor Billy Kenoi unveiled the $60,000 report yesterday. At his side were its authors, Donna Delparte of the Geography & Environmental Studies Department at University of Hawai`i-Hilo and Jeff Melrose, of the private firm Island Planning.

      Ka`u and lands just north in South Kona have large tracts in production, most of it in macadamia, owned by Olson Trust, Kamehameha Schools, ML Macadamia and Mac Farms of Hawai`i. This acreage is followed by famous Ka`u Coffee, one of the most successful post-plantation economic developments for family farms in all of Hawai`i.
      The report estimates for Ka`u: 582 acres in coffee, 182 acres in truck crops, 5,032 acres in macadamia, 17 acres in flowers and foliage and 43 acres in specialty crops.
      The report includes a section on 100 Ways to Increase Food Self-Sufficiency. See the entire document with maps showing ag production on the island at
http://geodata.sdal.hilo.hawaii.edu/techgis/sdal/GEODATA/COH_Ag_Project.html.

David Louie

DEPARTMENT OF HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS should have received more funding from the state, the Hawai`i Supreme Court ruled in a decision last week. The court did not specify how much funding the state should provide and the case goes back to Circuit Court for additional proceedings and could lead to a trial, state Attorney General David Louie told Civil Beat. Native Hawaiian Legal Corp. filed the case on behalf of six Native Hawaiian clients from the Big Island. It involves the use of Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, which oversees 200,000 acres for homes, farms and ranches for Native Hawaiians. There is a list of 25,000 people waiting, and they are dying on the waiting list, the suit declares. It says the state failed to fund DHHL with sufficent resources to carry out its mandate. See more at civilbeat.com.

SEA TURTLES REMAIN PROTECTED under state and federal law, even though a petition by a community group has been submitted to de-list the green sea turtle as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, according to the state Department of Land & Natural Resources. In Hawai`i, sea turtles are protected by Hawai`i Revised Statutes and Hawai`i Administrative Rules.

Volunteers extract keiki honu`ea from a nest protected with fencing at
Punalu`u several years ago. Photos by Julia Neal

      The DLNR, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries remind the community that while federal and state wildlife conservation laws differ in some respects, all prohibit actions that can harm, injure, kill, or otherwise disturb sea turtles without a permit.
      The two types of sea turtles most frequently observed in Hawai`i nearshore waters are green and hawksbill sea turtles. The green sea turtle, Chelonia mydas, is listed as threatened and the hawksbill, Eretmochelys imbricata, is listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. 

      Three other listed species – loggerhead, leatherback and olive ridley sea turtles – generally inhabit offshore environments in the region and are very rarely seen in Hawai`i’s coastal waters.
      On Feb. 16, NOAA Fisheries and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service received the petition to classify the Hawai`i population of green sea turtles as a Distinct Population Segment and evaluate that population for de-listing under the Endangered Species Act. The petition is under review to determine if it warrants further consideration. If so, a scientific review of the status of the species will be initiated.
      If NOAA Fisheries and U.S. Fish & Wildlife propose any changes to the listing status of green sea turtles, public comments will be requested and considered before any final decisions about de-listing are made.

Tiny turtles make it past onlookers to the ocean.

      “Even though a petition for de-listing was filed, green sea turtles in Hawai`i remain protected under state and federal laws,” said BLNR chair William Aila, Jr. Sea turtles across the U.S. face threats including illegal harvest, destruction and alteration of nesting and feeding areas, incidental capture in commercial and recreational fisheries, entanglement in and ingestion of marine debris, disease, vessel strikes and climate change.
      To address all threats to sea turtles, recovery plans direct research and management efforts for each sea turtle species.
      In Hawai`i, ongoing sea turtle recovery activities include efforts to reduce and eliminate direct harvest of and interactions with sea turtles in nearshore and commercial fisheries; eliminate the threat of fibropapilloma (a tumor disease that can be harmful to sea turtles); protect important nesting and feeding areas; and reduce impacts from boat strikes, disturbance and marine debris.
      To report a sea turtle in distress, call 808-983-5730 or visit NOAA’s sea turtle stranding website at www.pifsc.noaa.gov/psd/mtrp/turtle_contact.php. 

     See more at 
www.hawaii.gov/dlnr
, www.fpir.noaa.gov and www.fws.gov/pacificislands/teslist.html.

OCEAN VIEW COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION’S monthly BBQ is tomorrow from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. at the community center. The BBQ replaces the monthly pancake breakfast.

Na`ohulelua Historical Church & Garden on Kama`oa Road

A HIKE TOMORROW at the Kahuku Unit of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park focuses on the area’s human history from the earliest Hawaiians through today. The guided, two-mile, moderately difficult hike crosses rugged terrain exploring pastures, a quarry, an airstrip and 1868 lava fields. The gate opens at 9 a.m., and the three-hour hike begins at 9:30 a.m.

NA`OHULELUA HISTORICAL Garden holds its monthly Talk Story and Plant & Seed Exchange Sunday from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. Call 929-8164 or 345-9374 for details.

SUPPORT OUR SPONSORS AT WWW.PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND WWW.KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM.