Saving Hawai`i, Saving Water, Saving the ‘Alala
Susan Manuel, environmental columnist for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and writer Jerry Hopkins are co-authors of “50 Simple Things You Can Do to Save Hawai`i,” providing a local twist on the national trend to translate environmental concerns into individual action. Copies available (at $6.95 each, or $4.95 for orders of 50 or more books) by ordering through Bess Press, P.O. Box 22388, Honolulu, Hawai`i 96822. A cursory read shows it to be well organized and attractively presented. Our only quibble would be with the discussion of gas ranges, in which the greenhouse effect is confused with ozone depletion and electric ranges are given the edge in energy efficiency.
Meanwhile, the Department of Land and Natural Resources is coming out with the long-awaited newsletter of the Commission on Water Resource Management, “Water Resources.” The first, six-page issue of the free newsletter is dated November 1990. Environment Hawai`i has glanced at proofs. The cover story is on approval of the state water plan. The articles all bear the unmistakable stamp of Manabu Tagomori, deputy DLNR director and chief of the Division of Water Resource Management. Nonetheless, if for no other reason than to see the party line in full dress, the newsletter is worth reading (and comparing against the second issue of Environment Hawai`i, which covers much the same areas). To request to be added to the mailing list, call the Division of Water Resource Management at 548-7619 (O`ahu).
Providing yet another perspective on water will be Gregory Thomas, keynote speaker at the seventh annual People’s Water Conference at the Hawai`i State Capitol in Honolulu, January 12, 1991 (8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.). Thomas, who is chief executive for the Natural Heritage Institute, a California-based environmental management consulting firm, will speak on the topic “Integrating Water and Land Use Planning in Hawai`i,” which is the theme for the conference. Also to be discussed at the conference are the various county water management plans. For more information, or to volunteer to help, call Martha Black, chairperson of the People’s Water Conference, at 395-2127 (O`ahu).
The intransigence (to say nothing of the arrogance) of the Department of Defense in refusing to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for launching of missiles at Barking Sands on Kaua`i has resulted in not one, but two lawsuits. The first was filed October 29 by the Sierra Club Legal Defense Club, on behalf of the Sierra Club. It alleges that the U.S. Army Strategic Defense Command is in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act by its failure to prepare an EIS. The state of Hawai`i followed with its own similar lawsuit just days later, seeking much the same relief on grounds that the launchings would damage important native Hawaiian historic sites.
The Hawai`i Audubon Society and the National Audubon Society — again represented by SCLDF — have announced their intention to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for its failure to implement its recovery plan for the endangered Hawaiian crow, or `alala. The rather sad efforts of both the state and federal governments on behalf of this vanishing bird will be the subject of January’s Environment Hawai`i.
In the works are several important documents related to coastal issues. Both the Hawai`i Ocean and Marine Resources Council (under the umbrella of the Department of Business and Economic Development and Tourism) and the Coastal Zone Management Program (under the auspices of the Office of State Planning) are in the last stages of preparing plans for submittal to the state Legislature. Public workshops on both were scheduled for November.
What is not yet scheduled for public hearing is a draft state policy on marina development. The Office of State Planning is taking the lead on this. Given the frenetic pace at which marinas are being proposed on the Big Island, a state policy comes none too early (indeed, it may be far too late).
Finally, thanks are due to Gov. John Waihe`e for his appointment of Chris Yuen to the Board of Land and Natural Resources. Yuen, an attorney with no known ties to developers and with many to the environmental community, replaces Herbert Arata as board member from the Big Island. (Arata, it will be recalled, resigned last August following reports that he had not bothered to pay rent on leases of land from the state.)
The O`ahu seat, empty even longer than the Big Island seat, continues to go unfilled. Are we to believe there are no qualified people? Really?
Volume 1, Number 6 December 1990