From an environmental and cultural viewpoint, the Hawaiian Riviera Resort is a catastrophe waiting to happen. The many ways that this project would sin against nature were discussed in the June edition of Environment Hawai`i. Financially, it would seem to … Continued
“If we do not develop this land, someone else will.” So said Karl Hippmann, vice president of Palace Development Corporation, in defending Charles Chidiac’s plans to build the Hawaiian Riviera Resort. Now that Chidiac had given people the idea that … Continued
Writing in Hawai’i Investor in May 1989, Susan Essoyan said that Charles Chidiac, “despite his Hawai’i ties, remains something of a mystery here.” More than two years later, and notwithstanding the lengthy Land Use Commission hearings into Chidiac’s proposed Riviera … Continued
The city has avoided a judgment in court on the legal questions concerning its management of the Sand Island wastewater treatment plant. However, Honolulu residents continue to have a right to know what they have received in return for the … Continued
The U.S. Army runs a wastewater treatment facility at Schofield Barracks. As such facilities go, it is relatively small, treating an average of less than two million gallons of wastewater a day in dry weather. Ordinarily, it discharges into an … Continued
The privately owned sewage treatment plant serving the Hawai`i Kai area of O`ahu discharges its effluent about 1,400 feet offshore of one of the island’s most popular surfing areas, Sandy Beach. The plant’s permit, issued by the state Department of … Continued
Usually, elevated levels of metal contaminants in the water can be traced to point-source discharges from industrial sources. Not so in Hawai`i, however. With rare exceptions (such as at Schofield Barracks), metal contaminants are extremely low in the point-source discharges … Continued
One of the most striking moments in the trial of the Hawai`i Kai plant operators came on September 18. The jury had been dismissed for its lunch break after hearing yet another witness, a former employee of MEPAC presumably Services, … Continued
Lawsuits spawned by the dumping of sludge from the Hawai`i Kai sewage treatment plant will take years to litigate. The case against the individual plant operators — Charles Reeves, who pleaded guilty, and Michael Weitzenhoff and Thomas Mariani, who were … Continued