Last November 30, Moloka`i Properties Ltd., owner of almost all of the assets of the now defunct Moloka`i Ranch, petitioned the Land Use Commission to designate 4,919 (later amended to 5,203) acres of ranch land in West Moloka`i as important … Continued
Since the Legislature passed a measure giving landowners incentives to protect important agricultural lands in 2008, the state Land Use Commission has been presented with a total of five IAL petitions. In the first two years after passage of Act … Continued
Alone among Hawai`i’s four counties, Kaua`i is hard at work on developing maps indicating its most important agricultural lands. O`ahu, Maui, and Hawai`i have yet to leave the starting gate, when it comes to developing the “inclusive process for public … Continued
Last September, the ADC’s Kekaha Committee gave preliminary approval to PLP’s proposals, in large part, because they included upgrades to the area’s electricity and irrigation infrastructure. The hydropower projects alone would generate 11 megawatts of power, which would be sold … Continued
Developers of a proposed light industrial park in Lualualei Valley want more time to secure adequate access to the site, since one government official after another has told them that the project will not likely receive the approvals it needs … Continued
Did the storm water that accumulated at the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill last December and January come into contact with solid waste, thus requiring it to be treated as leachate? This question is at the heart of a dispute between … Continued
The food irradiator that Michael Kohn of Pa`ina Hawai`i has been planning for years is stalled out once more. Kohn, it will be recalled, obtained a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to built a cobalt-60 food irradiator near the … Continued
NELHA News, Part I: Ronald Baird, administrator since 2005 of the state’s Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i Authority, has announced he will be leaving. On December 31, Baird sent a letter out to some NELHA board members and tenants stating … Continued
Was it avoidable? Or was it inevitable that a series of storms would wreak havoc on the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill’s storm water drainage system, break open a waste cell, and wash medical and municipal waste and contaminated runoff into … Continued
It’s no secret that the state Department of Health usually settles fines for far lower than the amount originally proposed. The recently concluded violation case regarding O`ahu’s Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill is no exception. Last May, the DOH fined the … Continued