ISLAND WATCH

Navy Looks At Expanding Missile Range To Northwestern Islands, Johnston Atoll

The Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility, in western Kaua’i, is planning to expand its ground-based launch capability to other islands and atolls in the Northwest Hawaiian chain and to Johnston Island, about 800 miles southwest of the main Hawaiian islands. A notice of intent to prepare an envi ronmental impact statement for the Navy Theater Ballistic Missile Defense program was tentatively scheduled to have been pub lished in the Federal Register in late May.

According to Eric Dunn; PMRF public affairs officer, sites that will be considered include Ni’ihau, the French Frigate Shoals (specifically, Tern Island), Midway, Kure Atoll, and Johnston Island. The expansion is needed to implement a program designed to test the Navy’s ability to defend against multiple long-range (theater) missiles, such as Scud or cruise missiles.

To conduct the tests, the Navy needs ground-based launch sites that are far enough removed from each other so that missiles launched from them will approach the target ship from angles greater than 30 degrees, Dunn explained.

While it may be possible for the Navy to conduct the tests elsewhere, Dunn said that in 1995, Congress specifically included language in the Defense Appropriations bill designat ing the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kaua’i as the primary range for this program.

Originally, the Patriot missile was thought to be useful as a defense against incoming ballistic missiles, Dunn said, “but it turned out to be fairly ineffective. The Navy has a missile that had a successful test in New Mexico recently and they’re ready to start operating it now from the ships.

“We’re past the development phase, we need some very realistic tests. We need to launch some long-range missiles toward a ship and see if that ship can shoot them down.”

Midway was recently developed into an eco-tourism facility, run by a private operator on behalf of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The atoll is an unincorporated U.S. Pacific possession, which is under the jurisdiction of the Fish and Wildlife Services part of the National Wildlife Refuge system.

Kure atoll; at the extreme northwestern end of the Hawaiian archipelago, and all the other islands in the chain are part of the state of Hawai’i. Kure is a designated state wildlife sanctuary, while the remainder of the islands make up the Hawaiian Islands National Wild life Refuge.

The entire chain is important as habitat for seabirds, the highly endangered monk seal, and the green sea turtle, which nests almost exclusively at the French Frigate Shoals.

Kure, Midway, and Tern Island have all seen some disturbance as a result of past military use. All have been subject to restora tion efforts, which have included not simply removal of hazardous wastes and chemical contaminants, but also eradication of rats and some noxious plants.

Tern Island, however, faces a serious problem with the corrosion of a metal seawall. As the Fish and Wildlife Service reported in February 1996, “the lasting effects of past military use of the island are threatening other important trust species [besides nesting sea-birds] and their habitats.”

“Tern Island was originally an 11-acre islet. In 1942, the islet was enlarged by the Navy through placement of dredged coral fill behind a steel sheet-piling seawall. The island was occupied by the Coast Guard utility and is now occupied by Fish and Wildlife Service Refuge staff. The sheet-pile seawall is deteriorating and represents a serious threat to the Tern Island field station. The rusting seawall and many tons of debris used to retard the erosion of adjacent coral fill has created a serious entrapment hazard and exposed entanglement hazards to monk seals and green sea turtles. The deteriorating wall and adjacent debris, the latter of which may be a source of contaminants, threaten the health of the adjacent marine environment.” (“Pacific Islands Ecoregion Coastal Systems Program Proposal,” USFWS, Honolulu. 1996)

Jerry Leinecke, project leader for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Ref uge Complex in the Pacific Islands Eco-region, told Environment Hawai`i that the seawall can leave seals and turtles stranded behind it, with no way of returning to the open ocean. The Fish and Wildlife Service or National Marine Fisheries Service staff that are sta tioned at Tern Island end up having to rescue many of the trapped animals, he said.

A rumor was circulating that PMRF was trying to cut a deal with the Fish and Wildlife Service to pay for restoration of the seawall in return for use of Tern Island, but Leinecke denied there was any truth to this. He had heard the rumors, he said, but there has been “no negotiation with the military on the seawall.”

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers re cently conducted a study of the seawall and developed a plan to repair it, involving a series of rocks and rip-rap in an interlocking pat tern, Leinecke said. The estimated cost is $12 million.

Parties seeking to restore the lower Hamakua Ditch on the Big Island have until November 1 to come up with a financing plan and a timetable for the work, according to a deci sion made by the state Commission on Water Resource Management on May 5. If the deadline is met, the chairman of the commis sion will then set a date for restoration of Hi’ilawe Falls at the back of the eastern most canyon in Waipi’o Valley. If the deadline is not met, the commission indicated it may be sympathetic to requests from the parties in volved to have even more time to work out details of restoring the ditch. Any way one looks at it, restoration of Hi’ilawe Falls would seem to be years away.

The falls have been dry since the stream above them was diverted in 1989 by the now defunct Hamakua Sugar Company. The di version was prompted by a collapse of the rock forming the face of the canyon behind the falls. The collapse peeled back enough rock to expose the tunnel carrying water from other Waipi’o Valley streams to the lower Hamakua Ditch. A temporary flume was built to span the area breached by the collapse, but to prevent damage to the flume, the falls were turned off, as it were, by shunting the stream flow into a reservoir above Waipi’o Valley. (For details, see the August 1995 issue of Environment Hawai`i.)

Since 1992, the Water Commission has been trying to figure out what to do as a result of the unpermitted stream diversion. In 1994, Bishop Estate purchased most of the Hamakua Sugar lands and inherited the application of Hamakua Sugar for permits for the diversion.

The diverted stream does not feed into the lower Hamakua Ditch. From a legal stand point, the restoration of the falls has nothing to do with restoration of the ditch. From a practical standpoint, however, the two are closely linked. At the May 5 hearing, the Water Commission heard testimony from dozens of farmers who draw water from the ditch, all of whom feared their source of cheap – and, in many cases, free – water would be jeopardized if Hi’ilawe Falls were restored.

Chris Rathbun, the Waipi’o Valley taro farmer who brought the matter to the commission’s attention with his formal com plaint in April 1992, addressed just this point in his testimony to the commission. “The question actually before the commission,” Rathbun said, “is easily resolved and the resolution should be that the commission deny the after-the-fact permits… Of course, some of the parties that have testified on these applications would like the commission to view this matter differently. They would have the commission address the pending applica tions as a referendum on the future of the lower Hamakua Ditch… They are, in es sence, seeking to have the commission rule on whether farmers along the coast have an entitlement to water from the Lower Hamakua Ditch.”

The commission rejected Rathbun’s sug gestion and, in the end, approved the four part staff recommendation, with minor modi fications. First, it found that there had been a violation of state law – although it decided no fines would be levied for such violation. Second, it voted to deny the application for after-the-fact permits.

Third, the commission established the November 1 deadline for three “milestone” achievements. The first of these is a written agreement between Bishop Estate and the state Department of Agriculture “securing the land rights necessary for the construction of the lower Hamakua Ditch Watershed Project.” Second is “a final schedule and financing plan for the proposed Natural Re source Conservation Service lower Hamakua Ditch Watershed Project.” Third, the parties involved must submit to the commission evidence “that the numerous private property owners for the section of the ditch east of Kukuihaele are identified and contacted, and that written assurance is provided that the land rights can be acquired by the state Department of Agriculture.”

The fourth element states that if the mile stone achievements are accomplished by November 1, “the final schedule for the NRCS lower Hamakua Ditch Watershed project shall be reviewed by the chairperson and a date for the Hi’ilawe Falls restoration set.

An Unannounced Visit

As a prelude to its decision-making meeting on May 5, the Water Commission took a field trip to farms along the Hamakua Coast on April 28. The agenda for the meeting was delivered to the Lieutenant Governor’s office on April 22, within the required six-day no tice period. However, the Lieutenant Gover nor appears to have been the last person to receive formal notice of the meeting. No one on the commission’s mailing list of people to receive meeting notices got the agenda. And even if any of them had seen it, the agenda itself was so sketchy that it did not even name a meeting place. (All that was stated was that the commission would conduct a field trip from 7:15 a.m. to 6:15 p.m.)

Environment Hawai`i later learned that the field trip had been organized by Paul Matsuo of the Agriculture Resource Man agement division of the state Department of Agriculture. Matsuo’s division has taken lead responsibility for retaining the lower Hamakua Ditch since Hamakua Sugar went out of business.

A Conflict?

According to an itinerary for the Water Commission’s field trip, the tour included stops at farms that not only receive water from the lower Hamakua Ditch, but whose owners have received grants from the Rural Economic Transition Assistance – Hawai’i project, whose chairman, Monty Richards, also sits on the Water Commission. Many of these same farmers also testified at the May 5 hearing, where they pleaded with the com mission not to restore Hi’ilawe Falls. Alto gether, RETA-H has awarded grants totaling more than $1.5 million to farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural enterprises in the Hamakua area, according to documents pro vided to Environment Hawai`i by the Uni versity of Hawai’i at Hilo Small Business Development. The SBDC provides the administrative umbrella through which RETA-H funds are channeled from the fed eral Defense Department appropriation to local farmers.

At the last meeting of the RETA-H board of directors in April, Richards announced that, as a member of the Water Commission, he would refuse himself from any votes on potential RETA-H projects that did not al ready have an approved source of water. However, Richards made no similar disclosures sure at the May 5 Water Commission meet ing to indicate his organization’s close association with many of the people testifying before the commission.

Also providing written testimony to the commission were other parties closely in volved with RETA-H. Richard Henderson, president of the Hawai’i Island Economic Development Board (in which post he suc ceeds Richards), urged “retention of valuable resources such as the Hamakua Ditch.” (HIEDB itself has received RETA-H contracts worth more than $729,000 for helping to administer the RETA-H program.)

Eric Weinert, a Puna-area firmer who also sits on the Exotic Pest Insect Committee funded by the state Department of Agricul ture to promote irradiation, also testified against restoration of Hi’ilawe Falls. “Many farmers in Hamakua have already planted or have expressed interest in planting … exotic fruit crops” that could provide necessary vol ume for an irradiation facility, Weinert wrote. Without “the lower Hamakua Ditch these farmers will not be able to produce the high quality produce required by our industry.”

Kathryn Whang Inouye has been appointed to the Board of Land and Natural Resources by Governor Benjamin Cayetano. She will replace Michael Nekoba, whose first term expires June 30 and whom the governor chose not to reappoint. New Land Use Commission members appointed by the governor are P. Roy Catalani, Peter Yukimura, and Isaac Fiesta, Jr. Nominations for all four were approved by the state Senate.

According to information supplied by Inouye to the governor’s office, Inouye is president and chief operation officer of Makai Village Partnership, a real estate development firm. Until 1995, she was a project manager with Castle & Cooke. From 1984 to 1987, she was employed by the Housing Finance De velopment Corporation (then known as the Hawai’i Housing Authority); from 1979 to 1984, she was with Hasegawa Komuten (now known as Haseko).

Records at the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs show that the two general partners of Makai Village Partnership are MCK Development and PAB. Officers of MCK are Wayne T. Tanigawa and Chris Tanigawa. Those of PAB are Bert A. Kobayashi and Ronald H. Kobayashi. All three entities – MCK, PAB, and Makai Village Partnership – were formed between July 26 and August 4, 1995.

Inouye indicates she received a Bachelor’s of Education degree from the University of Hawai’i and has done most of her course work toward a master’s degree.

Holding the at-large membership of the Land Use Commission will be Catalani, who replaces Lloyd Kawakami. Catalani, an attor ney, has been with Goodsill Anderson Quinn & Stifel since 1988, according to information supplied to the governor’s office. He was named a partner in 1994. In 1995 and 1996, he left private practice briefly to take the position of deputy director of the Office of State Planning (now the Office of Planning within the Department of Business, Economic De velopment, and Tourism). He holds a doc toral degree in jurisprudence from the Uni versity of Oregon School of Law (1986) and a bachelor’s of arts degree from the same insti tution in 1982.

Peter Yukimura will be the Kaua’i mem ber of the LUC, replacing Trudy Senda. According to information supplied to the governor’s office, he is president and chief executive officer of Koa Trading Company, Inc., a food distributor on Kaua’i. He also serves as president of four other companies: Ventures Associates, a paper and chemical distributor; WOYO Group, Inc., doing busi ness as First Class Travel, a travel agency; M & K Distributors, Inc., which distributes snack food and candy; and Trans-American Ventures, Inc., which holds a 50 percent share of American Restaurant Supply on O’ahu. Yukimura received a bachelor’s of science in business administration from the University of Hawai`i in 1972.

As usual, the Hawai`i Island seat on the LUC goes to a representative of the Interna tional longshoremen’s and Warehousemen’s Union. Isaac Fiesta, business agent for ILWU Local 142 since 1990, will replace Eugenio “Bobo” Lapenia, president of ILWU Local 142. From 1968 to 1990, Fiesta worked for the Hilo Coast Processing Company, according to information he provided to the governor’s office. He is a graduate of Hilo High School.

The Senate also ratified the second term reappointments of Robert Girald and David Nobriga to the Commission on Water Re source Management.

The Western Pacific Regional Fishery Man agement Council, more familiarly known as WesPac, has received a proposal to mine precious black, pink, gold, and bamboo cor als from waters around the Hawaiian Islands. The proposal, from a consortium of compa nies that includes Maui Divers, calls for the use of a remotely controlled submersible ve hicle whose mechanical arm would be used to clip coral branches from beds as deep as 1800 feet below the ocean surface.

According to Richard Grigg, a marine scientist and consultant and chairman of WesPac’s Precious Corals Plan Team, the precious coral fishery for pink and gold coral in Hawai’i has been inoperative since 1978. That was the last year that a coral bed off Makapu’u Point on O’ahu was commercially harvested. Grigg advised WesPac that sub stantial regrowth in the area has occurred enough to allow resumption of the precious coral fishery. “I feel it would not be impru dent to grant a permit… for the harvest of a normal (full) two year quota of 5,000 kg for pink coral and a 600 kg quota for gold and bamboo coral,” Grigg wrote in a March 31 letter to the council’s executive director, Kitty Simonds.

The coral consortium was seeking exclu sive rights to coral beds it discovered, in return for which it would provide information including videotapes made as its submersible vehicle was in operation – to the scientific community.

Black corals (found at depths from 200 to 400 feet) would first be surveyed and picked under the consortium’s plan. Following that, beds of the deeper-water corals would be surveyed, mapped, and picked.

WesPac withheld granting the permits sought, but has asked for changes to its Pre cious Corals Fishery Management Plan that would allow it greater flexibility in establish ing quotas and other coral fishery manage ment measures.

We are ever so grateful for the ongoing sup port of our readers and friends. Recently they have included: Paul and Tanya Alston; Diane Amuro; Paul Banko; John and Maile Bay; Peter Beiersdorfer; Kekuni Blaisdell; Chis Bouslog; Harold Bronstein; Bill Chase; Lawrence Downing; Barbara S. Durand; Mollie Foti; David “Kimo” Frankel; Betsy Gagne; Lorin Gill; Cynee Gillette-Wenner; Lisa Hamilton; Lela Hubbard; Lenore Johnson; Marion Kelly; Ken and Patty Kupchak; David Lassner; Douglas Lupton; T.J. McAniff; Martha Martin; Gil Mendelson; Mina Morita; Steve Moser; William Mull; Jeff Parker; Chris Rathbun; Sally Rice; the Sierra Club, Hawai’i Chapter; Hugh Starr; Bill Stormont; Katie Swift; Rick Warshauer; and Masako Westcott.

Volume 7, Number 12 June 1997