Thomas C. Leppert, president of the Lana’i Company, says that the dispute over the company’s use of water from the island’s high-level aquifer for golf-course irrigation is an honest misunderstanding. It was always the company’s intention to use brackish water … Continued
In ancient times, flightless geese, ducks, ibises and rails roamed Lana’i’s extensive dryland forests. At the summit, a cloud forest dominated by ‘ohi’a lehua (Metrosideros collina) with an understory of ferns and many other native plants was home to at … Continued
There is no such thing as a private beach in Hawai’i. But, as has been well reported elsewhere, that fact was lost on the guards hired by Bill Gates to keep members of a prying press away from Gates’ New … Continued
WaterWorld, the Kevin Costner movie filmed on the Big Island, has seen its share of woes. By most accounts, the movie is over budget and behind schedule. Technicians have been fired or have walked off. The logistics involved in filming … Continued
In September 1993, a memorandum of agreement between Mufi Hannemann, then the director of DBEDT, and Keith Ahue, director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, assigned to DBEDT responsibility for issuing permits to film-makers to use state-owned land, … Continued
By all accounts, the selection of Hawai`i Island as the site for filming of WaterWorld is attributable to the work of Robin Kealoha Black, who, in 1993 and for part of 1994, was managing director of the Big Island Film … Continued
A lawyer representing the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has accused Board of Land and Natural Resources member Libert Landgraf of ex parte communication concerning the contested case being heard over the Conservation District application of Haseko (Ewa), Inc., to blast … Continued
Judge Overturns Default Approval Of Conservation Permit for HELCO A judge in Kona has determined that the Board of Land and Natural Resources erred when it allowed a Conservation District permit for a 56-megawatt expansion of the Keahole power plant … Continued
Along most of the coast of Kihei, Maui, a strip of state-owned land lies sandwiched between the ocean and the makai boundaries of privately owned lots. The land was set aside as a beach reserve when most of Kihei was … Continued
The Commission on Water Resource Management has approved a contested case hearing to be held on the long-term fate of water in the Waiahole ditch. The decision occurred at the commission’s meeting on November 16, where it considered the formal … Continued