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
June 23, 1987. After years of planning and negotiating the maze of permits needed for major coastal undertakings, the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i was ready. On this day, work was to start on its biggest project to date, the … Continued
In February 1980, the Ad Hoc Committee on the Advancement of OTEC for Hawai`i reported that people attending a legislative workshop had been told that, “by 1990, OTEC plants in Hawai`i could provide as much as 660 megawatts to O`ahu.” … Continued
Since the mid-1970s, ocean thermal energy conversion has been generously supported by state funds. Federal funds, through the Department of Energy, were for a time less abundant, especially during the Reagan administration, which did not assign a high priority to … Continued
Much of the money that has been spent in the name of advancing ocean thermal energy conversion has been funneled through the Pacific International Center for High Technology Research. Federal funds channeled to PICHTR (according to PICHTR’s reports to the … Continued
In Kona the forest must be right in the line of settlement, and not on the tops of mountains as in other districts, for there is no watershed here. We must have moisture for water, and naturally we must have … Continued