February 2018 PDF
February 2018
Water Commission Struggles to Address Failure to Enforce Minimum Stream Flows
It’s been more than a decade since the community group Hui o Na Wai Eha petitioned the state Commission on Water Resource Management to amend the interim instream flow standards (IIFS) of Waihe‘e and Wailuku rivers and Waikapu and Waiehu … Continued
New & Noteworthy: Hu Honua
Hu Honua Challenge: The power plant being rebuilt along the Hamakua Coast just north of Hilo is facing yet another challenge, this time from an individual, Claudia Rohr. In late November, Rohr, representing herself, filed a complaint against the County … Continued
House on Hilo Cliff That’s Falling Into Sea to be Partly Demolished
Last month, as angry swells carved steep scarps into the dunes on O‘ahu’s North Shore, threatening homes and other structures, on the Big Island, another, slower wearing away of the coast was prompting owners of a cliffside home in the … Continued
GEMS Authority, Hawaiian Electric At Odds Over On-Bill Financing Plan
Practically since the day life was breathed into the Green Energy Market Securitization (GEMS) program in 2013, its advocates have argued that for it to be successful, recipients of GEMS loans – intended to help lower-income families benefit from expensive, … Continued
Panel Defers Ko‘olau Loa Plan Vote To Discuss Easements for Malaekahana
At the November 29 meeting in Hau‘ula of the Honolulu City Council’s Committee on Transportation and Planning, Hawai‘i Reserves, Inc. (HRI), the local land management arm of the Mormon church, unveiled a new, drastically downsized housing plan to relieve at … Continued
Aquarium Industry Group Loses Effort to Stay Fishery Injunction
On December 4, 1st Circuit Judge Jeffrey Crabtree denied a motion by the Pet Industry Joint Advisory Council (PIJAC) seeking a stay of his October 27 order halting the collection of marine life for the aquarium trade until an environmental … Continued
January 2018 PDF
Correction: In this issue, the caption on the photo on Page 11 incorrectly states that its is of a stream gage in Waikapu Stream that “shows flows were well below the interim instream flow standard of 2.9 million gallons a … Continued
Zinke Final Report: No Changes to Papahanaumokuakea Monument
In his FINAL REPORT on national monument designations under the Antiquities Act, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke spared the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument and its 2016 expansion area, as well as the Marianas Trench monument. For the Rose Atoll monument … Continued
New & Noteworthy: Aquarium Collection, Maha`ulepu Cases
Aquarium Collection Update: On September 6, the Hawai`i Supreme Court justices issued a unanimous ruling that the Department of Land and Natural Resources had to complete an environmental study of the effects of aquarium fish collection before issuing permits sanctioning … Continued