In a Hostage Economy, Who Calls the Shots?
In a Hostage Economy Who Calls the Shots?
Can the Lana’i Company be trusted?
More than any question about water usage, shoreline access, or other agreements the company has made in return for development permits, the matter of the company’s trustworthiness looms large in considering its ability to manage the island’s resources in a manner consistent with the company’s legal, to say nothing of moral, obligations.
Or, as Land Use Commissioner Renton Nip asked: “Have we been snookered?”
A Hostage Economy
When the Castle & Cooke Company first raised the prospect of resort development on Lana’i, the justification was that this would diversify the island’s monocrop economy. Few argued with that goal, and the resorts were approved.
When David Murdock took control of Castle & Cooke (which he renamed the Dole Food Co.), pineapple was phased out and once more, the island’s economy had just one leg to stand on: resort development. But the hotels were not enough. Golf courses were needed to make the hotels attractive and profitable, the company argued. So the golf courses were approved.
But then the golf courses and hotels were not enough; the company reports that keeping them up and running is causing losses of $40 million a year (far more than any claimed losses associated with pineapple). Deluxe resort housing, on a far grander scale than Castle & Cooke had anticipated, was needed to allow the company a return on its investment, the company now argues. The housing at Koele has been okayed; that for Manele is still under consideration by the Land Use Commission.
Now, it turns out, according to testimony given to the Land Use Commission, the hotels and golf courses “were built as part of an overall plan to develop luxury homes on the island… [U]ntil the hotels were built, … luxury homes really wouldn’t be viable.”1
As the Spirit Moves
With Dole being the only game in town, as it were, the implicit threat underlying all its land use petitions and zoning applications is not difficult to read: Give us what we want, or the island’s economy can go to hell.
In this context, enforcement of any condition or agreement would seem futile. In the case of the requirement that the company make improvements to the Manele Road (a condition of the golf course approval), it easily petitioned the LUC to remove that requirement.
In the case of assurances for public shoreline access, Lana’i Company President Thomas C. Leppert explained that the spirit of this agreement referred to island residents only.
As for the prohibition on the use of high level water for golf course irrigation, spirit was again invoked by Leppert. The company agreed to the prohibition, he now says, in the spirit that it referred to a ban on potable water, despite abundant evidence (submitted by the company’s own experts, among others) that the distinction between potable and non-potable has no meaning when it comes to Lana’i’s high level water.
Misunderstandings?
Condition 10 of the Land Use Commission’s approval of the Manele Golf Course states: “Petitioner shall not utilize the potable water from the high-level groundwater aquifer for golf course irrigation use, and shall instead develop and utilize only alternative non-potable sources of water (e.g., brackish water, reclaimed sewage effluent) for golf course irrigation requirements.
In defending its use of the high level water for irrigation, the Lana’i Company says that Condition 10 does not prohibit the use of nonpotable high level groundwater for that purpose. Still, testimony and evidence that the LUC considered before imposing that condition to points to a different interpretation: any draw from that aquifer, whether it is drinkable or not, diminishes the quantity of freshwater available. In this light, the company’s assertion that the “spirit” of the discussion revolved around the distinction between potable and brackish water is feeble at best, mendacious at worst.
In any event, the language of the Maui ordinance and the identically worded agreement with Lanaians for Sensible Growth is clear enough. And while Maui County may amend its ordinance, that would still leave the company in violation of its agreement with Lanaians. On that count, the company seems simply not to care.
What Next?
Last December, the Lana’i Company asked the LUC to relax the ban on use of the high-level aquifer for golf course irrigation. The formal motion for an order modifying Condition 10 attempts to justify the request by citing the fact that the company has already spent $40 million to develop the Manele golf course. Paragraph 7 of the motion states: That “the Petitioner has made substantial expenditure of $40 million in developing the Manele golf course and related infrastructure upon reliance of it being able to use brackish sources Wells 1 and 9 for golf course irrigation under Condition No. 10 suggest, if not persuade, require [sic] that the language and contours of the regulation under Condition No. 10 be reviewed and modified.” (With its lawyers employing language such as this, small wonder that the company’s officers claim to have been confused.)
In any event, the company claims, use of the high-level water for irrigation purposes does not jeopardize any future demand for potable water. With the closing of the plantation, it says, reserves in the high level aquifer are more than sufficient to meet all future demand for fresh water as well as provide up to 800,000 gallons a day for golf course irrigation.
But the water history of Lana’i is short. The assumption that the high level aquifer can support withdrawals of the size and duration that the Lana’i Company is proposing is supported by nothing more solid than by hydrologists’ best guesses. Is this a strong enough hand on which to wager the island’s future?
In one word: No.
The Lana’i Company says it has spent just $1 million looking for water in the basal lens – $1 million, compared to the $40 million it has spent on the golf course and the many millions more it has spent developing and selling its “private island” resorts. Let it place the same value on water as it places on the land and on the ineffable exclusivity it markets. If basal water cannot be found nearby, let it look to more promising sources of basal water elsewhere on the island. If no basal water is to be found, let it consider a desalting plant.
And if desalination is too costly, well, let them sprinkle their greens with Perrier. Now that’s exclusive!
Time to Clean House At the DOH
The state auditor’s report on the waste management programs of the Department of Health confirms the suspicions of people in the environmental and regulated communities alike. Poor enforcement has left natural resources vulnerable to the worst kinds of toxic pollution – the environmentalist’s nightmare. Businesses that violate environmental laws need not worry they’ll be caught, while those that go to the effort and expense of complying are placed at a competitive disadvantage – what the responsible business person fears most.
The audit describes in chilling detail the failure of the administration to support waste management programs to the point of cutting them out of the budget altogether last year. And it mentions the difficulty the department has in hiring and retaining trained staff – a fact that Health Director John Lewin attributes to the uncompetitive salaries and practices within the state Department of Personnel Services.
Ironically, the Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch, which includes the underground storage tank program, has seen some of the most dedicated and talented staff ever employed by the Department of Health pass through its ranks. Though it may be convenient to think they left for better pay, the truth of the matter is that most of them hung in as civil servants as long as they felt that their presence would make a difference. They left not for greener pastures, but because they felt that their efforts received no support at the highest levels of the administration.
Other branches in the DOH’s environmental programs might prove even more fertile ground for the auditor’s plow. For starters, how about the Wastewater Branch?
Glad Tidings
Environment Hawai’i is deeply grateful to the W. Alton Jones Foundation of Charlottesville, Virginia, for its generous grant to support general operations.
And our sincerest thanks to all who responded to our Christmas appeal with your gift subscriptions, renewals, and donations. Your kind words and ongoing support are indeed heartwarming.
1 Testimony of Kurt Matsumoto, general manager, Lodge at Koele, June 18, 1992.
Volume 4, Number 8 February 1994