At the May 20 Zoom meeting of the state’s fuel tank advisory committee, Hawaiʻi Sierra Club attorney David Kimo Frankel cracked up laughing at what Capt. Gordie Meyer, commanding officer of NAVFAC Hawaiʻi and regional engineer, told Asami Kobayashi, legislative … Continued
On April 19, the state Senate passed the final form of its Concurrent Resolution 47, urging the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to recognize that health conditions afflicting chronically ill veterans once stationed at the Navy’s underground field station at … Continued
On April 19, the U.S. Navy, Environmental Protection Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Department of the Interior proposed settling a lawsuit they filed the same day against O‘ahu Sugar Company, LLC, and its successor, Ka‘anapali Land, LLC, over high … Continued
(Above photo: An employee of BEI Environmental Services in protective gear at O‘ahu Sugar Company’s former pesticide and herbicide mixing plant on the Waipi‘o Peninsula. The company collected soil and water samples in 2000. Credit BEI) In July 2001, Environment Hawai‘i reported on contamination … Continued
Sierra Club Loss: Last month, 1st Circuit Judge Jeffrey Crabtree ruled against the Sierra Club’s Hawai‘i Chapter and in support of the Board of Land and Natural Resources’ decisions in 2018 and 2019 to grant revocable permits for the continued diversion … Continued
Contamination of coastal waters caused by sewage from cesspools and other onsite sewage disposal systems (OSDS) as well as sewage infrastructure will only increase with the rise in sea level over the next few decades. In fact, it is already … Continued
For more than a decade, the Western Pacific Fisheries Management Council (Wespac) has fruitlessly decried the proliferation and expansion of marine national monuments throughout the Pacific, beginning with President Bush’s establishment of Hawaiʻi’s Papahanaumokuakea monument in 2006. But when Donald … Continued
“We know in many places of the country, our fisheries are being affected by climate change,” Sam Rauch, NOAA’s deputy assistant administrator for regulatory programs told the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council (Wespac) last month. Fish stocks are moving from … Continued
“It is a very dire situation. We have some strategies, and we’re pursuing them as fast as possible on parallel tracks, but it’s a lot of fingers crossed right now,” Department of Land and Natural Resources director Suzanne Case told … Continued
Recycling in Good Conscience: In 2019, Hawaiʻi exported more than 10 million pounds of plastics for recycling to destinations selected almost always based on cost. But, as Senate Resolution 12 notes, “end-of-life processing for recyclable plastics and waste in many … Continued