What is happening with the Launiupoko Irrigation Company? To judge from its most recent financial statements provided to the Public Utilities Commission, the company seems to have done little more than collect payments from customers and salt away most of … Continued
In the summer of 2020, members of Kiaʻi Kauaula met with an archaeologist with Scientific Consulting Services. SCS had been retained by West Maui Land Construction to oversee excavation it was undertaking to install irrigation lines for Launiupoko Irrigation Company … Continued
With global temperatures inexorably rising, how much groundwater pumping will the state’s aquifers be able to sustain in the coming decades? A study by the U.S. Geological Survey on groundwater recharge, released in May, may help the state Commission on … Continued
Seven and a half years ago, on February 24, 2017, the then-chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources, Suzanne Case, signed off on an exemption notification. This memorialized her agreement with Department of Land and Natural Resources’ staff … Continued
Two conflicting visions for a 70-acre site in Holualoa, on the west side of the Big Island, were brought before the Hawaiʻi County Council for consideration last month. On August 7, the council approved a resolution to authorize negotiations for … Continued
Some 68 acres of land in the West Hawaiʻi district of North Kona have become the battleground between two dueling visions for the future of the site. One of them sees the area, first zoned for housing forty years ago, … Continued
One of the strongest arguments for the Kona Vistas development has been that it will bring much needed housing at the mid-level range of affordability. A certain fraction of the planned 450 or so multi-family units will need to meet … Continued
Oxygen from Rocks: A recent report in the journal Nature Geoscience describes how manganese nodules generate oxygen at extreme, lightless ocean depths. The research was led by Andrew Sweetman, head of the seafloor ecology and biogeochemistry research group at the … Continued
A federal lawsuit over whether development on a 96-acre agriculture/preservation-zoned property on O`ahu’s North Shore requires a Special Management Area permit has been amended again. This time, the plaintiffs forgo their original claims that the Honolulu Department of Planning and … Continued