In West Maui, the Fight Over Water Reveals Deep Social, Economic Rifts
It is April 2022. A worker at the Salvation Army center in Lahaina receives a visit from a young woman living high in Kauaʻula Valley seeking entry for her family into the organization’s homeless shelter. The Salvation Army worker notifies … Continued
Editorial: Those Launiupoko ‘Farms’
What comes to mind when you think of a farm? The white frame house in Grant Wood’s “American Gothic?” Endless acres of melon plants or cabbages? Barns with cattle, a chicken house, a pig sty? In the Launiupoko area of … Continued
New & Noteworthy: Mosquito Control, Lahaina Permit And Affordable Housing Trial
Kauaʻi Mosquito Control: In a desperate effort to stave off the extinction of Kauaʻi forest birds, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife is resorting to aerial spraying of Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti) as … Continued
High Court Finds Water Commission Failed To Justify ‘Status Quo’ Stream Flow Standards
According to a June 20 opinion by the Hawai‘i Supreme Court, the state Commission on Water Resource Management needs to justify why more water shouldn’t be left in four Maui streams long diverted for sugarcane production, especially since the largest … Continued
At Affordable Housing Site in Hilo, Contamination Stalls New Construction
“Lanakila Housing, it’s okay for a while.” — Ehukai The low-income project on around 29 acres in the center of Hilo Town may be one of the few ever immortalized — though hardly celebrated – in Hawaiian song. From the … Continued
Agency Aims for Approvals by End of Year
The Hawaʻi Public Housing Authority has partnered with Highridge Costa to develop more than 10,000 new units of affordable housing statewide, including 250 on the Lanakila IV site. And it hopes to have all the issues regarding contamination resolved quickly. … Continued
Existing Lanakila Homes Were Built On Soil Never Screened for Contamination
The entire Lanakila Homes project in Hilo was developed on about 29 acres of land that, from the 1870s until the 1940s, was in active sugar cultivation. The use of the land for sugar explains the high levels of arsenic … Continued
BOARD TALK: UXO Permit, Kauaʻi Mosquito Control
Dispute Over Permit Terms Nearly Derails Ordnance Sweeps on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi Island “It is kind of the tail wagging the dog,” land agent Michael Ferreira told the state Board of Land and Natural Resource at its May 24 meeting, referring … Continued