Hi`ilawe and Hakalaoa falls, the legendary pair of nosebleed-high cascades in Waipi`o Valley, should be restored to full glory by the end of July, thanks to a sudden turnabout by Kamehameha Schools that caught the state Water Commission off guard. … Continued
State Water Commission, Land Board Have Lost Sight of Their Mandates The long wait is almost over. If all goes according to plan, by mid-summer, the twin falls at the back of Waipi`o Valley should be restored. The picture-postcard-perfect vista … Continued
Ever since Jodie Foster starred in Contact, the search for extraterrestrial life forms has been a popular preoccupation. But a few dozen marine biologists and oceanographers are excited by amazing discoveries of life forms right under our noses — under … Continued
For more than a decade, an illegal diversion has shut off water to Hakalaoa Falls, one half of a famed pair of cascades that plummet down a near vertical 1000-foot-high cliff at the back of Waipi`o Valley. The diversion dates … Continued
DLNR Moves To Ban Houses In Flood Areas After six years and a recent lawsuit and contested case, the Department of Land and Natural Resources took steps last month to repeal a rule that encourages construction in flood-prone areas of … Continued
With the deadline for the governor’s vetoes of measures passed by the Legislature this year having come and gone, we can finally report on the bills described in our July issue whose fate was unsettled when we went to press … Continued
Geothermal Wells to be Plugged: It’s been two decades since they were drilled, but at long last, two geothermal wells in the Big Island district of Puna are going to be plugged. One of them, the 6500-foot-deep SOH-4 well, is an … Continued
Headlines on recent stories about the Hawai`i akepa, an endangered forest bird, have been alarming. Last July, Science, the magazine of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, reported in online editions that researchers were exploring the “startling decline of a … Continued
The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawai`i was Ground Zero for ocean-thermal energy conversion (OTEC) experiments for most of the first two decades of its life. In fact, OTEC development was one of the main reasons – if not the reason – for … Continued
More than 30 years after the state Constitution was amended to require the protection of agricultural land, the state Land Use Commission has designated the first official Important Agricultural Lands. Once a land is protected with this label, any decision … Continued