{"id":13825,"date":"2021-09-04T18:13:57","date_gmt":"2021-09-04T18:13:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.environment-hawaii.org\/?p=13825"},"modified":"2021-09-04T18:13:59","modified_gmt":"2021-09-04T18:13:59","slug":"new-noteworthy-honokohau-headache-staph-alert-and-a-correction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/?p=13825","title":{"rendered":"New & Noteworthy: Honokohau Headache, Staph Alert, and a Correction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Honokohau Headache:<\/strong> In 2020, Environment Hawai\u02bbi<\/em> detailed in its August and September cover stories the strife surrounding the auction of a 10-year lease to operate the boat storage yard at Honokohau small boat harbor in West Hawai\u02bbi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until recently, the two co-owners of Pacific Marine Partners, which had won the lease, had been in court-ordered arbitration over their respective interests in the company. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jason Ho\u02bbopai had claimed his company, International and Pacific Enterprises, owned 95 percent and Jonas Ikaika Solliday owned just 5 percent. Solliday contended that PMP\u02bbs operating agreement split their ownership interest 50-50.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On August 29, the 3rd Circuit Court approved the arbitrator\u2019s findings of fact and conclusion that Solliday was correct.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would seem like a victory for Solliday has been anything but.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to motions seeking injunctive relief, a temporary retraining order and preliminary injunction, and $2.2 million in damages filed by PMP and Solliday late last month, Ho\u02bbopai effectively abandoned PMP after the arbitrator first issued his decision on April 7. Ho\u02bbopai also began operating a competing boat storage business at Keauhou.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In defiance of the arbitrator\u2019s order, Ho\u02bbopai failed to immediately give Solliday access to PMP accounts and business records, Solliday\u2019s attorneys claim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[F]ollowing receipt of the Arbitrator\u2019s decision, Ho\u02bbopai abruptly disengaged from its day-to-day PMP responsibilities including from all customer invoicing, inquiries, and bookkeeping, doing so despite not having provided Solliday with access to PMP accounts, important customer information, and other important business records,\u201d Solliday\u02bbs attorneys state in one of their filings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs the result of IPE\/Hoopai\u2019s actions, PMP has directly suffered damages in the form of lost business opportunity, lost rental income, loss of good will, the expense of replacing company equipment, and the cost of reproducing missing financial data and records that IPE\/Hoopai has refused to provide,\u201d they write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A hearing on the TRO and preliminary injunction has been scheduled for October 13.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Staph Alert:<\/strong> For some time, researchers have been aware of the relatively high incidence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus <\/em>(MRSA) infections in Hawai\u02bbi, as compared to elsewhere in the nation. A study just published in the journal Antibiotics<\/em> takes a deeper look at just how prevalent MRSA bacteria are in the coastal waters, estuaries, and sands that are popular among bathers on the Big Island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the authors \u2013 including lead author Tyler J. Gerken, who did his undergraduate work at the University of Hawai\u02bbi-Hilo \u2013 write, \u201cWe found S. aureus<\/em> in coastal beach and river waters, anchialine pools, and sand at locations with limited human activity on the island of Hawai\u02bbi.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors looked for the presence of not just the MRSA strain of staph, but also the methicillin-susceptible strain (MSSA), which is also a health hazard: MRSA infections have a mortality rate of around 14 deaths per 100,000 hospitalizations in the United States, while the MSSA-related mortality is 11 per 100,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Samples were taken from 36 stations in Hilo, Kohala, Kona, and Puna and were characterized using whole-genome sequencing. Of the 361 samples, 20 were positive for MSSA (5.5 percent), while 8 were positive for MRSA. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The study was conducted in the second half of 2020, when tourist activity was severely reduced in the state because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the authors note. \u201cConsequently, this study may underrepresent the full extent of S. aureus<\/em> contamination in coastal and aquatic Hawaiian environments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their conclusion: Big Island beaches are contaminated with both strains of staph, with the MRSA a strain that is likely circulating in the community. The beaches of the island \u201care a potential health risk for both MRSA and MSSA infections in humans.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lopped Off: <\/strong>An editing error led to the loss of the last few words of our June 2021 cover story, \u201cLatest Red Hill Spill Complicates Contested Case on Operating Permit,\u201d as well as the byline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The last sentence should have read: Parties were set to submit their post-hearing briefs and proposed findings of fact and conclusions of law by June 14. The byline: Teresa Dawson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Honokohau Headache: In 2020, Environment Hawaiʻi detailed in its August and September cover stories the strife surrounding the auction of a 10-year lease to operate the boat storage yard at Honokohau small boat harbor in West Hawaiʻi. Until recently, the … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[487],"tags":[7,3],"class_list":["post-13825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-september-2021","tag-patricia-tummons","tag-teresa-dawson"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}