One of the outgrowths of the formation of Ka Pa`akai o ka \u2018Aina was a push to require environmental assessments and environmen\u2013tal impact statements prepared in Hawai\u2019i to provide an account of cultural resources that might be affected by proposed projects.<\/p>\n
Efforts to get the Legislature to approve a bill amending the state EIS law, Chapter 343, failed. According to Representative Annelle Amaral, that initiative failed when Calvin Say, chairman of the House Finance Com\u2013mittee, to which the bill was referred, said that cultural resources were already protected by law and that including them as an element in the EA\/EIS process should be done by rule amendment.<\/p>\n
The coalition then turned its attention to the Environmental Council, which was already in the processes of rewriting its rules, last overhauled in 1985. After receiving testimony from the coalition and others on the matter, the council adopted rules that included language calling out \u201ccultural impacts\u201d as an area to be addressed in the preparation of documents required by Chapter 343.<\/p>\n
But when the rules were sent to Governor Cayetano for final approval, he sent them back to the council with instructions to delete the cultural impacts language. Until the Legislature included authorizing language in the Chapter 343, he later told Gary Gill, director of the Office of Environmental Quality Control, it would be premature to include such language in the rules. According to Gill\u2019s written account of that meeting, Cayetano \u201cclarified that his concern is not over the legal authority of the Environmental Council to make rules on cultural impacts. Rather, the Governor seeks to apply a clear and consistent policy on the separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches of government.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chapter 343 does not mention cultural resources specifically; however, it does state that an EIS should disclose \u201cthe environmental effects of a proposed action\u201d and \u201ceffects of a proposed action on the economic and social welfare of the community and state,\u201d among other things.<\/p>\n
At press time, it appeared as though the Environmental Council would revise the draft rules (with mention of cultural impacts deleted), at its meeting of June 26. Inclusion of cultural impacts as part of the Chapter 343 process will have to await legislative action.<\/p>\n
(Editors note: As of July 1, Patricia Tummons, editor of this publication, will assume duties as a member of the Environmental Council.)<\/i><\/p>\n
Volume 7, Number 1 July 1996<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of the outgrowths of the formation of Ka Pa`akai o ka ‘Aina was a push to require environmental assessments and environmen–tal impact statements prepared in Hawai’i to provide an account of cultural resources that might be affected by proposed … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[260],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-july-1996"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3538","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=3538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3538\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}