Category: Water

January 22, 2010 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Central Oahu subdivision would create 5,000 homes – Hawaii Business – Starbulletin

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Castle & Cooke needs approval to build its $2.2 billion community on agricultural lands

By Allison Schaefers

Castle & Cooke has asked the state Land Use Commission for permission to convert agricultural lands north of Costco in Waipio into its $2.2 billion master-planned communities Koa Ridge Makai and Waiawa.

The developer, which topped off a 16,000-home, 40-year project in Mililani in 2008, now seeks to reclassify nearly 768 acres in Waipio and Waiawa from an agricultural to an urban designation. Such a ruling would allow Castle & Cooke to move forward on its long-stalled project, which has been planned since the 1990s.

Koa Ridge calls for 3,500 housing units and 500,000 square feet of commercial development, an elementary school, parks, recreation centers and churches to be built on about 575 acres makai of the H-2 freeway. At Waiawa, Castle & Cooke would build another 1,500 homes on 191 acres mauka of the H-2 near Ka Uka Boulevard. The development, which would offer homes from $200,000 to $1 million, would bring more affordable housing to Central Oahu, create some 2,500 jobs and create millions in state and county revenue, said Bruce Barrett, executive vice president of Castle & Cooke.

If the commission agrees to the request, the developer still must go before the city to get subdivision approval, but it will have met all major hurdles, as the LUC approved Castle & Cooke’s environmental impact statement in June. With all approvals, the company could break ground at the end of 2012.

A series of public hearings, which could take months and no doubt will reopen old wounds and mend some old fences, began yesterday. The LUC tentatively approved the project in 2002; however, community opposition and legal battles sent Castle & Cooke back to the drawing board after a state judge ruled that a formal environmental review was necessary before the subdivision, with its planned medical and commercial development, could be built.

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October 17, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Restoring East Maui waterways considered – The Maui News

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Water panel chair: ‘There’s only hard decisions to make’

By ILIMA LOOMIS, Staff Writer

POSTED: October 17, 2009

PAIA – A year after a state Commission on Water Resource Management ruling poured more than 12 million gallons of water per day back into eight East Maui streams, the panel is considering a proposal to restore water to 19 other East Maui waterways.

Taro farmers and plantation workers crowded the Paia Community Center on Thursday, each side pleading for enough water to survive. Chairwoman Laura Thielen said the commission is expected to return with its decision in December.

Without enough water available to fully satisfy all the demand, the commission will have to find a balance among traditional, agricultural and residential users that is unlikely to make everybody happy.

"Water issues are very tough issues," Thielen said. "There’s no bad people here; there’s only hard decisions to make."

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October 16, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Ruling awaited in water dispute – The Maui News

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Lawyers spar over how much water to return to West Maui streams

By HARRY EAGAR, Staff Writer

WAILUKU – About 120 people crowded into Kanda Hall at Iao Congregational Church on Thursday morning for what may be the last big public session in the five-year contested case over the waters of Na Wai Eha.

The five parties to the case each had 30 minutes to make closing arguments and raise exceptions to the draft in-stream flow standards proposed by hearings officer Lawrence Miike, who is also a member of the state Commission on Water Resource Management.

As much as 70 million gallons per day is diverted from the Iao, Waihee, Waikapu and Waiehu streams, and Miike has proposed restoring nearly half that amount to the streams for "mauka-to-makai" stream flow. The commission will now consider the record and issue a decision about how much water to restore.

In recent days, street-side rallies have broken out backing one position or the other. The stakes are big.

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September 30, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Shave Ice – The Maui News

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Shave Ice

By TOM STEVENS, For The Maui News

POSTED: September 30, 2009

Amid all the chatter and bluster of isle politics, there arise from time to time truly historic occasions. One of those is coming down on Maui next month.

On Oct. 15, the state Commission on Water Resource Management will hear closing arguments on the future of the Central Maui watershed. The 9 a.m. contested case proceeding should pack the Iao Congregational Church’s Konda Hall, so interested citizens will want to get there early. No public testimony will be taken.

To draw attention to this fateful session, a public "river walk" will be held this Friday afternoon from Iao Valley to Market Street in Wailuku. At the end of the walk, the Native Intelligence store will host water rights speakers during Wailuku’s "First Friday" festivities. Later the same day, commission staff members will travel to the Paia Community Center to seek public input from 5 to 9 p.m. on East Maui water issues.

The contested case proceeding takes as its prologue a startling "proposed decision" the commission’s hearings officer issued in April. At that time, Lawrence Miike recommended that the commission partially restore the historic flows of Central Maui’s famous "four waters" – the Waihee, Waiehu, Iao and Waikapu streams.

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September 15, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Kula housing project gains a little ground – The Maui News

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Kula housing project gains a little ground

WAILUKU – Maui Planning Commission members were unable to agree where to designate growth boundaries in South Maui, but they did make some progress in Kula.

The Kula Ridge housing project had both supporters and doubters before the planning commission.

Part of the project is supposed to be affordable, but some wondered how to ensure that it really turns out that way.

"Don’t get into a project-review decision-making mode," advised Department of Planning Director Jeff Hunt, adding that downstream reviews of matters such as community plan designations can look at projects in detail.

"This is the beginning of a 125-hurdle process," said Chairman Wayne Hedani.

When it came to a vote, the controversial portion of Kula Ridge cleared its hurdle, with commission member Warren Shibuya dissenting over concerns about water and the adequacy of Lower Kula Road.

However, A&B Properties’ bid to add 80 acres to 63 acres for residential development at Haliimaile failed.

Commission member Kent Hiranaga pointed out that the developer is going to provide water and sewage treatment anyway, so it would be financially helpful to expand the project.

"A&B is an agriculture company and a development company," he said. "If we want to allow them to continue the agricultural sector of their business, you need to allow some development. If you take away development, I believe you are jeopardizing the future of sugar cane.

"Then you will have lots of ag land to use for something."

However, farmers – organic and conventional – opposed taking prime agricultural land out of production, and on a split vote the 80 acres were excluded from the designated growth zone.

That Hiranaga moved to support an A&B proposal was ironic in light of earlier testimony.

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September 12, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Haku Mo’olelo – The Maui News

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By EDWIN TANJI, For The Maui News

POSTED: September 11, 2009

Sonny Kaniho was a Native Hawaiian. He was also a loyal citizen of the United States, an Air Force veteran, a Pearl Harbor shipworker.

As a Native Hawaiian, he recognized injustices perpetrated on Native Hawaiians. As an American, he believed the government could be pushed into reversing the injustices. He knew it would take effort and it would take time. He committed himself to the effort. It’s taken more time than he had, but the injustices he strived to correct had been in place for most of the century.

His effort also was mostly personal but it ran parallel with and enhanced other efforts by many groups to revitalize Hawaiian culture and restore Hawaiian rights. In the 1970s, efforts at restoring Hawaii as a place reflecting its indigenous people included the Aboriginal Lands of Hawaii Association, Hawaiian musicians, kumu hula, the Polynesian Voyaging Society, the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana, and Dr. Terry Shintani, who established the nutritional value of the Hawaiian Diet.

Kaniho’s effort gave a synergistic boost to the 1978 debate that led to formulation of Article XII of the Hawaii Constitution – the Hawaiian Affairs section mandating state funding for Hawaiian Home Lands and establishing the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Sonny Kaniho was an unlikely protester who conducted unlikely protests, a soft-spoken man engaging in nonviolent acts of civil disobedience in the spirit of Mahatma Gandhi and the Rev. Martin Luther King. His peaceful protests were not angry confrontations. They were designed to draw public attention to what he viewed to be unjust decisions of the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

The department didn’t agree, but it based its actions on 50 years of inertia. Kaniho knew the excuses. He didn’t accept them.

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September 10, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

Lawrence Berkeley Lab gets $1.8M for government energy efficiency – San Francisco Business Times

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will help the federal government save energy with expert help paid for by $1.8 million in stimulus funding.

The grants — most of them from the Department of Energy’s Federal Energy Management Program — will be spent on advice and assistance to various federal agencies about how to use energy-efficient heating, ventilation and air conditioning.

The Department of Defense chipped in $445,000 of the $1.8 million.

Arun Majumdar, who runs the lab’s Environmental Energy Technologies Division, said the money will be spent on “advanced energy assessment tools” to help the agencies improve energy use “for years to come.”

Specifically, this money will pay for help to:

  • Federal data centers for the DOE, the U.S. Marine Corps and the military’s Pacific Command in Hawaii.
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September 9, 2009 General Ag News and Notes Post a Comment

AGRICULTURE SECRETARY VILSACK ANNOUNCES ECONOMIC RECOVERY PROJECTS FOR FOREST HEALTH PROTECTION – BARN

Here is Hawaii’s piece of the pie:

Wildland Fire Management – Forest Health (Multi-state)

  • Alaska; California; Oregon; Washington; Hawaii – 1 project – $1,795,000
  • California; Hawaii – 1 project – $2,190,000

Posted by Brian Allmer on September 9, 2009

78 projects in 20 States and the District of Columbia will receive a total of $89 million to address problems caused by fire, insects, invasive species and disease

WASHINGTON, September 9, 2009 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced projects funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for forest health protection projects. These 78 projects will receive almost $89 million and are located on forested lands in 30 states. This funding will be used to restore forest health conditions on Federal, State, and private forest and rangelands recovering from fires, forest insects and disease outbreaks. These conditions weaken affected lands and threaten the benefits these lands provide, including clean water, clean air, habitat for wildlife, resistance to wildfire, and recreational opportunities for the public.

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September 2, 2009 General Ag News and Notes 1 Comment

Why coral reefs face a catastrophic future – guardian.co.uk

20081009_Alaloa0332Hermatypic Coral Maui-Click for larger image

Destroyed by rising carbon levels, acidity, pollution, algae, bleaching and El Niño, coral reefs require a dramatic change in our carbon policy to have any chance of survival

Animal, vegetable and mineral, a pristine tropical coral reef is one of the natural wonders of the world. Bathed in clear, warm water and thick with a psychedelic display of fish, sharks, crustaceans and other sea life, the colourful coral ramparts that rise from the sand are known as the rainforests of the oceans.

And with good reason. Reefs and rainforests have more in common than their beauty and bewildering biodiversity. Both have stood for millions of years, and yet both are poised to disappear.

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