Musings: Dirty Dirt

August — already. It's a month that opens and closes on a full moon, giving us a once in a blue moon chance to do something really extraordinary. Or not.

So the state Department of Health has figured out what to do with the arsenic- and dioxin-contaminated soil that was found up at Kilauea two years ago. It plans to ship the dirty dirt — some 500 to 600 cubic yards — over to the landfill at Kekaha.

Does anyone else see the irony in dumping soil made toxic by plantation pesticides over on the westside, where the GMO seed companies with their heavy chem use are currently engaged in the modern day version of soil poisoning? We don't learn, do we? I mean, this shit don't die. It just lingers for decades.

But no worries, because even though five to six truckloads of contaminated dirt per day will be transported across the island, DOH assures us that, “All construction, transport and soil activities will employ dust suppression techniques to minimize dust emissions and limit nuisance dust concerns. Although full dust control is anticipated, small amounts of fugitive dust that may drift away from the site during excavation will not pose a significant health risk.” Oh, and they're gonna train the landfill guys, too.

Work is supposed to start on Aug. 6 and will continue, Monday through Saturday, for three weeks. Sounds like a good time to avoid Kilauea. Unless, of course, you happen to live there. But hey, guys, just look at it as a warm up for the construction noise and dust you'll get when work begins on that new shopping center on Kilauea Lighthouse Road you don't really want or need.

All Kaiulani (Edens) Mahuka wants and needs is a little justice, but she's given up hopes of finding that in the western legal system. I had a chat with her yesterday afternoon, and we talked about her recent sentencing for attempting to keep iwi kupuna from being dug up during construction of bathrooms at Kaumualii Park in Wailua. Mostly, she had a lot of questions.

For example, her attorney, Charley Foster, recently resigned from her case to take a job with the Office of Prosecuting Attorney — writing appeals, and press releases (so I guess we know who was behind that mean-spirited ear-licking attorney release).

“He just filed my appeal, and now he does appeals for the prosecutor,” Kaiulani said. “What does that mean? How long was he in negotiations with the OPA for the job? Was it during my trial? My sentencing? When he was working on my appeal?”

Kaiulani also noted that Judge Trudy Senda had told her the state would pay the higher cost of providing her with a criminal defense attorney, as opposed to a regular old public defender, because she wanted a sovereignty defense, “but sovereignty was the first thing they threw out.”

“I don't think my attorney had any intention of getting me off,” she said.

I must say, I did wonder when I saw Charley was representing Kaiu, as I can recall some of the antipathy he expressed on his Planet Kauai blog against the folks protesting the iwi desecretion at Naue. But when I did a quick search of his blog, I found surprisingly few references to her. Perhaps they've been purged.

However, I did find this 2008 post that expressed his views on the sovereignty movement:

To wish for a higher level of sovereignty than what the (unlikely to pass) Akaka Bill offers is definitly a predicament. It is politically unrealistic in Hawaii and politically impossible in the other 49 United States..... Ignoring (read outside/above) the law is another losing strategy. 

Like Tiananmen Square protests in China, a certain time came and went for the Hawaiian Soverignty [sic] Movement in the early 90's . There was a renaissance and recovery in Hawaiian music, culture, and language. There was the "Apology Resolution." Momentum rose and fell. Those revolutionary good times are distant history. The movement has disintegrated into marginalized groups of 20 trying to take over the Palace in different and separate ways; into piggybacking causes like Superferry protests; into 30 people present at Naue; into the same 20 people meeting at the end of Hanalei pier year after year; into lip service from non Hawaiians who don't feel personally threatened; into a few belligerent Tutus on Kauai; and into something that is simply annoying.

And amusingly, when I looked at Charley's Facebook page, I noticed that under “activities and interests” he had listed “Justin Kollar for Kauai Prosecutor.” Um, does that mean he won't be holding sign for his boss, Shaylene Iseri-Carvalho?

Wait — he already did. Such a handy trait for an attorney, the ability to switch sides when somebody pays you.

Kaiulani similarly wondered what it meant when Shay asked her to hold sign after prosecuting her on the obstruction of government operations charge. “Does this mean she wants to re-establish her friendship with me? I'm just very puzzled by it.”

And according to Kaiulani, Shay got a restraining order against a woman who engaged in a “heated debate” with the prosecutor during one of the recent public safety meetings held around the island. Apparently the woman yelled at Shay, “You're evil.” Gee, too bad the newspaper didn't cover that one.

Anyway, attorney Mark Zenger has been appointed to represent Kaiulani during her appeal, a prospect she does not find heartening “because he dropped the ball on me when I was arrested at Papaa Bay. The charges were dismissed, but I never heard anything from him.”

“I feel like a duck that's going round and round at a carnival and they keep shooting at me,” she said.