Musings: Code Green

While perusing the Malama Kauai newsletter, I saw the curious claim: “We won a landmark Supreme Court case for water rights.” So I clicked on the link, and what do I see? Earthjustice and MK are claiming credit for winning the Kauai Springs water bottling case.

Mmmm, as I recall it, Kauai County put up all the dough and did all the heavy lifting over eight long years of litigation. Earthjustice slipped in at the appeal, filed a measly amicus (friend of court) brief and deftly positioned itself and MK's Keone Kealoha as heroes.

Excuse me, but WTF do Keone and MK know about water, and what has he or that group ever done on its behalf? Their one claim to fame is school gardens. Oh, and giving Superferry opponents a spokesman with a Hawaiian name to counter claims it was a haole movement.

But that's how Earthjustice operates. They cherry pick high-profile cases and nonprofits, then spin it for publicity and fundraising. Just as they're doing with their intervention in the chem companies' lawsuit against the pesticide/GMO regulatory law, Ordinance 960.

Councilman Gary Hooser is quoted as saying the intervention is a “big win for the people of Kauai.” It'll only be a big win for the people of Kauai if Earthjustice and Center for Food Safety pick up a substantial portion of the legal fees we're incurring defending the crappy bill they wrote. 

But don't hold your breath. Because this isn't really about the little people on Kauai. Though EJ and CFS claim they're representing “the community” and “those who have been most harmed by these toxins,” they picked as their clients not real folks with health problems on the westside, but Pesticide Action Network, another publicity- and cash-hungry national group; Ka Makani Hoopono, a group formed solely for the purposes of joining the lawsuit, and Surfrider Foundation, another national group, which is trying to pretend it's neutral enough to test water for pesticides. Uh huh.

Speaking of Surfrider, the Star-Advertiser yesterday picked up on its chummy — and ironic — new alliance with high-end tourism and real estate development.

The piece focused on how upscale Poipu vacation rental properties and the Grand Hyatt have aligned with “environmental” groups like Malama Mahaulepu, Surfrider and Sierra Club to kill the proposed Mahaulepu dairy.

I laughed out loud when I read one of their gripes:

They argue that the dairy's plan to use partial grains to feed the cows and to ship milk from Kauai to be bottled on Oahu isn't part of environmentally sustainable practices.

But the totally unsustainable Grand Hyatt, which depends on a steady stream of imported tourists, food and booze to keep afloat, guzzles massive amounts of electricity and water, generates tons of trash and produces thousands of gallons of sewage gets a free pass?

That wasn't the only amusing bit:

"This is kind of a clash of cultures," said Jerry Westenhaver, general manager of the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa, which is about 2.5 miles from Ulupono's proposed dairy farm. "Grove Farm, which owns the land under the proposed dairy farm, doesn't understand the fragile, competitive nature of the tourism industry and how one round of bad press could affect a lot of people's lives.”

I guess Jerry doesn't know that Grove Farm sold developers the land that became the Hyatt – a resort project bitterly opposed by his new BFFs in the Kauai environmental community, btw.

Jerry went on to say:

"Once the community opens the gate, it's going to be hard to close again," he said.

Yeah, that's why a lot of us were worried about turning ag land into resorts and gentleman's estates, and going gang-busters into tourism promotion.  And sho nuff, here we are facing the monster that Grove Farm helped to create.

Only now, our sadly co-opted environmental community has joined forces with the so-not-green tourism and luxury real estate industries in opposition to agriculture, claiming it's not green enough.

But don't worry, the environmentalists are still dedicated to “green” principles — as in the color of money. So keep those tax-free donations flowing, folks. Just don't ask for any accounting of the funds or a list of donors.

Because disclosure and transparency are for the other guys, the “bad guys.” Whereas they're the good guys, the aina warriors. Right?

Yeah, right. 

Musings: Eclipsing

Out on the mountain trail, seeking birdsong, green ridges, ohia lehua.

Less than a mile in, hopes and wishes rewarded.

Clouds drift over the sun, pile up on the peaks.

Clear skies aren't likely for tonight's eclipse.

Mahina will reveal what she wishes.

All we can do is look up, look within, and strive for balance.

Musings: Deliberate Distortions

OK, so now it's clear the “biologists” and Koloa Nimbys were exaggerating and even flat-out lying in their hysterical, hyperbolic “urgent” plea to the county to intervene and halt the Hawaii Dairy Farms project.

They lied, and said HDF had never consulted with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). But County Engineer Larry Dill, in his detailed response to the fear-mongers, wrote:

I have contacted Mr. Ben Vinhateiro of the NRCS who informed me that HDF consulted with NRCS early on in the process to develop their Conservation Plan, and that HDF continues to consult with NRCS as new concerns are made known and new information becomes available.

They lied, and said the West Kauai Soil and Water Conservation District (WK SWCD) had “rubber-stamped” the dairy's conservation plan, which was not given a “thorough review.” But Dill notes:

I have also contacted Mr. Peter Tausend of theWK SWCD . The WK SWCD, with technical support from the County, reviewed and approved the Conservation Plan prepared by HDF with assistance from the NRCS. The WK SWCD continues to monitor the project.

They lied, and claimed “HDF has begun major construction (moving large amounts of soil), despite their failure to secure the required State permits for their proposed dairy.” Again, Dill noted that HDF had qualified for an ag exemption to the county's grading, grubbing and stockpiling ordinance:

Additionally, on April 3, 2014, without having received a complaint but because of concerns that had been raised by the community, the DPW [county Department of Public Works] inspected the site. DPW found that any grubbing or grading work that had been done by that time did not surpass the thresholds established by the Grading Ordinance. Also, significant clearing had been done, but clearing is not an activity that is regulated by the Grading Ordinance.

They lied, and claimed the New Zealand rotational pasture model that HDF is following “has had a devastating nationwide environmental impact” in that nation. Except a) that's a blatant overstatement; and b) it's more than a little skewed to compare one dairy on Kauai to the nationwide impacts in a country where dairy is the primary export industry.

They lied, and stated flat out: “Based on the nutrient load (waste) that the cows will deposit on the grazing acreage and which will remain there, pollution cannot be prevented.” But they don't actually know that for a fact. Even they had to admit the dairy's revised comprehensive nutrient management plan (CNMP) is still being reviewed by the state Department of Health. As Dill wrote, after communicating with Sina Pruder, Chief of DOH Wastewater Branch:

I have contacted her and she confirms that the Wastewater Branch is reviewing all aspects of the proposal dealing with management of waste to ensure the protection of water quality. Hawaii Dairy Farms has been responsive to comments from the Wastewater Branch, and Ms. Pruder noted that Wastewater Branch's approval of their building permit applications is contingent upon approval of their livestock waste management plan in accordance with Chapter 11 -62, Hawaii Administrative Rules, "Wastewater Systems" and the Guidelines for Livestock Waste Management.

They lied in the letter and to the newspaper, which quoted Surfrider's Carl Berg as saying:

[T]those who signed the letter support having a dairy farm, but not in Mahaulepu.

“It’s just the location, really,” he said. “If we didn’t have to worry about everything running into the ocean, Surfrider wouldn’t care.”

Except that's not true. Surfriders Gordon LaBedz and Robert Zelkovsky have been quite vocal about the evils of milk-drinking, the unacceptable levels of greenhouses gases released by cows and the horrors of “industrial agriculture." The letter-writers also whine the dairy isn't completely "sustainable." Mmmm, like Zelkovsky's tourist-dependent wedding video business is?

And both Carl and Don Heacock have been complaining for years about Grove Farm's control of Waita reservoir.  If the dairy, a big water-user, is destroyed, or at least driven out of Mahaulepu, it may help to loosen Grove Farm's lock on Waita — a lock that was tightened when GF was allowed to designate that acreage as Important Ag Land largely because it has abundant water.

Ironically, the letter-writers claim that HDF should be booted because it supposedly misrepresented the facts. By that same reasoning, we should also reject the letter-writers, because they're doing the exact same thing, while claiming everyone is lying but them.

There are legitimate questions and concerns about the dairy. For example, New Zealand dairy consultant Derek Fairweather is quoted in a 2011 Star-Advertiser article as saying a 1,000-cow pasture farm needs about 1,000 acres. HDF, however, is proposing to start with 880 cows on 582 acres, with plans to expand to 1,800 cows on the same acreage. Sounds like a disconnect.

So yes, we should be scrutinizing the dairy plan. But it serves no one well when concerns are inflated and distorted and fears are intentionally fanned. 

The Garden Island, in a follow up with the facts that was given a smaller splash than the fibs, quotes lead letter-writer Bridget Hammerquist as saying Dill's response is “scary” and “sad.”

Actually, what's sad is seeing some of the names that were affixed to that letter of deliberate distortion. Because next time their expertise is needed in a legitimate environmental issue, they won't have any credibility.

Musings: Oi Boy

Gov. Abercrombie has come up with a novel approach to perpetuating the state mindset while currying political favor: appoint retired state workers with solid union creds — and a job at the Lege — to key state panels. 

Or more specifically, nominate Tommy Oi to represent Kauai on the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

Oi retired as Kauai state land division manager to work in westside Kauai Rep. Dee Morikawa's office.

He's also snug with the Democratic Party and the government workers' union, HGEA. Oi served as Kauai island co-coordinator during Mazie Hirono's Senatorial campaign. As the Mazie for Hawaii website noted:

He was part of the HGEA PAC that interviewed and endorsed Mazie for her lieutenant governor race in 1994 and has supported her since then. Tommy is vice president of the Lihue Honwanji Mission on Kauai and is a member of Kiwanis and the HGEA Retirees Unit.

Gee. It's all so very cozy and cliquish — precisely what you'd expect in an election year.

But, um, what about the community?

Oi is up for a two-year term, with a nomination hearing on Monday before the Senate Committee on Water and Land, which is headed, inauspiciously, by Malama Solomon and Brickwood Galuteria.

Musings: Bynum Settlement Approved

After burning through $750,000 in legal fees, and facing at least another $500,000 to take the case to court, the Kauai County Council has finally agreed to settle Councilman Tim Bynum's civil rights lawsuit for $290,000.

In his September 2012 lawsuit, Bynum contended that defeated Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri and planning inspector Sheila Miyake violated his civil rights by pursuing him on a zoning violation to squelch his free speech on the Council and harm his re-election bid. The case was headed for a hearing on summary judgment when the county's insurance company negotiated a settlement. 

A federal judge supported the settlement, finding that Bynum's claims were not frivolous, unreasonable or groundless.

Councilmen Ross Kagawa and Mel Rapozo cast the only votes against the settlement. Ross said he plans to file an ethics complaint against Councilman Mason Chock, contending Mason shouldn't vote on the settlement because Bynum had supported his recent appointment to the Council.

But Ross apparently has no problem with he and Mel voting against the settlement, even though they are both staunch Shay supporters.

Mel pushed to take the case to court, saying he thought it was improper for Councilmembers to be determining a settlement for one of their colleagues, and a court hearing would launder all the dirt. “The public deserves to know the truth,” he said.

But in his withering order, U.S. District Judge J. Michael Seabright wrote: 

[P]roceeding in this action, where Plaintiff [Bynum] has been compensated and seeks dismissal with prejudice, would serve no purpose other than to feed the fire of Plaintiff’s and Carvalho’s public feud. Needless to say, such purpose does not justify the expenditure of the parties’ or the court’s resources. 

The court will not be drawn into this continuing political feud.

As both Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura and Chair Jay Furfaro noted, the Council wasn't approving a settlement, but ratifying a settlement negotiated by its insurance company. And if it went against the insurer, it could be facing a breach of contract action. It would also have to pay all future costs associated with the case, including Bynum's attorney fees and damages if he were to win.

Ross argued the Council needed to reject the settlement as a way of discouraging people from filing lawsuits against the county.

But Councilman Gary Hooser nailed it when he said, “What encourages more lawsuits is the conduct of county employees in the planning department, prosecutor's office and elsewhere.”

Right on. Look at how much Shaylene has cost the county due to her dreadful “management” practices. And Sheila was recorded on tape acknowleding that county attorneys told her it was illegal for her and another inspector to trespass onto Tim's property and take pictures through a crack in his drapes. 

Until the county cleans up its act, improves its human resources department and cleans out its dead wood — Shay's been defeated, and only insane people would return her to office — it's gonna continue to be sued, and rightly so.

Yes, Tim did have an improper rental, so he's not an entirely sympathetic victim. But problem is, a lot of other folks have illegal rentals, but only he was targeted for enforcement by his political enemies. And that's wrong.

Ross went on to say he'd had “hundreds — Really, Ross? Hundreds? — of people come up to me. Not one has told me settling this case as represented in the newspaper is a good idea."

And therein lies a big part of the problem. The Garden Island's coverage of this issue has been so horribly botched that anyone who hasn't also read this blog hasn't a clue about what's really going on. 

Sadly, the Bynum case offers yet another example of how TGI, and renegade politicos, repeatedly fail this community.

Update: Just read Darin Moriki's report in TGI and I had to say, Bravo! He's the first reporter to get it clearly, and right.

Musings: Keeping the Lights On

Making electricity is not a pretty business, but gosh, don't we love it when the lights come on and the refrigerator hums and the router connects us to the cyber superhighway? And don't be getting all smug thinking, oh, I'm clean and green, off the grid, because garans, there's ugliness in the manufacture and shipping of your batteries and PV panels.

Anyway, the folks on our little island suck down 73 megawatts of electricity at peak consumption, much of it generated by burning naptha at the Kapaia power plant and low-sulfur diesel at Port Allen. Though “we run the cleanest plants in the state,” according to KIUC spokesman Jim Kelly, there's no escaping the fiscal and political vulnerabilities — not to mention the carbon emissions — associated with using fossil fuels shipped in from Indonesia or some other far away place.

So KIUC is moving into renewable energy sources, like solar, biomass and hydro, which is how I found myself in a painted eucalyptus grove near Halfway Bridge where a major industrial project is in the works.

It's the Green Energy biomass plant, where eucalyptus and albezia trees — some of them wild, some grown in plantations — will be cut down, chipped, stored in a 10-story-tall building and then fed, via conveyor belt, into a boiler that creates steam, turns the turbine and makes electricity.

Men in hard hats, safety vests and heavy boots buzzed around the site like worker bees in a hive, as big and little trucks drove in and out. Cranes towered overhead, and heavy equipment rumbled and roared, moving piles of dirt as a stiff breeze kicked up billowing clouds of dust.

The blustery 64-acre site — five acres is being used for the plant, with the rest in eucalyptus and albezia — seems well-suited to wind generation. But we aren't going there on Kauai, because the native seabirds have already been so devastated that they can't take any more hits. And I got no problem with that.

Still, it was a little amazing to think that in the 21^st Century, we're generating power by burning wood — though this very old technology has been made super modern by the use of a German-made, state-of-the-art facility that uses “electrostatic precipitators” to filter out much of the crud. In other words, there is no belching smokestack.

Under its EPA air permit, its emissions will be significantly less than the quantities of nitrous oxide and sulfur oxide — one-fifth and one-third, respectively — produced by burning diesel at the power plants. Its particulate emissions will also be lower, and it's billed as carbon neutral, which fossil fuels decidedly are not. Green Energy conducted an Environmental Assessment and an EPA Environmental Review, with no findings of significant impact.

KIUC likes it because it uses fuel grown right here, giving us “a hedge against craziness in the world,” which often translates into wild oil price fluctuations and curtailed shipments, Kelly says. Another advantage: it's “a firm energy source,” which means it can produce 7 megawatts of power round-the-clock.

So what about price? After all, the plant is costing $90 million, with Standardkessel Baumgarte Contracting GmbH of Germany and Green Energy (Eric Knutzen and Jeff Lindner) picking up the tab, aided by a $72.9 million  federal loan guarantee. Green Energy will own and operate the plant, selling electricity to KIUC.

Though the state Public Utilities Commission allows utilities not to disclose the exact costs of their power purchase agreements — something about proprietary information and competitive bidding — Kelly says it will cost consumers less than oil, which is about 25 cents per kwh now. The Green Energy plant will replace some 3.7 million gallons of imported oil burned in Kauai power plants each year.

Mario Scharf, a super smart guy from East Germany, has traveled the world building these plants for Standardkessel Baumgarte Contracting GmbH, which developed the technology and builds the equipment. He's in charge of the getting the Green Energy facility up and running, which hasn't been an easy task.

Though it's the smallest plant they've built, it's been the most challenging, with double the costs, he says. Why? Because the Hawaiian Islands are the most remote inhabited land mass on Earth, which means everything must be shipped in, and much of it from Europe, since the U.S. doesn't make steel stuff any more.

Yes, there's a reason why electricity is so expensive here, and it has nothing to do with CEO David Bissell's salary. It's due to shipping and no economy of scale. Though hey, we could be burning coal for 5 cents per kwh if we wanted to really get regressive.

In a hellish logistical and scheduling exercise, they've brought in 300, 40-foot containers worth of stuff, much of it making a three-month slog from Hamburg to Nawiliwili. About 200 guys are employed in the construction, most of them Kauai residents.

The plant and tree farms will employ some 39 fulltime workers when it comes on line late this year. Green Energy's own guys will be cutting the wood, which will be harvested, left in the field to lose about half its moisture content, which takes a week or two, then chipped on-site. It will be contracting with two or three local haulers to bring the chipped wood into the plant, between eight and 14 truckloads per day, depending on where it's being grown. The chips will be stored in a 100-tall-building, prior to being fed into the boilers.

They have four years worth of wood secured, including Bill Cowern's Hawaiian Mahagony plantation. The company has clearing rights on 6,500 acres and long-term leases on about 2,000 acres, much of it at Kalepa, where it plans to grow eucalyptus.

It takes about four to five years for a seedling to reach cutting size — eucalyptus grows 20 feet a year. The stumps will be left to regrow, and then recut, a process that can be repeated four or five times before the tree is all pau. Ash, the one residue from the plant, will be used on the tree farms because its high nitrogen content makes it a valuable fertilizer, Scharf says.

Green Energy plans to harvest wild trees — don't freak out, we're talking trash albezia that are threatening the water sheds, and non-native eucalyptus — for the first four years while its plantations grow. It also hopes to make use of the charred, mostly-eucalyptus trees left from the Kokee fires, with a California logging company bidding to remove the downed trees from the steep slopes so they can be reforested with native trees.

The plant can use only virgin wood – no pallets or construction debris — and the sources can't be mixed, because soft trees like albezia burn faster than eucalyptus. The company is currently allowed to burn only those two types of trees, though it plans to seek an amendment to its air quality permit to use the Kokee trees and other wood sources that may become available.

“We will only burn it if it meets the emission requirements,” Scharf says. The company also has a stake in keeping its fuel clean and dry, to protect its expensive smoke stack from chloride corrosion.

Kelly and I left the hubbub of Green Energy and headed down the road, toward Koloa, where 55 acres of ag land leased from Grove Farm is being slowly covered with solar panels. It will generate about 12 mw of electricity, and is expected to start coming on line at the end of June.

The two sites were about as different as night and day, like the energy they produce. Some 54,000 American-made solar panels, each costing $500, have been shipped to Kauai for this array, which is the first utility-scale project for its contractor, Solar City.

By 2015, when all of the pending solar projects come on line, they'll be generating more electricity than KIUC can use, in the daytime, anyway, and when the sun is shining, which is why the utility is also focusing on storage.

"Storage technology is now the deal,” Kelly says, and 89 companies have responded to KIUC's recent request for proposal to build storage capacity.

By 2023, KIUC expects to generate more than 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources. It ain't be gonna be free power, or even super cheap, but it will be cheaper, cleaner and less economically and politically volatile than burning oil, Kelly says.

As we pulled out onto the road, we stopped to look at the old Koloa mill, which used to burn sugar cane bagasse to generate the electricity that powered its operations and plantation worker camps. Though derelict, it's still a cool-looking building, an enduring legacy of the sugar era and a mute monument to our ever-growing gluttonous greed for bright lights, cool air, hot water, frozen foods and electronics. 

And as I snapped this photo, I couldn't help but wonder what an observer will make of Green Energy and the solar farms, a hundred years hence.

Musings: More Nuts

It's hard to know which is more nuts — that firefighters had to rescue 121 people from Hanakapiai, or that there were 121 people in Hanakapiai on a marginal weather day in the off-season.

So does this mean we typically have 1,000 people tromping through that supposed “wilderness valley” on a sunny day in summer, carving their initials in the bamboo along the way?

We already know that some 20,000 permitted hikers go past Hanakapiai to camp in Kalalau every year, with thousands more in there illegally and an untold number taking day hikes. Is it any wonder that most locals now avoid the trail like the plague?

I was thinking of how the state spent all that money to blast rocks off the pali that might fall on visitors in Kalalau Valley. But then it allows the hordes to descend on Kee and Hanakapiai, even in crummy weather, so they have to be airlifted out — with the county picking up the tab for Air 1 rescue.

Now that's really nuts.

The Star-Advertiser linked to a video clip of Rich Greenberg, the guy who tried to cross a river he knew had risen dangerously high with his two adolescent kids and a 3-year-old on his back, only to watch the 12-year-old get swept downstream:

“It is only through an act of God and their heroic actions that our family was saved,” he said.

Yeah, and think of the risk to the rescue team, making all those trips in and out of the valley in that tiny little helicopter, just so some folks can claim “an epic adventure.” And with 20 percent more tourists expected in coming years, we can expect even people putting themselves in harm's way in our over-used and under-maintained parks.

Speaking of more nuts, Kauai Rising has launched a petition drive, trying to get a charter amendment on the ballot that will establish an administrator of public health to protect us from "the hazards of GMO agriculture, testing and toxins".

The proposal is rife with fantastical, undocumented statements that will never stand up in court, even if by a miracle it gets on the ballot and then passed by the voters. Why do folks waste time and energy on foolishness instead of engaging in actions that could actually result in positive, meaningful resolution to the myriad problems on this island?

And finally, equally nutty is the latest letter to the editor from Glenn Mickens, who refuses to believe anything bad about Auditor Ernie Pasion, despite clear evidence to the contrary. I'm not sure why TGI keeps printing his silliness. 

But if they persist, they could at least balance it out by covering the mess that is the auditor's office. Heck, I've already done all the research and reporting for them. It's really not fair to let the paper's readers labor under the impression that Glenn might be telling the truth.

Musings: Coastal Connivings

The Kauai County Council is preparing to give coastal landowners a big gift — an exemption from shoreline rules and regulations.

Bill2461, which was inexplicably passed out of Committee and goes to the full Council on Wednesday, grants a waiver to some 671 coastal properties. The so-called “bright line” exemptions encompass most of the lands still undeveloped along the coast.

Just take a gander at these maps, which show you exactly how extensive these exemptions are. They pave the way for projects like Pierre Omidyar's Hanalei Ridge and other blufftop and cliffside developments. (The link will give you higher quality graphics.)

Under the proposed new law, coastal landowners can get an exemption from shoreline rules, including possibly even shoreline certifications, so long as they are 20 feet above sea level, out of the FEMA flood zone and adjacent to a rocky shoreline.

They will be allowed to build their houses just 40 feet from the shoreline, though if no certified shoreline is required, how will we know where that setback line truly begins? Will a shoreline be required, or even a setback, for that matter, because doesn't exempt mean just that — exempt? 

 And aren't some of those rocky shorelines adjacent to areas with the highest erosion rates, and subject to hazards of their own? Hazards like wind, mud slides, big surf pounding the coast. We've all chunks of cliff fall away, and the only reason we haven't seen houses also sliding down the pali is we've had very little bluffside development. But of course, folks want to get just as close to the edge as they can, and now the Council is prepared to let them.

Not surprisingly, a number of large landowners and high end Realtors are licking their lips at the prospect of building into cliffsides and atop bluffs.

The proposed law, as amended and manipulated by Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura to please the developer crowd, does nothing to protect view planes and prevent houses from hanging on the edge of the bluff, as has occurred all along Kauapea, much to the detriment of that previously wild beach.

State law requires the county to develop regulations for governing structures, use and activities along the shoreline. But with this proposed ordinance, the county is abrogating its mandate and essentially washing its hands and saying “anything goes” along much of the remaining coastline. Is that even legal?

The new law also has deleted the regulation of “activities,” which means they're creating this big gray zone over how weddings, surf schools, vendors, etc. will be handled in the setback. The Council is saying the special management areas would still apply, but anything under $500,000 is exempt, as well as single family residences. So how meaningful is that?

The bill states as its rationale the need to give the planning director greater flexibility, though he has always had the ability to waive shoreline certifications, as we've seen happen repeatedly in the Wainiha-Haena vacation rental zone, to the benefit of landowners. But this approach is more akin to a wholesale opting out than mere flexibility.

Kauai has always prided itself as having one of the strongest shoreline bills in the state, but if it accepts these amendments, the Council will be severely weakening our bill. For years coastal preservationists have been pushing the county to move beyond the minimum 40-foot setback, but with these amendments, that will become the default setback for any parcel 20 feet above a rocky coastline.

Though this bill has been in the works for nearly three years, the Council's planning committee rushed it through, making substantial amendments in session, but never taking the time to actually read the fully amended bill that they were approving. JoAnn is determined to give developers what they want, and Ross Kagawa and Mason Chock seem befuddled by the bill's complexities, which serve to mask its inadequacies.

It's time for a time out. The Council needs to send this bill back to committee — and even the planning commission, since it has changed so much since that panel approved it — to consider more carefully the ramifications of the last-minute amendments that were made.

It seems the Council is putting its trust into Sea Grant, but those guys aren't allowed to give advice, so it's not up to them to point out the bill's flaws. Still, the maps Sea Grant prepared speak volumes.

So truly, take a look and decide. Are you OK with exempting from shoreline rules all the coastal areas marked with a bright red-pink line? If not, you'd best get your comments into the County Council ASAP, because this bill is going before them on Wednesday and Council Chair Jay Furfaro has said he doesn't want a lot of changes made at full Council.

Musings: Feasting on Fear

The feast of fear that was intentionally served up to pass Bill 2491, the pesticide/GMO regulatory bill, is now serving to feed the small frenzy of opponents to the dairy.

“I am really anxious about the impending Hawaii Dairy Farm plans,” writes Jackie Hoban in a trembling letter to the editor that begs our elected officials to “protect us” from certain “environmental disaster” — the same verbiage so frequently uttered in the 2491 fight.

Geez, Jackie, it's a fricking dairy with cows on important ag land, not a nuclear waste incinerator. And I thought, ya know, this crap is getting out of hand. It's time to expose the very deliberate fear-mongering that drove the 2491 campaign in hopes of quelling the scourge of paranoia running rampant through our community.

It began in 2012, when Hawaii SEED started working with the Pesticide Action Network (PAN) to conduct “drift tests” in hopes of finding evidence that pesticides were indeed blowing in the westwide wind.

Except it didn't work out as they'd hoped. According to the minutes of a Jan. 20, 2013 SEED Strategy Meeting “Pesticide: Break‐out Group Report Back,” which were widely circulated:

The Hawaii SEED drift monitoring project is NOT yielding the kind of info to move this work forward. This project will be closed.

In other words, they weren't finding anything damning. So they decided to shift their strategy:

Next steps:

1. Collaborate with others who are testing for pesticides in water, blood, soil, animals (die‐off like urchins) and look for allies like surf riders, dept of fish and wildlife, health department. Strategy: pressure OTHERS to do the testing

2. Door‐to‐door or public surveys:

Target native hawaiians , moms, Ag. Laborers, middle class

Goal: Tell the story of epidemic sickness in Hawaii that may be related to pesticides.

Use this as ammunition to pressure health department into addressing the effects of pesticides statewide.

Working group: Jeri [Di Pietro], Kawai [Warren], Mike [Broady], Dustin [Barca], Patty [Valentine], Lorrin [Pang], Brittany [Beers[

And voila, that's exactly what they did. They set about telling westsiders a story of “epidemic sickness” — even though no epidemic sickness has ever been documented — except they bagged the “may be related to pesticides part.” Instead, they claimed, unequivocally, that pesticides were making westsiders sick. Because it's so much easier to get folks frightened and riled up when you tell 'em something fer sure bad is happening, even if you're just making it up to advance your own political agenda.

It wasn't long before we started hearing, right on cue, the horror stories of illness, suffering and death, the unsubstantiated claims of elevated rates of birth defects, asthma, cancers, rare congenital diseases — though curiously, I've yet to find any evidence that health professionals ever reported these worrisome trends to the state Department of Health or any federal agency for further investigation.

The very public airing of these complaints in letters to the editor and on the airwaves of KKCR, which wholeheartedly embraced the propaganda campaign, coincided with Councilman Gary Hooser's introduction of Bill 2491. Yes, he was part of that January 2013 Hawaii SEED session, too.

What I find incredibly tragic is how westside residents were intentionally manipulated and used to advance a political agenda, resulting in a bill that does virtually nothing to address any of the fears that were mongered. 

Sadly, these fears may indeed be legitimate, though we'll never for sure, because the "red shirts" weren't actually seeking to quantify or resolve human and environmental health issues on our island but pass a local bill that could be used as ammunition in a national and international fight.

At the end of the Hawaii SEED minutes, the strategizers wrote:

All of this has to do [sic] in a manner that is sensitive: Some sick people are employed by the companies making people sick.

Perhaps. But it's also pretty sick to intentionally sow the seeds of fear.

Which brings us back to the dairy. Once again we're seeing a slew of Google scholars weighing in on everything from livestock density to feed and pronouncing the dairy fatally flawed, Never mind that none of them have been privy to all the studies and research that have gone into planning this project for the past six years.

In other words, they don't have the full story or all the facts, just like in Bill 2491. But that doesn't stop them from fanning the flames of fear using absolutist rhetoric that leaves no room for discussion or debate — great clouds of flies, unbearable smells, kikuyu grass that won't grow fast enough to feed the cows, kikuyu grass that will grow out of control and blanket the entire island, cows that will be eating poison, cows that will be producing poison milk, cows that will be peeing and pooping poison, floods of poison wastewater bespoiling a coastline that is “pristine” — save for its resorts and golf courses.

Get a grip, people. I know that fear is exciting, and gets the old adrenals pumping better than caffeine, or even ice, but it's toxic, especially when it's manipulated, rather than based on a real quantifiable threat.

You may not like the plan, or cows, or milk or what have you, but having a dairy in Mahaulepu Valley is most definitely not the end of the world. So please, cool the rhetoric and your jets. And meditate on a popular post-Iniki tee-shirt slogan: Kauai, no place for wimps.

Musings: Selective Audit

Kauai County Auditor Ernie Pasion failed to investigate the unauthorized use of county vehicles and fuel by top officials in the Office of Prosecutor, even though former Prosecutor Shaylene Iseri had admitted that she, former first deputy Jake Delaplane and an investigator were taking cars home — a violation of state law.

Instead, Pasion focused solely on a gas audit that targeted the mayor and a county parks worker.

In early August 2011, the auditor's office received an anonymous letter alleging that Iseri and Delaplane were “routinely using county-owned vehicles for personal use purposes, including commuting, daily errands and the like,” according to a deposition by former staff auditor Ron Rawls, who is suing the county for whistle-blower retaliation.

On Aug. 3, 2011, Pasion sent Iseri an email advising her that a fuel audit was under way, and asking her for a list of all county-owned vehicles that were being used on a take-home basis by the OPA. 

On Aug. 5, 2011, Iseri responded with a letter acknowledging that she, Delaplane and investigator John Burgess were using the agency's three vehicles on a take home basis. Iseri claimed that she and Delaplane were on “24-hour call for police matters,” and that Burgess took home a vehicle only with her prior approval.

However, a June 10, 2009 county memo with spreadsheet clearly delineated which county employees were allowed to vehicles home. No OPA workers were included on the list. Instead, take home vehicles were limited specifically to employees in KPD, the fire department, public works and civil defense. Anyone not on the list had to obtain written approval from the mayor. There is no record that Iseri ever sought or secured such approval.

Pasion apparently was fully aware of the memo, which is cited as appendix 2 in the the 2011-12 Audit of County Vehicles report posted on the auditor's website.

Meanwhile, the auditor's office had contracted with the McCorriston law firm to conduct an extended audit into Mayor Bernard Carvalho's possible inappropriate use of county fuel when the OPA vehicle use surface. In his deposition, Rawls said the situation at OPA was “quite analogous” to the mayor's fuel use and he felt it should be part of the McCorriston inquiry. “Auditor Pasion objected.”

Rawls said he ultimately managed to convince Pasion to let him share the anonymous letter, Iseri's letter and other documentation with McCorriston investigators, who “immediately recognized” that the OPA's use of vehicles and fuel should be investigated “in conjunction with the mayor's fuel use," the deposition states.

“The investigators were unequivocal in their position and cited the likelihood of serious prosecutorial problems arising from the appearance of 'selective prosecution' if different audit/investigation standards were applied to different individuals,” Rawls stated in his deposition.

“Nonetheless, in early-September 2011, Auditor Pasion contacted the McCorrison investigators and directed them to focus their efforts first on investigating the possible misuse of fuel by the mayor and secondly on a parks department employee was appeared to have misappropriated gasoline by way of county 5-gallon cans. The same month, Auditor Pasion specifically directed the investigators to not investigate the use of fuel by any other employees, including the prosecuting attorney and her first deputy,” the deposition states. 

Rawls goes on to claim:

It was clear to me that Auditor Pasion was trying to quash or postpone indefinitely any investigation into possible unauthorized use of county-purchased fuel (and a county-owned vehicle) by the Prosecuting Attorney — in violation of the scope of the audit and in violation of State and County Law.

I have also come to learn that Mr. Pasion is a close political ally of the former Prosecuting Attorney [Iseri]. On the contrary, I have observed that Auditor Pasion openly disdains and disparages Mayor Carvalho.

Though the auditor's office never did investigate Iseri and Delaplane's unauthorized use of county vehicles, I initiated a public records request to determine whether the two were using county gas in the vehicles they were taking home.

County “gasboy” records show that a total of 1,018 gallons of fuel were dispensed to the 2005 Exterra that Iseri was using, between Jan. 1, 2011 and Nov. 30, 2012, when she left office. The vehicle was driven 17,198 miles during that time.

The 2005 Toyota Prius assigned to Delaplane consumed 302 gallons of gas during the same period and was driven 13,428 miles.

The 2004 Chevy Cavalier assigned to the investigator used 26 gallons of gas and was driven 316 miles during the same 23-month period.

Though the 2011-12 Audit of County Vehicles claims that its scope included “all county vehicles,” it makes no reference to the OPA's unauthorized use of vehicles and fuel. However, it does state that using a vehicle for commute purposes is considered an employee benefit by the IRS, which requires “the fair market value of such benefits be included in an employees' wages.”

The county began cracking down on the number of employees allowed to take vehicles home as a cost-savings measure in Jan. 3, 1996. In October 1998, the Kauai Police Department implemented a take home vehicle policy that included a restriction against patronizing “establishments that may invite unfavorable comments or reflect negatively on the department (e.g., bars and nightclubs.) The policy included no provision for authorizing vehicle use by prosecutors.

In November 2002, then-Mayor Maryanne Kusuka again distributed the policy on take home use of county vehicles to all department heads. The policy clearly stated that no person, other than the mayor, could take home a county car without a written permit issued by the mayor upon the written recommendation of the Finance Director.

The policy included a reference to HRS Chapter 105, which states “penalties for violation of this policy shall include a fine of not more than $50 or imprisonment of not more than 10 days or both.” The law also includes provisions for firing any person twice guilty of violating the policy.

The statute of limitations in the OPA vehicle use has not expired.

Musings: War Zones

Catching up on the letters to the editor that I happily ignored while traveling, I see that folks are still busily bashing the proposed dairy.

And I thought, only on Kauai would people reject as poorly-planned a project that has been thousands of dollars and six years in the making, while embracing the concept of turning the long-languishing Kilauea ag park land over to Malama Kauai with absolutely no plan at all, including the most crucial aspect: how to get water.

In defending the “we don't need no stinking plan” approach to the Kilauea ag park, Adam Asquith, a Seagrant agent who grows taro, stated:

“It is the limitless analysis, details and planning that will kill a project like this,” Asquith said. “Farming is difficult enough, if you will allow us to get on this land. No extent of further planning and details will improve the success of whoever is on the land.”

Which no doubt explains his own failed business ventures....

Still, I wonder if the anti-dairy folks will take Adam's words to heart and just let the Hawaii Dairy Farm folks farm. On designated important ag lands, no less.

A friend sent me an email about the dairy:

It sounds like a beautiful concept to me, well thought-out and environmentally wonderful.  It should restore soil ruined by sugar cane and provide a source of protein for the island in case the planes and boats stop.  And pesticide-free.  And reducing runoff.  Et cetera! In fact, it sounds like a great idea. Am I missing something?

To which I replied:

Only fear, mistrust and paranoia…

To which he replied:

What a strange sociological phenomenon on this island that when anyone tries to do anything – good, bad or in between – the lunatics rise up in righteous indignation to do whatever they can to stop it?!

Indeed. Which is why I was amused to see this comment from the Lihue Business Association meeting, which was attended by folks who traveled all the way down from the north shore to say no to a dairy that is not even in their back yards:

Diann Hartman, spokeswoman for the nearby Grand Hyatt, questioned whether there were any dairy farms with such a high density of cows to acreage within two miles of the ocean and three of a thriving economic center.

No, but there are hundreds of shopping centers and resorts with a high density of sunscreen-lathered, mai tai-quaffing tourists along the shoreline, wreaking all sorts of unchecked havoc on land, water, culture, access. But shhhh, let's not mention that.

Ag, not tourism, is the bogeyman de jour.

This comment by “bionic dread” said it all:

To some of us, it's another Superferry or GMO field.

Yes. Isn't everything?

I don't know about you, but I'm tired of living in a war zone.

And don't be blaming it on the chem companies or the corporations. We created this “ground zero” victim-aggressor mentality and we can end it. Or we can keep wasting our resources and energy on endless skirmishes that never do address, much less resolve, the bigger issues that face us.