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October 04, 2007
WEDNESDAY, Sept. 26
Forgive me for spending another week writing about Hawai`i Superferry, but watching so many state officials squirm like worms on a fishhook is just too delicious to pass up. See, today state Transportation Department Director Barry Fukunaga showed just how far the Lingle Administration has been willing to bend over to accommodate the Superferry. Testifying before Judge Joseph Cardoza on the $40 million in harbor improvements state officials conducted so the Superferry could use Hawaiian harbors, Fukunaga said Hawai"i Superferry, Inc. has not paid any of that money back, no default notices have been issued to the company and the state hasn't even billed the DOT for the work. What's more, Fukunaga said "harbor users" would ultimately have to pay for the improvements if the Superferry can't, even though no other "harbor users" plan to use the improvements. Of course, given the rumblings over in the state Legislature, it's looking more likely that the Superferry will be able to start service soon—regardless of how Judge Cardoza rules on the issue of whether the Superferry can operate while writing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). See, our good legislators are leaning heavily towards crafting a special exemption for HSF specifically allowing it to operate while they're doing the EIS. Of course, legislators are saying they don't want to do anything until after Cardoza issues his ruling—"We shouldn't intervene and try to trump the court," state Senator J. Kalani English told The Maui News. But hey—that's state politics.
THURSDAY, Sept. 27
Oh yeah, I've been waiting for this one. Greg Kaufman, president and co-founder of the Pacific Whale Foundation (PWF) and an avowed enemy of all things Superferry, found himself getting grilled on the stand today in Cardoza's courtroom. The Superferry attorneys were trying to point out that their fast ferry poses an "incremental" threat to humpback whales—far less than that posed by whale watching boats like those sent out by PWF. I mean, it wasn't that long ago (Mar. 9, 2006, to be exact) that the PWF boat Ocean Spirit hit a whale calf in South Maui waters. But hey—that's whale watching.
FRIDAY, Sept. 28
And now for some really tremendous news! August was a great month for tourists in Hawai"i, according to the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism! "Total visitor spending rose 4.2 percent to $1.2 billion in August," reported today's Honolulu Advertiser. "That's an increase of $46.3 million compared with the same month last year." Now these types of stories make for fairly interesting reads, until you start thinking about how August is always a good month because the tourist market around here is cyclical. By the same logic, September apparently really sucked business-wise for any local business dependent on tourist dollars, which is only about 99.78 percent of Maui's local companies. But hey—that's business journalism.
SATURDAY, Sept. 29
Not to be outdone on the issue of hitting whales, PWF honcho Greg Kaufman testified yesterday that while there have been 17 reported whale strikes since 2003, there haven't actually been any reported humpback whale fatalities. "In the last three years in Hawai"i, there has not been a fatal strike because it's involving slow boats moving at slow speeds," Kaufman testified, according to today's Maui News. Of course, Kaufman also pointed out, the Superferry is more than 300 feet long and travels at close to 40 knots, which is, well, pretty damn fast. "When you start looking at a vessel like Hawai"i Superferry, in its class and size, it approaches 100 percent lethality," Kaufman added. Or in other words, that translates as one strike, one kill. But hey—that's just army sniper talk.
SUNDAY, Sept. 30
Big, big story in today's Maui News about how a proposed water treatment plant that would go in behind Maui Community Correctional Center contains a small, small paragraph that explains a great deal about how government and business co-exist on Maui. See, the plant is a joint venture between the County of Maui and Alexander & Baldwin (A&B)—both would fund the plant, and, according to the paper, "share equally in the plant's planned production of 9 million gallons of water per day." But buried deep within the story is a terribly illuminating statement from county Water Director Jeff Eng on the "complications" that might stem from A&B's involvement—through its subsidiary Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar (HC&S)—in the big Na Wai Eha contested case brought by Earthjustice, Hui O Na Wai `Eha and the state Office of Hawaiian Affairs that seeks to pull back a lot of water currently used by HC&S and Wailuku Water Co. "Eng said"¦ he was assured [by A&B officials] that A&B has rights to the water and those rights would not be adversely affected," reporter Brian Perry wrote. Well, isn't that something: mighty A&B told Eng not to worry his pretty little head over the case—which involves serious issues of land use, water rights and straight up justice for the Hawaiian people—and Eng apparently walked away perfectly content. But hey—I guess that's just county government.
MONDAY, Oct. 1
Following up on his brilliance yesterday, Water Director Eng offers a bit of meteorological wisdom in today's Maui News. "I am cautiously optimistic that weather conditions will continue to improve," he says, insisting that the Central/South Maui water situation is "stable" even though residential water use isn't dropping like water officials hoped. Could it be that Eng—and his boss, Mayor Charmaine Tavares—are really nervous that the county Board of Water Supply may call for mandatory 10 percent water restrictions on Central and South Maui residents at a time when big development projects are proceeding in those very same areas? But hey—that's common sense.
TUESDAY, Oct. 2
Almost exactly four years to the day after we published our cover story "Maui or Bust: Koko the "talking' gorilla is coming to paradise" (Oct. 9, 2003), a Gorilla Foundation spokesperson said in today's Maui News that the organization still has no idea when Koko will move to that new "gorilla sanctuary" supposedly being built near Kapalua Airport. Nor would officials from Maui Land & Pineapple Co.—which donated the land for the sanctuary—even return the paper's calls for comment. But hey—that's just monkey business.
Anthony Pignataro just couldn't resist. MTW