Kauai Protestors Block Ferry

August 30, 2007 | In Activism, Environment, Transit | 2 Comments

This is a continuation of “Why I Support a Ferry EIS.”

With the ferry scheduled to arrive at 6 pm last Sunday, opponents organized a press conference at Nawiliwili park at 4 pm. I arrived in time to hear a native Hawaiian blessing and short speeches by a county council member, Jo Ann Yukimura, and by our state senator, Gary Hooser. It was a small crowd of about 100 people, most of them with signs:

The park is adjacent to the seawall that extends into the harbor, providing a perfect view of the entrance to the harbor. The road that runs past the park and along the sea-wall is also the entrance (and exit) to the ferry terminal. Demonstrators were gathering at the park and then driving or walking down the jetty where they could wave signs at the ship and at the ferry terminal gate.

Update: Here is a map published by the Honolulu Advertiser showing the location of the protests in the harbor. The only problem is that it omits the key access road that runs under the park and along the jetty (colored in yellow on my correction). While this road has a gate at the turn to the jetty, it provides access for fishing and now for vehicles to the ferry terminal. This road obviously provided a perfect place for land-based protestors to wave signs at the ferry but also for surfboarders to access the water closest to the blockade.

Unfortunately, I had to leave early and I never saw the ferry on Sunday. According to the Garden Island article, the number of protestors grew to about 500, and more courageously, a dozen surfers paddled out to block the boat channel. The ferry entered the harbor, but the Coast Guard radioed for it to back off to avoid any accidents. Here’s a video from one of the protestors showing the surfers going out and the ferry backing up. Then the Coast Guard boats pick up or chase the surfers away:

The ferry docked an hour or two late (depending on the source) and then unloaded its passengers. Unfortunately, the vehicles needed to exit right next to the protestors and this led to confrontations, as shown at the end of the video above. I heard people were laying in the road, deflating tires, pounding on cars, yelling at their occupants, and arguing with police officers. Update: I also heard that drivers were advancing into the crowd of protestors. I dislike these actions from both sides because they create anger, and under the influence of the emotion, both sides become threatening and violent towards each other.

I do not support such behavior, and I hope organizers and participants in future demonstrations work to prevent it from happening again. The point was to block or further delay the passengers, which it did, but I’m certain that ferry opponents lost much support and sympathy as a result.

The next day, Monday, all of the ferry opponents felt empowered by those few surfers who managed to delay the ferry. Word was sent out again and protestors converged on the jetty around 5 pm. We heard the late news that a Maui judge had issued and injunction temporarily stopping the ferry to Maui, but not to Kauai. In any case, the ferry was on it’s way, I could see it on the horizon while driving to Lihue.

The first thing I noticed was that the police presence was much greater than the day before. The police closed the access road to prevent protestors from bring in cars, though seemed to be blocking the road themselves:

There is another access to the jetty road through the park, and I assume some protestors tried to bring a car and the police towed it away. The protestors in this picture are da big bruddahs (brothers) from the Polynesian Kingdom of Atooi, a local Hawaiian independence movement. I saw them both days at the protest, they say the laws of their government require an EIS for the ferry as well. They may also look big and tough, but they were all very friendly and peaceful when I saw them.

Despite the police and tough-looking guys, the area of the protest was calm, festive even. I went back to the car to get my sign and my daughter—it was my afternoon to baby-sit and we ended up seeing many children among the protestors. We walked to the end of the jetty where the main group was, staying with other families a short distance away from the noise.

By then it was past 5:30pm and the ferry had arrived at the harbor. However, there were even more surfers than the previous day already blocking the boat channel. The ferry was probably told not to enter, so it stayed outside the breakwater:

While the ferry was maneuvering outside the harbor, I got a good photo of the ship’s hull. I added the outline of the humpback whales roughly to scale to show how they could get hit. With a speed nearly twice that of any other ship currently operating, nobody knows if they can detect each other soon enough to get out of the way. There is also a video about the risk to whales with graphic images of whales killed by high-speed ferries elsewhere in the world.

This time, the Coast Guard was already deployed, using their big white cutter to support the little zodiacs. This view shows the whole harbor, with the breakwater on the right, the protestors in the channel, the ferry standing off, the Coast Guard cutter and zodiacs, and the Ninini point lighthouse in the distance. Behind the white cutter is the port tug boat. At first I thought the tug was waiting to bring in the ferry, but then I thought the ferry can go in on its own, so I’m not sure why the tug was out there.

Every now and then, another surfer would jump into the water from the jetty and the protestors would cheer him on. Seeing that the surfers were not moving from the channel, the Coast Guard tried to pluck them out with their zodiac boats. It was hard to tell what was going on from shore, so it’s not clear what the tactic was, whether they were just talking to the surfers, ordering them to leave, intimidating them with the boats or actually trying to pick them up somehow. Here’s a video I took, it’s 30MB:

Behind the protestors was the ferry terminal staging area, where cars wait to be loaded on the boat. It didn’t seem that full, and many of the passengers were out of their cars, watching the ferry and the protestors. I felt bad for these people, they were stuck behind the fence, waiting with no end in sight. I feel the ferry company lured them with $5 fares into their risky tactic of launching service before the court injunction. Maybe the company thought the threat of stranding passengers would give them leverage to keep operating, a sort of fait accompli.

After a while, the big white Coast Guard cutter moved over into the shipping lane, heading towards the protestors. It sort of gives the ferry an aura of a military escort, though you can see from the photo that all the guns were covered, fortunately.

On Sunday, there was a report that the Coast Guard used some sort of net to round up the surfers. I don’t know if a net was deployed again, but after a while the big cutter and the zodiacs pushed together towards the surfers, herding them mostly to one side of the channel, as shown in this 60 MB video:

While the surfers were mostly out of the channel, the Coast Guard boats were now in the way. But the surfers just stayed in the water and we couldn’t tell what was really going on. In this sort of stalemate position, a Coast Guard plane came in to land at the airport, and everyone wondered what kind of reinforcements they were bringing: negociators, divers, SWAT teams? Everybody was afraid the surfers were trapped and waiting to be plucked out of the water.

But then the tide started to turn, so to speak. While the channel was half-cleared, the tug boat motored back into the port, with big cheers by protestors who assumed it had given up on helping the ferry into the harbor.

Then some Hawaiian outrigger canoes paddled through the harbor and out into the channel, confusing everybody. At first the protestors thought they were saviors, the “big” boats coming to help. But they just paddled through and kept going out towards the light house. Then they came back and milled around, but never really stopping. Even from the news stories, it’s still not clear whether it was just paddling practice with some rubber-necking or if they really meant to join the blockade.

Whatever it was, the paddlers must have confused the Coast Guard as well because the zodiacs moved around and the surfers migrated back into the shipping channel. The cutter backed off again and the stand-off continued. I never saw any reinforcement arrive for the Coast Guard, so maybe it was just an observation plane.

When the sun was setting and I had to leave, the surfers were still occupying the channel, the zodiacs had given up harrassing them, and the ferry was still waiting outside the harbor.

Later that evening, I read online that the ferry had turned around soon thereafter and went back to Oahu without ever docking.

On Tuesday around noon, the Coast Guard announced that it had safety concerns about the situation and recommended that the ferry not sail to Kauai. Based on that assessement, Governor Lingle asked the ferry to suspend operations to Kauai. On Wednesday, the temporary injunction against the ferry using the port on Maui was extended while the hearing is delayed until the following Thursday.

For more articles about the ferry opposition see hui-r.info and IslandBreath.org.

Why I Support a Ferry EIS

August 29, 2007 | In Activism, Environment | No Comments

In two evenings of protest, demonstrators and activists on Kauai blocked the channel of Nawiliwili harbor, forcing the ferry to turn around without docking. This is the culmination of months of efforts to force the so-called Hawaii “super” ferry to perform an environmental impact statement (EIS), during which time grass-roots activism on Kauai and Maui has been steam-rolled by the state government on Oahu. As you can tell from my previous post, I am against the ferry operations as they have been implemented, and so I joined the protesters.

Here is a brief history of the issue, as I understand it.

When a certain group of mainland investors formed the idea of providing ferry service in Hawaii, they naturally went to the state government and asked for money. The ferry will bring jobs (and campaign money) if the state will provide the infrastructure, they probably said. The only obstacle is that the ferry is a threat to sea creatures and it will export Oahu’s problems (drugs, crime, overcrowding, overuse of natural resources) to the neighbor islands. The county councils on Maui, the Big Island, and Kauai passed resolutions asking the state to require and EIS. No problem, said the Republican governor, my administration can exempt the ferry from that pesky EIS, and the 80% of state-wide electors who live on Oahu will love me for giving them a weekend get-away.

So the state of Hawaii spent a minimal amount (I’m not sure of the exact number) to retrofit ferry terminals on Oahu and Kauai, but the port on Maui needed upgrades and changes, so that one cost $40 million. In the meantime, environmentalists and activists on Kauai and Maui started realizing the potential impact of the ferry. After a hard year of lobbying, their state legislators (senators and representatives) finally heard their plea and introduced bills requiring the EIS before operations could begin.

Since an EIS would be a statewide study in this case, with many, many issues, it would certainly delay the project, which would scare the investors and lose the deal. Though the neighbor island legislators were powerful, and the local activists gave testimony in record numbers (again, see my previous post), the bills were killed through procedural tactics by some key allies of the governor. In desperation, the proposed bills were modified to allow operations to begin while the EIS was being conducted, but even that was rejected.

So the ferry corporation began its public relations campaign, creating anticipation for the ferry with full-page ads in all the newspapers, but only giving lip service to the environmental concerns. Activists on Maui took their case to the courts, arguing that state laws does not allow the governor’s administration to exempt such a project from an EIS. But in the meantime, the ferry was built, shipped to the islands, and paraded around (though its first visit to Kauai was unannounced—were they expecting opposition?). Then the company delayed announcing any specific launch date, it wasn’t until August 11 that they announced online reservations for service originally planned to start today (Tuesday, August 28). In the meantime, the ferry made it’s first official visit to Kauai on August 19 for a viewing, which oddly required participants to register names and show IDs.

Last Thursday, the lawsuit on Maui was unexpectedly heard by the state Supreme Court, which unanimously ruled that the governor’s administration was wrong and that an EIS is required by state law (Honolulu Advertiser article). They sent the case back to a Maui judge who would then need to issue the ensuing injunction, ordering operations to stop until the EIS would be completed. The Maui court was scheduled to reconvene Monday to issue the ruling before the ferry began operations.

In an arrogant move, the ferry corporation announced on Friday that it would begin operations on Sunday, in defiance of the supreme court’s ruling (AP article that appeared in the Garden Island on Saturday). In order to fill the ferry on such short notice and create some buzz, they announced $5 fares until September 5 and it worked—nearly all trips to Maui and Kauai were sold out.

Word immediately got out on the coconut-wireless, through email lists and websites, that everyone wanting to oppose the arrival of the ferry without an EIS should meet at the port on Sunday. In a way, I feel that a vague malaise about the original, scheduled arrival on Tuesday was concentrated into real action to oppose the advanced (and probably illegal) arrival on Sunday. I read on the news that only a dozen people protested the arrival of the ferry on Maui, and I was determined to help increase the number on Kauai.

For more arguments and background into the ferry and its opponents, see hui-r.info and IslandBreath.org.

Stupid Ferry

January 31, 2007 | In Activism, Transit, Neighbor Islands | No Comments

One unique character of Hawaii is that each island has evolved in the motoring age without the benefit of vehicular passage between the islands. This makes each island so much more independent and unique due to the limited movement of people and goods. For example, there are very few RVs (camping-cars) blocking the roads on Kauai because residents don’t need them and nobody can bring them here easily. More importantly, while Oahu might have nearly one million residents, Kauai is not over-run with city-dwellers on weekends.

Now, the so-called “super” ferry wants to change all that, not to mention harm our fragile ocean and island eco-systems in the process. After several years of lobbying, the ferry project has been granted a license to operate by the governor’s administration, without any preliminary study about how it will impact the people or environment of Hawaii. As details about the size (350 feet / 105 m long and 11 feet/ 3.5 m draft) and high speed (35 knots / 40 mph / 65 kmh) of the ferry were made available and people realized what it really means to have a ferry, much opposition has developed on Kauai and Maui (the Big Island is spared until 2009). Concerned citizens have created the website superferryimpact.com to raise awareness about the many ways in which a ferry would negatively impact Kauai.

With service scheduled to begin in July of this year, the state legislature finally looked into the matter and drafted bills to require the studies. This is my letter in support of those laws, with some links added.

TO: Chair, Hermina Morita, Energy & Environmental Committee
  Vice-Chair, Mele Carroll, Energy & Environmental Committee

RE: In favor of HB702, requiring Environmental Impact Statement on Hawaii Superferry

ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT STATEMENT ON HAWAII SUPEREFERRY, being heard 2-1-2007, 0800, Room 312, House side, State Capitol.

Testimony:

Aloha,

The so-called “super” ferry represents such a change in how people and goods will move between the islands that no state harbor improvements should be made for the ferry before an environmental impact study (EIS) has been done.

For me, the most serious impact to consider is the danger to the whales. The ferry will travel at over 40 miles per hour, and whales are often near the surface. The newspaper today contained an article about a “speeding” cruise ship in Alaska killing a whale, and the ferry vessel will travel even faster. Imagine the effect that one whale death will have on the growing eco-tourism market in Hawaii. Even if ferry activity were limited to the summer months when the whales are in Alaska, what about green turtles, also an endangered species?

I am also worried about invasive species, both plants and animals, spreading between islands. Dealing with the coqui frog on Kaua’i has wasted thousands of hours of work and will cost the county hundreds of thousands of dollars. Weeds are choking our forests and their seeds can easily hitch a ride on vehicles. The ferry spokespeople claim vehicles will be cleaned, but an EIS will mandate how to do it thoroughly. Finally, I’ve heard callous people claim that the only solution to Kaua’i’s chicken “problem” is to import the mongoose so readily seen on other islands. How does the ferry intend to protect against such a calamity that would decimate the island’s native bird population, including the nene?

Any type of ferry is also sure to cause economic and social impacts. The fact of the matter is that neighbor islands have developed an economy and society that does not rely on vehicular travel between the islands. Given the population imbalance between the islands, the ferry will certainly affect issues such as traffic, over-crowding, and crime much more on the neighbor islands than on Oahu.

An Oahu resident might not mind sitting in Kapa’a rush hour traffic instead of that on the H-1, but local residents are sure to feel the additional surge of traffic. Even though vehicles will come and go on the ferry, there will undeniably be more passenger-miles driven on Kaua’i, and most of it will be concentrated on weekends, the only time many residents have to enjoy their parks and beaches.

Overcrowding at said parks and beaches is therefore also an issue. Neighbor island counties already have limited resources to maintain their parks and hire lifeguards. An influx of users, in addition to the crowds of tourists, will degrade the experience for everyone. I also think that Oahu’s homelessness problem will be exported to Kaua’i and Maui, creating a further burden on those counties.

The ferry website does not address how drugs and criminals will be prevented from traveling between islands. Unless an impact statement can identify solutions such as photo identification checks and video surveillance, what will keep fugitives, criminals and illegal drugs such as “ice” from spreading to the neighbor islands on the ferry? What if such measures are unconstitutional?

One last impact that I find galling is the unfairness of the advertised ferry schedules towards neighbor island residents. With late departures and overnight stop-overs, it is obvious that the schedules all favor Oahu residents and happen to inconvenience neighbor island residents. An impact study might suggest how all residents could benefit equally from the ferry.

Perhaps an economic impact study is necessary as well, in order to see if the inevitable cost of all the environmental mitigation measures is even justified. What are the benefits to private individuals and groups when compared to flying and renting a car or bus? What are be benefits to businesses given the advertised rates, and are those benefits equal for neighbor island businesses given the disadvantageous schedules? What are the potential revenues, direct or indirect, to the state that justify the outlay for the harbor improvements? What if the ferry business is not successful, can the state be reimbursed for the harbor improvements that directly benefited the ferry?

All the environmental and economic risks also need to be weighed along with the potential disruption of current island lifestyles, existing businesses, and current harbor users. That’s why I ask you to please enact this legislation to require impact studies before any harbor construction or ferry service can begin.

Mahalo.

Solar Hot Water

September 17, 2006 | In Weather, Homeowner, Activism | 1 Comment

We finally had a solar hot water system installed in July, and I’m finally getting around to writing about it.

Solar hot water is just a no-brainer in Hawaii. Electricity and propane cost 2-3 times as much as the mainland, and we probably receive 2-3 times as much solar radiation (I don’t have the exact figures) for free. New systems cost $5-7,000, and used equipment such as ours was only $3,000, but there is a 35% State income tax credit, and 30% Federal tax credit, so the system pays for itself in less than 2 years. After that it’s free hot water for 15-20 years.

We had an old 40 gallon (150 liter) gas water heater that worked, but it wasn’t vented properly, so we knew since we bought the house two years ago that we wanted to replace it with a solar system. One of the installers on the island was selling second-hand systems that he removed from an army base on Oahu (many of the units needed maintenance on one part, so they replaced them all—I won’t criticize the army this time because taxpayer loss is my gain). So we now have a 120 gallon (600 liter) tank with three panels measuring 3′x8′ (0.9x2.4 m) each, or 72 sqf. (6.7 m^2) in all.

In the first picture you can see a photovoltaic panel above the hot water panels. It generates electricity to run the pump that circulates water from the tank up to the panels. I really wanted this option because it avoids having temperature sensors and a microcontroller running an AC pump. The DC pump runs for free when there is enough sunlight and therefore heat, plus it will keep the panels from boiling over during a daytime power outage. The one problem is that I suspect the PV output current is not quite calibrated, so it circulates water too early before the panels are hotter than the water remaining in tank. Maybe I can fix that with some resistors (anyone with electrical knowledge please feel free to leave a comment with the right way of fixing it).

In the second picture, cold water arrives through the copper pipe on the right. The pump is behind, and hot water returns from the roof in the other insulated pipe. Hot water goes to the house through the thermometer and out the copper pipe on the left. The other option I wanted is a thermostatic mixing valve that you see above the thermometer. It mixes cold water with the output of the tank to keep the water from scalding. The gray conduit is the electricity for the backup heater element.

So how well does it heat water? Well, we’ve never had to turn on the electrical backup heater, but there’s only been one day without sunshine so far this summer. In July and August, the tank would heat up to 130-140F (55-60C) and cool down to about 100F (38C) after usage and heat loss by morning. Now in September, the tank is actually getting over 150F (66C) each day because the sun is closer to the angle of the roof where the panels are (the summer sun would be more intense, but it strikes at an angle from the north). That’s another nice self-regulating feature of the system that keeps it from over heating.

Powerful Message

August 25, 2006 | In Activism, Development, Tourism | No Comments

Our friend Gabriel Talyor recently had a strong and beautiful letter to the editor waiting to be published by the Garden Island newspaper. It has been circulating around the island already on various email lists.

A slender young woman placed a sprouted coconut on the table, sat down in front of the microphone, introduced herself, and greeted the commissioners in Hawaiian. It was 8 pm in the cold, harshly lit county meeting room where the planning commissioners sat listening to public testimony. Combined, the two proposed resort/condo projects would total 547 multi-family units/hotel rooms and 964 parking stalls. And they would be located on the beach in the historic Waipouli coconut grove, the heart of Kaua‘i’s traffic hell.

The dozen of us that came to testify against the proposed beachfront resorts had been sitting on hard chairs for nearly seven hours. The morning’s agenda dragged on into the afternoon, but I dared not go out for more than bathroom break, because it could suddenly shift to the public hearings and all could be lost. I was stiff and hungry and I wanted to go home. But then something changed.

The young dark-haired woman spoke in a poetic form that is difficult to capture, but essentially, in a gentle way, she told riveting stories of how our life style on Kaua‘i is being transformed by the unleashed and insensitive growth of tourism. She took us on a journey into the heart of the Hawaiian people and its assault on their traditions. And she led us down a path into the soul of the ‘aina, our beautiful island whose shores are being gambled away in a crap game, and sold out to the highest bidder. When she finished, it was apparent that the atmosphere of the sterile room had risen to a higher level.

While I experienced a feeling of deep sadness, it was not one of despair. Rather, I gained a sense of strength and renewed hope. Hope to believe that we who are concerned about our quality of life and of that of the ‘aina, can successfully communicate with not only the County Planning Commission, but with all the powers that influence growth on Kaua‘i. In addition to presenting my own testimony, I knew that I had to do something more. And it was urgent. I knew that I had to communicate with my fellow Kauaians right away.

So here I am to tell you that if you are horrified by the vision of 1,000 more cars pouring onto Kuhio Highway, if you are worried about the stress of these proposed resorts on other infrastructure: water, sewage, solid waste, and if the thought of an additional 1,200 to 1,700 tourists filling up our parks, beaches, and hiking trails, causes you to clench your teeth, you can do something now.

You can testify about this proposed project without breaking your ‘okole on a hard chair for seven hours. You can write your thoughts, concerns, exasperation and frustration to the County Planning Commission today. They will be accepting written testimony (signed with your address) about this proposed project through the mail or fax up through Monday, August 28.

To: Kaua‘i County Planning Commission
Re: Testimony -Coconut Beach Development & Coconut Plantation Holdings
Send testimony by Fax: 241-6699 or mail to: 4444 Rice Street Lihue, Hi. 96766

It’s going to take all of us to work together to stop this train wreck of overdevelopment and to support reasonable growth on our beloved island. It is not enough to just grumble to our friends. Let’s step into our power and make our voices heard where it counts.