HAWAII KAI DREDGING PROJECT

MOVING FORWARD

September 21, 2013

Aloha All,

Thank you for sharing your views with us on the Hawaii Kai dredging project. I filed the attached complaint with The Army Corps of Engineers (COE) on September 5, shortly after speaking with Farley Watanabe, Sam Lemo, COE's Legal Council and their Public Relations officer. They were flippant, brash, condescending, rude and down right disrespectful. My take from this was that they were aware of the substantial deviation the Hawaii Kai Marina Association and its contractor American Marine Corporation from the conditions of their formal permits CDUA, COE's Permit POH-2010-00280,and other permits.

The COE and the others permitted the Hawaii Kai Marina Association and their contractors to operate contrary to their permits. Note the comments by COE suggesting that, because the permittee has discontinued the dredging ,COE did not issue a work stop order. What happens if the permittee decides to start work again? What steps has COE taken to insure the public that the permittee can't and will not start up until the complaints are addressed? Will COE and other agencies exempt the permittee and coverup for the permittee or will the permittee be required to do a new Environmental Assessment. Hawaii Kai Marina Association President Robert Clark's remarks are pale in comparison to the snubbing that the COE has given the people along the Waianae Coast by not taking the time to address them formally. The Hawaii Kai community is left with a black eye and all of this could have been averted if only the authorizing agencies would have monitored the activities in a timely fashion, and communicated issues with the dredging project as they unfolded, with assurances that the negative impacts were mitigated, as well as being transparent regarding the disposal of the dredged material.

Here is my complaint to the Hawaii State Department of Land and Natural Resources: "Aloha Sam,Thank you for taking time to respond to my questions. I have attached a copy of page 6 of the CDUA OA-3584. "Upland off-site disposal via ground transportation is not expected as part of this project therefore, no traffic impact analysis report or mitigation will be required." The waiver was granted by your agency because the permittee, Hawaii Kai Marina Association represented that they would be dumping the dredged material in a location at sea. The trucking of this dredged material by SER trucking to an upland off-site is a major deviation or modification to the permit. We believe that your agency should take immediate action to halt this this practice as it violates the conditions of this permit. Please accept this letter as my formal complaint against the Hawaii Kai Marina Association and its contractors and subcontractors. I reserve the right to amend this complaint, if necessary."

Though some of the elected officials of the Waianae community inquired about the matter of dredged material being illegally dumped in their district, their inquiries could be best described as anemic and politically safe. Before the illegal dumping of the dredged materials was covered by the Carroll Cox Show, KHON News and Hawaii News Now, several mixed messages were sent to both the Waianae and Hawaii Kai communities based on complaints filed by several members of the Waianae Community.

Here is City Councilwoman Kymberly Pine's statement regarding the situation, made in August, 2013, when the community first brought it to her attention:

"DPP inspectors have conducted an investigation and are working with the lessee (Mrs. Silva) with becoming compliant with the Oahu Soil and Water Conservation District Plan, which is required for an agricultural exclusion from the City's Grading Ordinance. The inspectors will continue to do follow up inspections and enforcement. According to the lessee the soil is for farming purposes. The lessee was informed about the need to install appropriate best management practices to contain potential runoff from the work area. Please be assured that DPP will continue to monitor the situation and take the appropriate action as necessary when the investigation is completed. Mahalo for your support...".

In September, eighteen days after the H1 spill, after my complaint was filed with the COE, and after our reports that dredging permits specifically stated that only five sites around the Hawaii Kai area were to be used to dispose materials dredged from the Hawaii Kai Marina, Kymberly Pine finally acknowledged the fact that there was a problem, stating in her September newsletter that the permits "did not mention transporting the sludge to any other location." She also stated "This dredging issue has become a very serious situation, which is why I am working with state and city officials to resolve the situation as quickly as possible", making it a political issue for her benefit.

Here is District 21 State Senator Maile Shimabukuro's statement approximately 1 month from receipt of the first complaint to her office from the Waianae community, her September 2013 newsletter:

"SLUDGE DUMPING UPDATE: Senator Shimabukuro's office has received inquiries from Waianae Coast farmers asking for testing of the Hawaii Kai sludge to see if it can be used for agricultural purposes. Senator Shimabukuro plans to inquire with the city, the private hauler, the University of Hawaii, and others to see whether this is a possibility."

Shamefully, Representative Karen Awana and Joe Jordan remain speechless.

In my opinion, this casual treatment of this matter has only served to fan the flames of the racial and environmental injustice being associated with this illegal act of dumping in the Waianae community. The circumstances that lent themselves to this unfortunate act of environmental injustice lay squarely in the lap of the permitting and regulatory agencies and the politicians who let this situation get out of hand, then failed to take immediate action to rectify this offensive act by failing to issue a cease and desist order, issuing notice of violations, and issuing an order to remove the material from Waianae. Instead, the City and County of Honolulu's Department of Planning and Permitting fumbled with the idea of getting the trucking company to obtain a stockpiling permit, and the State Department of Health drug it's feet by not demanding a halt to the dumping activity while it plead and whimpered with SER Trucking Company to provide the state with a chemical analysis of the dredged material. The unprofessional and uncaring handling of this matter inflamed the situation and continued to fan the flames of racial injustice, economic injustice and possibly encouraged Robert Clark, president of the Hawaii Kai Marina Community Association, to speak and behave in the way he did. Let it be known, the injustices did not occur at the hands or hearts of the people of the Hawaii Kai Community. Once again, it occurred at the hands of our government because of their inability to properly perform their duties.

Clearly, the onus rests squarely with the permitting and regulatory agencies, and our elected officials, to be good referees and enforcers to insure that the permittee play by the rules, so to speak.

I believe that a public apology from the permitting and regulatory agencies and the elected officials including Governor Abercrombie and Mayor Caldwell to both the Waianae and Hawaii Kai communities is needed.

FYI, I have attached a couple of links to my radio show podcast where I have discussed this at length.

http://carrollcox.com/Show090813.htm

http://carrollcox.com/Show090113.htm

Thank You,

Carroll

782-6627