Kaʻū News Briefs, Monday, August 26, 2019

     Economic development, land use, and natural resource were some of the topics on storyboards with planners on hand to take all comments.  Here are some of the public offerings of ideas and concerns about Natural Resources:
     Kaʻū District needs to be protected. Need to manage water resources - how are they deciding on who gets access to water? Improve water systems. County needs to ensure that existing (state) water lessees continue to receive water once their leases expire - or renegotiate the leases. Make sure water need projection matches capacity of sources.

Rep. Richard Creagan meets with County Planning Department staff  during Sunday's SpeakOut. Photo by Julia Neal

     Protect the Kaʻū District shoreline. Plan for long-term maintenance of beaches.
     Create policies to eliminate use of fossil fuels by encouraging solar power and wind power. Create more large scale renewable energy projects - wind and solar. Require solar power in new construction. Add level two or three charging stations for electric vehicles. Look into creating fuel by converting plastic waste into gasoline.

     Make sure it is affordable to retrofit homes to be more energy efficient. Look into grants to help out. Make sure laws allow for creativity in sustainable design.

     Deal with abandoned vehicle problem and manmade pollutants. Better recycling.

     Improve public transportation.
     Protect more wahi pana, all heiau, and the ponds at Punaluʻu. Protect more local sacred sites, with consultation of local families connected to them. Make list of all sites, enforce protection.
     Restore native forest in such places as Kapāpala Ranch.
     Design restoration initiatives to bypass and reduce red tape. Employ the youth Civilian Conservation Corps for projects here.

Taking down community input to the draft Hawaiʻi  County General Plan. Photo by Julia Neal

     Be thorough and aggressive with invasive species, which could limit agriculture production, bring in disease, and affect tourism - such as the Rhino beetle killing palm trees.
     Make sure tourism pays its fair share for cumulative impacts.
     Encourage agencies to coordinate to lessen overlap and counterproductive inefficiency. Solving problems of protecting natural resources at South Point were given as an example.
     Provide funding for preservation of historic buildings, such as those at Kapāpala Ranch. Support the construction or hardening of buildings damaged, shaken by Kīlauea eruption earthquakes, with funding.
     Enforce Endangered Species Act for "our few remaining Hawaiian hoary bats - homely but cute." Build more bat studios.

     Read more of the Kaʻū public recommendations in upcoming Kaʻū News Briefs. See the Draft Hawaiʻi County General Plan at hiplanningdept.com/general-plan/general-plan-comprehensive-review. Additional comments are being accepted.

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. See our online calendars and our latest print edition at kaucalendar.com.

THE STATUS OF MOUNTAIN HOUSE WATER SYSTEM was addressed at the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands meeting last Thursday night at Pāhala Community Center. Representing Kuahiwi Ranch, Guy Galimba shared some facts about the overflow water system that supplies ranches and farms. Ranchers in the area are seeking long-term water leases from the state Hawaiian Homes, a beneficiary of 30 percent of the lease income.
     The system operates as a non-potable source for agricultural water and stems from overflow of a County of Hawaiʻi waterline which supplies Nāʻālehu, Waiʻōhinu, Discovery Harbor, and Kalae. Regulated by the County and Department of Water Systems, Mountain House once provided non-potable water to the Honuʻapo park area. The overflow system now supplies Kuahiwi and other ranches through a short-term revocable permit. "Sometimes our supply is nothing, and other times we have plenty, up to 3 million gallons per month," said Galimba. Because of the variability in Kaʻū rainfall, water availability is sometimes scarce and unpredictable.

Ranchers depend on state owned water from the Mountain House system for their cattle. Photo from Kuahiwi Ranch

     Each user of the system is largely responsible for its own waterlines, storage, and backup systems for drought periods. With the system in use since the 1970s, ranchers inherited its management in the 1990s, with the closure of the sugar plantation. Ranchers and farmers have used the water under the state's short-term revocable permits since the early 2000s. Like many other entities throughout Kaʻū, Kuahiwi has applied for a long-term water license as part of the Mountain House Agricultural Water Cooperative, which includes: Kuahiwi Ranch, MJ Andrade Ranch, Johansen Ranch, and Aikane coffee farm and ranch.

     See more on water in upcoming Kaʻū News Briefs.

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. See our online calendars and our latest print edition at kaucalendar.com.

PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE TULSI GABBARD is returning to the campaign trail after deployment to Indonesia. The congresswoman, who represents Kaʻū, needs two more qualifying polls to take the stage in the third debate for Democratic candidates for president on Thursday, Sept. 12.
     So far, with the release of the Monmouth University poll today, ten candidates qualify. The deadline, for Gabbard and the other candidates to qualify in more polls, arrives this Wednesday, Aug. 28.

Presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard, who has been deployed to Indonesia, comes back to the deadline to show at least 2 percent support in two more polls. Photo from Facebook

     The ten qualified for the Democratic National Committee debate by drawing at least 2 percent support in at least four DNC sanctioned polls over the last two months and receiving donations from at least 130,000 donors from at least 20 states. They are: Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden, with 14 polls qualifying them; Cory Booker with 11; Beto O'Rourke with nine; Amy Kllobuchar with six; and Julián Castro and Andrew Yang with five. Just off the stage, so far, is Tom Steyer, with three; Gabbard with two; and Marianne Williamson and Kirsten Gillibrand with one. Those candidates with no qualifying polls are Michael Bennet, Steve Bullock, Bill de Blasio, John Delaney, Tim Ryan, and Joe Sestack.
     ABC News and Univision, which will host the debate, announced that should ten candidates qualify, they will broadcast a one-night debate. If more qualify, the debates will be held over two nights, with a random drawing this Thursday to determine the lineup.
     FiveThirtyEight reported today that some candidates, "like Gabbard, are displeased with the qualification rules. Gabbard's campaign has claimed that she's received at least 2 percent support in more than 20 polls released since the second debate, but only two of those surveys are from pollsters sanctioned by the DNC. Among her campaign's complaints are that the DNC's rules about which polls will be counted aren't very consistent: Some highly-rated polling organizations were left off the DNC's list, and some surveys were excluded despite being sponsored by notable media organizations. For example, state-level polls conducted by online pollster YouGov on behalf of CBS News have been counted — which is approved by the DNC — while national YouGov polls sponsored by The Economist have not."