Ka`u Calendar News Briefs Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2016

      In his book, Stokes described the heiau as “a series of enclosures with walls sometimes broadened into platforms. The ground declines to the southeast, but the earth floors of the enclosure have been approximately leveled as though by cutting and filling. The large enclosure on the southeast is said to have been for the chiefs and kahuna, the stone pavement shown being the kuahu. Outside and adjoining the wall of this enclosure on the west is a platform one foot high. To the north of the latter is another platform 4.5 feet high, an extension of the walls. This last is said to have been the hale o Papa. The second largest enclosure is said to have been for the hale hula. There was no information regarding the smallest enclosure.”
      Pele Hanoa, long involved in historic, cultural and land preservation efforts in Ka`u, also informed Olson Trust about the general location of the heiau, and several crews tried unsuccessfully to find it. It was cattleman Al Galimba who bumped into a heiau rock wall as he was clearing land for pastures and paddocks. He contacted Cross, and they identified the heiau, buried deep in a tangle of Christmasberry, cat’s claw and a large monkeypod tree makai of Ka`alaiki Road between Pahala and Na`alehu. Galimba withdrew cattle from the area and helped clear brush away from the heiau, followed by an Olson Trust team using small equipment to clear and protect it, fencing off about 1.5 acres around the site.
      Olson Trust established an agreement with the Edith Kanaka`ole Foundation to steward the heiau.
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One of 26 lots proposed for a commercial solar project. Photo by Sandra Sheldon

A BILL RESTRICTING SOLAR ENERGY facilities in residential housing areas of agricultural districts will be heard Thursday. Hawai`i House Committee on Energy & Environmental Protection meets at 8 a.m.

      Rep. Richard Creagan introduced the bill, and it passed first reading last Wednesday. It would limit solar production to 25 kilowatts per facility. Creagan’s bill is in response to a proposal to build commercial solar facilities containing 30,000 panels on 26 lots in the Ocean View Ranchos neighborhood.
      Testimony must be received by tomorrow at 8 a.m. to be included in the hearing. Testify on HB2636 at capitol.hawaii.gov.

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LEGISLATIVE PRIORITIES FOR KA`U’S STATE Rep. Richard Creagan include allowing cesspools in appropriate areas and capital improvement projects at schools. Creagan said he considers proposed Health Department rule changes that would ban cesspools to be “eco-zealotry, or EZ. They are proposing EZ solutions to complex problems,” he said. “It is clear to me that they do not understand the science of how and why cesspools have for the most part been a very successful and cost-effective waste management tool for a very rural environment on the Big Island and on Maui, where there is no opportunity for sewers, and there is a compelling need for low-cost housing solutions.”

Rep. Richard Creagan will ask Gov. Ige not to sign proposed cesspool rules.

      He said he agrees with DOH’s proposal to convert cesspools in critical zones near shorelines, as long as the department defines those zones in a scientifically supportable way.

      Creagan also questions DOH’s claim that the federal Environmental Protection Agency mandated conversions. “The EPA does not have jurisdiction over individual waste management systems, so the claim that the EPA was mandating these conversions was a lie,” he said. “According to Rep. Angus McKelvey, they admitted to him that this statement was not true, and they have not repeated it to me.”
      Creagan said he will ask Gov. David Ige not to sign the rules and to spend at least a year or two evaluating appropriate waste management strategies for the Hawai`i Island and Maui. “With our current homeless crisis, the need for affordable housing is paramount, and with a septic system costing 10 times what a cesspool would, we need to evaluate the cost-benefit and risk-benefit balance in areas away from the coast and at higher elevations,” he said.
      Creagan’s capitol improvement requests include facility needs at schools. He supports funding at Na`alehu School for pathway covers, considering the project to be a health and safety issue.

DBEDT Director Luis P. Salaveria

Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park will monitor and control fountain grass in the area of the Great Crack. Photo from NASA