2024-01-03 (2) Email Claudia Rohr Testimony PD Report on SMA Minor Permits

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4. Written Description of the anticipated impacts of the proposed development on valued Cultural, Historical, or Natural Resources on the property. a. The identity and scope of valued cultural, historical, or natural resources in the area, including the extent to which traditional and customary native Hawaiian rights are exercised in the area... Subject parcel 2-7-004-118 was the former site of the Onomea Sugar Company's Papaikou Mill Complex. This site shares both Cultural and Historical values with many members of the community who may have worked in the factory or the sugarcane fields. The Mill has been raised except for a portion of the Boiling House. Other features such as the Cane Pit and transportation flumes are a fractional relic of what they used to be. The site, more so, embodies memories of what once was rather than visual standing edifices of concrete and metal,those are all gone, hauled away to metal recycling centers or landfills. Natural Resources on the parcel and nearby areas are the Kapue River, Papaikou Mill Beach, the Surf Break, and the resources gathered from the sea. Traditional and customary native Hawaiian rights exercised in the area... The only areas where traditional native rights are currently exercised is the access to the Kapue River and the ocean at Papaikou Mill Beach. It should be reiterated that these traditional rights are more a recent right rather than that of ancient and traditional use specific to this particular parcel of land. Certainly, fishing in the ocean, collecting opihi and limu (seaweed)from the shores, and surfing on the waves is a traditional and customary native Hawaiian right exercised in like areas of the island, but at Papaikou Mill site this ancient right of access was completely obliterated after the sugarcane processing operations started in the 1860's. The rights of native Hawaiians as well as others who wished to access these resources were blocked and denied for over 109 or more years of active sugarcane milling operations. In 1976 the Papaikou Mill was shut down for good. The site was fenced off and trespassers were ejected if they entered the property. Over time the use of the ocean for fishing and occasional surf riding was occurring by local members of the nearby community. Access was very poor and dangerous. In 1995 the parcel was sold to James Waugh and Charlene Prickett. The dangerous trespass through the Mill site to the beach was discouraged and was eventually replaced by a newly built switch back trail to the mauka (west) side of the dilapidated mill site. Access to the beach, surf break and fishing activities were vastly improved, and the numbers of users extended beyond that of the local community to that of the extended communities from Pepeekeo to the north and Hilo town to the South. So,what once may have been a native tradition in 1860 or earlier has once again been restored to active use starting in the mid 1990's through to and including today.