Kapulena Hamakua EA PBR Final TMK No. 4-7-005 and 006

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KAPULENA AGRICULTURAL PARK FINAL ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT 4.0 ASSESSMENT OF THE HUMAN ENVIRONMENT, POTENTIAL IMPACTS AND MITIGATION MEASURES This chapter provides background information on the existing human environment of the proposed project area. Subject areas addressed include archaeology, historic resources, culture, noise, air quality, visual environment, population and housing, community character, and economic environment. This chapter also addresses the potential impacts of the proposed agricultural park and identifies appropriate mitigation measures to minimize the identified short - term and long -term impacts. 4.1 ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORIC RESOURCES An Archaeological Inventory Survey (AIS) of the site was conducted in 2009, to "identify and evaluate historical properties pursuant to state cultural resources management regulations" (SCS 2010). Seventeen sites comprised of 28 features were recorded during the AIS (Appendix Q. Four of the sites were rock shelters used intermittently for temporary habitation during the pre - Contact Era. One site was a disturbed multi -tier platform that might be the remains of a heiau know to have existed in Kapulena Ahupua`a. The majority of features were rock mounds, terraces, rock walls and drainage ditches associated with Historic Era sugarcane cultivation. Inventory field work included: a pedestrian survey of the entire site; plotting located sites on a project area map with Global Positioning System (GPS); individual site mapping and recording; and hand excavations. Some sites were selected for test excavation to determine site characteristics including site function, construction method, and temporal placement. Two types of hand excavation, Test Units (TU) and Stratigraphic Trenches (ST) were utilized depending on the size of features and desired percentage to be excavated, desired percentage of screening and overall goals of excavation. The archival component of the survey included database, library and report research into the history of the area as well as searches for archaeological studies of the site and immediately surrounding area. There is limited prehistoric information pertaining to the area as the site is located in what was traditionally a sparsely populated area with poor access to marine resources and population centers of Waipi`o Valley, Hilo and Waimea. The project area is not at the nexus of a trail system, as much of the cross - inland travel was conducted on trails that crossed the saddle between Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa and Hualalai. In published mo`olelo, Kapulena is named for the king shark of Hamakua. Waikoloa, a gulch that runs through the ahupua`a is named for a wind and is literally translated as, "water pulling far ". Another stream in the ahupua`a, Wai`ale`ale is literally translated as, "rippling or overflowing water ". Early historic accounts of the area include the travels of Reverends William Ellis and Asa Thurston on their way to Waipi`o in 1823. They met a small group of people at Malanahae and continued on to Kapulena where they preached to an assembly of about one hundred people. They observed that the path from Kapulena to Waipi`o was crooked and bordered on both sides by tall grass and well - cultivated "plantations ". 4 -1