HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0277.005 2012-2014 comments on Resolution 114-13/ Communication 277 re. Waikaku'u/Missler court decision
for Hawai'i County Council, 9:00 am Wednesday, May 15, 2013, Hilo chambers
by Cory Harden, Sierra Club, Moku Loa Group,PO Box 1137. Hilo, Hawai'i 96721
mh{r�interpac.net 808-968-8965
We won't comment on legal issues, but we do support preservation of Waikaku'u.
Waikaku'u hosts a pristine native forest probably hundreds of years old. It has huge 'ohi'a over a hundred
feet tall, so thick you can't get your arms around them. The understory has large tall kopiko trees, hapu'u
wahine and hapu'u i'i tree ferns, ala'alawainui herbs, and le le vines. Endangered palm trees were found
nearby, Native birds—apapane, amakihi, elepai'o, `i'iwi, and others—chirp almost constantly in the
treetops. Observers have seen pueo (Hawaiian owls), nesting i'o (endangered Hawaiian hawks). and
ope'ape'a (endangered Hawaiian hoary bats).
Walter Kahiwa, Jr., kupuna from MiloIF', described how water flows from the mauka forest at Waikaku'u,
through lava tubes underground, to the sea. He says people used to dive into underwater caves with ipu
(gourds) to collect the fresh water, and where the fresh water meets the sea, certain limu (sea weed)
grow and certain fish thrive.
Kupuna from the area say there are many burials.
For this place, the Planning Department approved a housing development that would chop down almost
every tree.
By accident,the Planning Director looked at information for a different area when approving the
development. There were no public hearings before the Planning Commission or County Council; no site
visit; no cultural or archaeological surveys; no inventory of natural ecosystems. Patricia and Richard
Missler, who live next door to Waikaku'u, went to the Board of Appeals, lost--went to court, won--and now
it's before you.
If most of the trees were cut, water could rush down the steep hills. preventing natural percolation into the
ground, and perhaps causing hazardous flooding on the highway below. Would the County be liable?
Waikaku'u is is zoned AG-5, so allowed activities are forestry, farming, taking of game and fish, and
agriculture with a farm dwelling—not the type of housing development proposed.
Lava is a hazard. One lava flow stopped just short of the mauka area of Waikaku'u, and others came
within a few miles, on both the north and south, within the last century. This is Lava Zone 2--"subject to
burial by lava flows of even small volume eruptions" at Kilauea and Mauna Loa. You can't get FHA
(Federal Housing Administration) mortgage insurance in Zone 2.
Walter Kahiwa,Jr., said this: "No forest, no water; no water, no limu; no limn, no little fish: no little fish, no
big fish; no fish, no culture."
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