LIHUE — Seabirds and power lines don’t mix and for years Kauai Island Utility Cooperative has been working on how to keep electricity flowing in ways that don’t impact the birds.
Their short-term habitat conservation plan (HCP) helps direct those efforts, and Thursday KIUC applied to renew its incidental take permit, which is part of maintaining the short-term HCP.
The public has until July 15 to weigh in on the permit and KIUC’s conservation measures.
“For years, KIUC has worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Hawaii Department of Land &Natural Resources to address complex issues concerning the potential impact of utility structures and lights on Kauai’s protected and endangered seabirds,” said Beth Tokioka, spokeswoman for KIUC.
Three bird species are covered in the HCP: the endangered Hawaiian petrel, endangered band-rumped storm-petrel and threatened Newell’s shearwater.
According to Tokioka, over the years, KIUC has taken steps like shielding streetlights, shielding facility lighting, undergrounding and altering power lines, and funding habitat improvement projects and the Save Our Shearwaters program.
“To date, we have spent more than $26 million on this effort, working with consultants, community groups, wildlife agencies, and government regulators on bird issues,” Tokioka said.
KIUC’s effort to save the birds sparked from a 2010 lawsuit brought against KIUC by the law firm Earthjustice on behalf of four groups: Hui Ho’omalu I Ka Aina, Conservation Council for Hawaii, Center for Biological Diversity and American Bird Conservancy.
The litigation cited violations of the Endangered Species Act.
Makaala Kaaumoana, of Hanalei, was part of Hui Ho’omalu I Ka Aina and has been working to save the endangered seabirds from power line collisions on Kauai since 2002, when KIUC took over the electricity grid.
“We now know that KIUC’s power lines are killing and injuring over 1,000 imperiled seabirds each year,” she said. “While KIUC is finally doing something, largely in response to litigation in 2010, its efforts are not commensurate with the level of harm it is causing.”
Other KIUC efforts include funding predator management in the upper Limahuli Valley and Hono O Na Pali Natural Area Reserve, updating population estimates and funding auditory surveys to locate breeding colonies, funding tracking studies for fledglings, and conducting research to further conservation.
KIUC has also reconfigured or undergrounded 25 percent of high collision-risk power lines — including lines on Mount Kahili, but conservationists like Kaaumoana say there’s more to be done.
“It should start with undergrounding all identified high collision-risk power lines,” Kaaumoana said.
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Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or jelse@thegardenisland.com.
