• Pflueger sentencing Pflueger sentencing North Shore landowner Jimmy Pflueger yesterday received the largest environmental fine in the history of Hawai‘i. He is to pay $500,000 to a state environmental fund, plus be on probation for three years. The fine
• Pflueger sentencing
Pflueger sentencing
North Shore landowner Jimmy Pflueger yesterday received the largest environmental fine in the history of Hawai‘i. He is to pay $500,000 to a state environmental fund, plus be on probation for three years.
The fine is related to work done on Pflueger’s land at Pila‘a in February 2002.
He also faces suits over a November, 2001, incident when heavy rains drove mud towards the ocean and out to sea, covering coral reef and a white sand beach area, plus doing damage to the home of Rick and Amy Marvin.
The state is saying that no jail time was given to Pflueger because of his age, “his efforts to fix the damage his work caused, and his willingness to plead guilty,” according to a report in today’s issue of The Garden Island.
The environmental issue here shows how strict environmental laws are today in Hawai‘i, and shows that no one can now get away with unpermitted grading work, especially where there is coastal damage.
Going back 50 or 100 years, such runoff wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow in the plantation era. There are signs of such problems along the coast. At the “Glass Beach” area near Port Allen a huge mud slide created when a massive earthen dam gave way covered the coastline back in the 1930s.
Jimmy Pflueger’s life bridges these eras, and may be seen as a symbolic pictures of the change in land use and state environmental controls.
This case is making news across the state, and will serve as a warning to anyone contemplating unpermitted grading work.
While some see Pflueger’s actions in the context of the past, what happened is seen more in the context of today, and of the future.
He received a stiff fine, one that even a major land-owner would feel.
The aftermath of the situation at Pila‘a includes an exposure of a once remote part of the coast in the news, a long-term problem with a mud-covered reef, and a contentious situation between individuals who live in and around Pila‘a.
Hopefully, we are in the denouement stage of this situation, and that the wounds to the Island and to the people will be healed sooner than later.
