The draft Environmental Impact Statement for Hawai‘i Superferry, previously scheduled for public distribution this fall, is now scheduled for distribution in January 2009, according to Mike Formby, deputy director of the Department of Transportation’s Harbors Division. In a press release
The draft Environmental Impact Statement for Hawai‘i Superferry, previously scheduled for public distribution this fall, is now scheduled for distribution in January 2009, according to Mike Formby, deputy director of the Department of Transportation’s Harbors Division.
In a press release yesterday, the DOT said the delay should not affect the completion date of the final EIS, which is scheduled for distribution in the summer of 2009.
Studies within the draft EIS based upon the large-capacity ferry vessel’s operational plans have been affected by proposals to change those plans, the release said, and rather than evaluating each change, certain studies were suspended until the operational plan was firmed up.
Earlier this week, Hawai‘i Superferry announced that the arrival of its second catamaran, and subsequent service between O‘ahu and the Big Island, was being delayed for approximately one year due to what President and CEO Tom Fargo described as “the larger global and local economic climate.”
Formby yesterday also mentioned harbor adjustments made in reaction to the 2006 earthquake at Kawaiha‘e and recent changes to port call days and times on the O‘ahu-Maui run.
All those factors in turn affect motor vehicle traffic flows on-island and therefore impact the results of the EIS being conducted by Honolulu firm Belt Collins Hawai‘i at an estimated cost to taxpayers of $1.5 million.
“We’re trying to get as many of those variables nailed down before we put the EIS out on the street,” Formby said in a phone interview yesterday. “Let’s just take more time up front, as long as we can achieve our final date. We want to get it right the first time, then put the draft out.”
However, the project could not be suspended indefinitely because of time restrictions laid out in Act 2, and a decision to resume the studies was made earlier this month.
The controversial law passed last year in an emergency session of the state Legislature allowed the Superferry to operate while the EIS is conducted rather than await its completion, but a sunset clause automatically repeals the act 45 days, not including weekends and holidays, after the adjournment of the 2009 Legislative Session.
The DOT hopes Belt Collins will complete the final EIS in advance of that date, projected by Formby to be June 15, 2009. If the state’s Office of Economic Quality Control has not accepted the document by the time Act 2 is repealed, it could throw the project into flux.
“Nobody knows what that would mean. It’s not addressed in the act,” Formby said, noting opposition groups might argue for a court injunction. “For us, it’s a nonpossibility. We’re going to get the EIS out by then.
“As long as we have that done before the act is repealed, then we’ve fulfilled our obligation and the large-capacity ferry can continue to operate.”
To make the deadline, the DOT and Belt Collins first need to publish the draft EIS, something Formby expects to happen in the first half of January. It is then opened to public comment for 45 days, which could push the calendar toward the end of February.
Every submitted comment, along with the DOT’s written response to it, will then be included on the final document submitted to OEQC.
“All that’s involved in doing an EIS, it’s a huge undertaking, and it just takes time,” Formby said. “Belt Collins will have to respond (to the public comments) faster, and it’s more of a challenge, but I think we’ll make it.”
Multiple calls and phone messages left at Belt Collins were not returned as of press time.
