HONOLULU — The House Finance Committee will hear a bill today that could blow wind back into the sails of an interisland ferry system in Hawai‘i.
The legislation indirectly references the Hawai‘i Superferry, which went out of business in 2009 after legal challenges and community opposition over
environmental concerns.
House Bill 1239 would establish and fund a state ferry system for people and cargo between the Main Hawaiian Islands, although no dollar amount is given for the appropriation.
The legislation also creates a state ferry system authority, comprised of six members of the public appointed by the governor and chaired by the director of transportation or a designated representative.
The bill directs this body to “as soon as practicable” engage in communications with the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Maritime Administration regarding federal funding assistance and the “possible purchase or lease of the former high speed ferry vessel which operated in waters of the state.”
In other words, the lawmakers who support the bill apparently want the state to consider buying Hawai‘i Superferry’s 350-foot-long catamaran. The roughly $85 million jet-propelled vessel can ferry more than 800 passengers and 200 cars.
The legislation would give the ship priority access to Hawaiian waters.
Honolulu resident Reg White, who was a skipper on a Seaflite Hyrdrofoil that ran between the Islands in the late 1970s, said he agrees with the desirability of interisland ferry service but has some concerns.
“The brief experiment made by the Hawaii Superferry operation showed that the vessels as designed and constructed were not fit for dependable service to Hawaii’s open ocean waters on a year round basis,” he said in his Jan. 31 testimony.
Hundreds of protesters in August 2007 clogged Nawiliwili Harbor, preventing the “Alakai” from docking. The Superferry ran between Maui and O‘ahu through 2008, but never returned to Kaua‘i. Aside from stops due to court orders, service was suspended occassionally due to conditions at sea.
White shared other cautionary statements about the Superferry’s vessels not being “particularly fuel efficient nor oil dependent.”
“Designing vessels that are able to operate in Hawaii’s open ocean environment year round and also planning them to use alternative fuels should be a priority of this project as well as designing them to be self sufficient in so far as loading and unloading is concerned so that they do not require huge, expensive barges and tug assist to affect their service at the designated landings.”
White, who has years of experience operating ocean-going tugs from Hawai‘i, urged the state to have an experienced consulting firm work out the long-term operating and maintenance costs of this system “before we commit the taxpayers of the state to take on this annual deficit.”
The state Department of Budget and Finance opposes HB1239.
“Due to the current fiscal condition of the State, any diversion of general funds from core services should not be considered at this time,” interim Director Kalbert Young says in the Jan. 31 testimony.
Young notes that the bill includes an unspecified general fund appropriation in Fiscal Year 2012 for startup and operations, and says it is “difficult to determine” whether the state ferry system would be “financially self-sustaining.”
The state Department of Transportation supports HB1239 with reservations.
“In concept, the DOT supports a statewide ferry transportation system but only if it were done through the United States military or a private public partnership,” the DOT’s Jan. 31 testimony states. “Though the DOT would be able to assist in the development and support the ferry infrastructure and operations at its harbors. This bill seeks a Hawaii State Ferry Authority of which the DOT has no expertise or resources to operate and maintain.”
The DOT — the agency that in 2005 exempted the Superferry from an environmental assessment before it started operating in 2007 — is now under the leadership of interim Director Glenn Okimoto, appointed by Democratic Gov. Neil Abercrombie in December.
Others who have submitted testimony on the bill include the Maui and Hawai‘i farm bureaus, which are both in “strong support” of the proposed ferry system to increase food self-sufficiency in the Islands.
In March 2009, the state Supreme Court ruled a Hawai‘i law allowing the Superferry to operate without completing an environmental review first was unconstitutional. The Superferry filed for bankruptcy two months later.
Work on the environmental assessment, triggered by $40 million in state-funded harbor improvements, was subsequently abandoned.
HB1239 was introduced this session by Reps. Souki, Chang, Har, Ichiyama, Ito, McKelvey, Yamashita and Keith-Agaran.
Rep. Marcus Oshiro chairs the Finance Committee.
Online:
www.capitol.hawaii.gov
• Nathan Eagle, managing editor, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 2247) or neagle@kauaipubco.com.
