LIHU‘E — The state Legislature has approved a bill authorizing the administration to issue up to $1.3 million in bonds to Sunrise Capital’s shrimp farm in Kekaha to protect its hatchery against shoreline erosion. “The loss of the facility would
LIHU‘E — The state Legislature has approved a bill authorizing the administration to issue up to $1.3 million in bonds to Sunrise Capital’s shrimp farm in Kekaha to protect its hatchery against shoreline erosion.
“The loss of the facility would have a significant impact on our community, particularly as Sunrise Capital is considering expanding operations to develop other possible ocean food resources,” Rep. Dee Morikawa, D-16th District, said in a news release.
Besides shrimp, the company is trying to raise fish and shell fish, she said.
“That’s what we’re supposed to be trying to do to make Kaua‘i more sustainable,” Morikawa said. “I think that’s a really good initiative. I think it’s worth supporting.”
Morikawa said the bill does not give the company outright money.
“It’s a loan, it’s not free money, but it’s like a low-interest (loan),” she said.
Morikawa, who represents Ni‘ihau and Kaua‘i’s Westside, introduced House Bill 1388 in January.
According to the bill, “The Department of Budget and Finance, with the approval of the governor, is authorized to issue special purpose revenue bonds in a total amount not to exceed $1.3 million in one or more series, for the purpose of assisting Sunrise Capital Inc., a Hawai‘i corporation, in the planning, design, and construction of a two-phase project that will protect its shrimp hatchery facility.”
The first phase will include protection of the packing facility, and the second phase will move the packing facility and its salt water well further inland, away from shoreline erosion.
“The shrimp hatchery is the second-largest supplier of pathogen-free shrimp breeding stock in the state,” Morikawa said. “It is an important economic contributor and employer in West Kaua‘i, and has a worldwide reputation for producing disease-free shrimp.”
The Big Island has an abalone and an algae farm, which Morikawa said are “real good stuff that we should be putting money into.”
Currently, the state Department of Health has no inspectors on Kaua‘i to inspect and approve shellfish production, but they’re trying to beef up their staff, according to Morikawa. She said that in the last two years, legislators have been trying to provide more resources to DOH.
Besides passing floor readings at the Senate and at the House without opposition, the bill received support from Morikawa and Rep. Jimmy Tokioka, D-15th District, on Feb. 21 at the House Finance Committee, and from Senate Vice President Ron Kouchi on March 12 at the Senate Agriculture Committee, and on March 22 at the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
Approval from the Legislature is not a guarantee that the Sunrise Capital will have the bonds available, according to Morikawa.
She said the funding for all projects, bonds and grants passed by the Legislature have to be approved by Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
“I’m not sure when he’s going to do, or if he will do it, we’re just giving him the leeway to fund things,” Morikawa said.
Many projects approved by legislators, she said, take a while to have their funding released by the governor, such as the funding for the Filipino Cultural Center, which was approved two years ago and just recently released.
$250K settlement
The Kekaha shrimp farm first opened in 1999, under Ceatech ownership, and went bankrupt in 2006, after an outbreak of the white spot shrimp virus, which is harmless to humans but lethal to crustaceans.
Sunrise Capital then bought the farm, but shut down operations in 2008 due to another WSSV outbreak.
Integrated Aquaculture bought the shares of Sunrise Capital in early 2009, and the company went after the county to pay for mitigating actions against WSSV contamination.
Company officials claimed seabirds ate contaminated imported frozen shrimp that had been discarded raw at the nearby Kekaha Landfill after a power failure. The birds then flew to the shrimp ponds and contaminated the shrimp there.
But since the virus does not survive a trip through the birds’ intestines, company officials said it wasn’t the birds’ feces that transmitted the virus, but their vomit.
The company sued the county, and settled on billing the administration up to $250,000 to pay for netting to protect the ponds against seabirds.
Kaua‘i County Councilman Tim Bynum said in March 2011 that he attended four executive sessions regarding the lawsuit, and none of the council members were happy about it. He said council members wanted to contest the lawsuit rather than settling, but Sunrise Capital held them against a timeline to expand Kekaha Landfill.
In 2009, the county was seeking an expansion for the landfill, and if the case had gone forward, it would have delayed the expansion, Bynum said two years ago.
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0452 or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.
