Residents driving down Niumalu Road see a regular reminder of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Hawaii Superferry’s eventual return to Kaua‘i. Boxed between a dozen Matson shipping containers at Nawiliwili Harbor sit 10 United States Coast Guard rigid hull inflatable boats.
Residents driving down Niumalu Road see a regular reminder of the ongoing uncertainty surrounding Hawaii Superferry’s eventual return to Kaua‘i.
Boxed between a dozen Matson shipping containers at Nawiliwili Harbor sit 10 United States Coast Guard rigid hull inflatable boats.
“The number is not hard and fast. There could be many more or many less,” said Lt. John Titchen, Coast Guard spokesman in Honolulu. “We’ll evaluate and determine how we can best respond to a potential situation like we saw before when Superferry tried to dock in Nawiliwili Harbor.”
The number of security vessels stockpiled at the busy Eastside port has fluctuated since Aug. 28, the day after protesters formed a human blockade in the water that prevented Hawaii Superferry’s 350-foot “Alakai” catamaran from docking on its second passenger-paying run from O‘ahu.
The augmented Coast Guard force remains ready to carry out a new federal rule that creates a security zone in the harbor designed to protect protesters while ensuring commerce has the right to transit, Titchen said.
The zone restricts access past a demarcation line in the harbor and on the jetty road where more than 500 protesters waved signs and chanted slogans during the Alakai’s inaugural trip Aug. 26.
“We’re not stockpiling boats and weapons,” Titchen said. “We’re trying to find ways to de-escalate the situation. Most people would recognize that we’re trying to find the best and most reasonable course of action.”
Some Garden Island residents disagree.
“It’s like we’re under martial law when we have that kind of military flotilla ready to go after women and children,” Prince- ville resident Anne Thurston said. “It’s a serious threat to democracy.”
Some community members say they find it “ironic” that state officials can disregard environmental laws as Gov. Linda Lingle flaunts the consequences to breaking the security zone rule.
“I’m angry at the governor for trying to cover up her political blunders by trying to turn our local protectors against us,” Lawai resident Andy Parks said. “Kaua‘i’s police and fire departments, local Coast Guard and even judges shouldn’t be pawns in Lingle’s folly.”
The Hawai‘i Supreme Court on Aug. 23 ruled the state Transportation Department erred in its decision to exempt the Superferry from an environmental assessment.
A Maui lawsuit in its third week of testimony is expected to determine if the Alakai can operate during the environmental review — a process that could take at least eight months to complete and possibly result in the Superferry going out of business due to lack of income.
Superferry officials have indefinitely suspended service.
Among the state law consequences officials have informed the community about is a $2,000 fine and up to one year in jail for endangering the welfare of a minor at Nawiliwili Harbor.
Thurston questioned how officials could call parents neglectful when what their children are doing is “so brave” and “incredibly loving.”
“How else do we get the point across?” she said.
Thurston pointed to the hundreds of residents who have sent letters, the thousands who have signed petitions and the three Neighbor Island county councils that have produced resolutions calling on the state to conduct an environmental impact statement for the Superferry prior to its operation.
Some residents say the high speed vessel, which can ferry more than 800 passengers and 200 cars, will spread invasive species, endanger marine life, clog traffic and bring Honolulu’s urban issues to Neighbor Island shores.
Superferry officials refute these claims, saying their voluntary measures — such as boot scrubbers at ports, a whale avoidance policy and a plan to meter vehicles into the traffic flow — will mitigate negative impacts.
Titchen said the Coast Guard understands the emotions involved.
“For the U.S. Coast Guard, it’s certainly not an us against them mentality,” he said.
The Coast Guard asks residents to remember it is charged with carrying out a number of missions, Titchen said, including those based on “unpopular decisions.”
“The men and women on Nawiliwili Harbor will be the same men and women rescuing residents at sea and coming through in case of a natural disaster,” he said.
The Coast Guard boats on standby for the Superferry’s return to Kaua‘i is a “blatant misuse of public resources,” Kapa‘a resident Jimmy Trujillo said.
“Public resources shouldn’t be used to pave the way for a corporate entity to set up shop when there are so many questions and so much opposition,” he said. “The governor made a poor choice and someone needs to be accountable … because taxpayers are going to end up with the bill.”
Big Island attorney Lanny Sinkin has challenged in Honolulu federal court the new rule creating the security zone.
He said yesterday that a hearing is scheduled before Judge Helen Gillmor at 11 a.m. Friday.
His lawsuit presents four legal challenges to the Coast Guard’s adoption of the law — including the use of an expedited procedure and failure to look at the rule’s secondary impacts.
“The regulation under which the Coast Guard adopted the rule states that its purpose is to prevent sabotage, subversion and terrorism,” Sinkin said in an e-mail. “The rule adopted is being used to suppress First Amendment protected speech, guarantee profits for a private business and aid and abet lawless activity. None of these purposes are permissible uses of the regulation.”
Sinkin said the “aiding and abetting lawless activity” is the governor’s Unified Command using the security zone to ensure the Superferry continues to operate despite the Supreme Court ruling that applies Hawai‘i Revised Statutes Chapter 343 to the $40 million in state harbor improvements to accommodate the Alakai.
“That section requires an EA when environmental impacts are possible and requires the EA to be completed and accepted as a ‘condition precedent’ to the initiation of the action in question,” he said.
“Here that means that the EA must be completed before the Superferry is allowed to use the harbor improvements, i.e. Superferry is required to cease operations. The governor is just making up a new law that would allow Superferry to operate while preparing the EA.”
