Federal agency’s seabird suggestion comes too late

Opponents say lawsuit only way to stop utility project.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wanted the state Public Utilities Commission and Kaua’i Electric to try to mitigate chances of seabird collisions with a power line the utility plans to erect near Isenberg Park.

But the letter making that recommendation arrived earlier this month — too late, as the commission last month approved Kaua’i Electric’s 69-kilovolt power transmission line to run from the Lihu’e Energy Service Center to an area in the Isenberg Tract subdivision.

With the commission approval of the project, the matter is now between Kaua’i Electric and the Fish and Wildlife Service to work out, said Paul Shigenaga, the commission’s administrative director.

Denny Polosky, Kaua’i Electric’s manager, said yesterday he received a letter from the commission asking KE to work with the Fish and Wildlife Service on this matter, and promptly wrote the service of the utility’s intention to lower the height on some poles and to work with the federal agency on other mitigation measures.

The proposal for the $1.5 million line and around 20 poles won unanimous approval from commission members Dennis Yamada of Kaua’i and Gregory Pai of Honolulu. The state consumer advocate did not object to the application.

But some residents and others are still certain that endangered Newell’s shearwater (Kaua’i population estimated at 65,000) and dark-rumped petrel (an estimated 2,000 on the island) seabirds will run into the poles or wires at night, causing their ultimate demise.

Pat Cockett, who in 1999 was part of an unsuccessful lawsuit to halt county permitting of the Lihu’e Energy Service Center, said the only way Kaua’i Electric will comply with the Fish and Wildlife Service’s seabird suggestion is if more legal action is initiated against the utility.

“We care about the birds, as well,” said Polosky, who described how a revised construction process will mean the birds will see fewer lines holding up the steel poles which must be ordered before the end of this year prior to an early 2002 construction timetable.

Ornithologists believe that populations of both seabird species are declining on Kaua’i, as they are elsewhere in the Pacific. The Kaua’i Seabird Project, a study commissioned by Kaua’i Electric and Electric Power Research Institute, contends that ground-based predators (cats, dogs and rats) and airborne foes such as owls are of greater danger to the seabirds than power lines.

There is also dispute among those for and against the line proposal about whether the route the line will take is perpendicular or parallel to Hanama’ulu Gulch, a known flight corridor for some of the seabirds.

If the line is perpendicular to the valley, as foes claim, there would be a greater likelihood of birds flying into the line. If it is parallel, as Kaua’i Electric claims, the likelihood of bird collisions with the line would be less.

Regardless, the utility is looking into the possibility of reconfiguring the line’s route to take advantage of natural topography to reduce the chances of bird contact with the line or poles, Polosky said.

To further reduce the chances of bird fallout, the line will have markers which will alert the birds to the line’s presence. Young birds leave the nests to go and get food from the ocean, and adult birds return to mountainous areas of the island to make nests.

The poles originally were to be between 85 feet and 110 feet tall, and will also support other telecommunications lines, according to the commission’s decision and order.

Tom Telfer, with the Kaua’i office of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources’ Division of Forestry and Wildlife, said birds traveling to and from the ocean that far from shore (the project site is roughly two miles from the nearest ocean point) normally fly much higher than the highest pole.

Bright lights, like those at Isenberg Park’s softball field, may contribute to bird fallout in the vicinity of the line, especially during October and November, when the young birds first journey to the sea to feed.

Staff Writer Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224)