1. On Aug. 4, the Honolulu-based law firm Earthjustice sent out a news release saying that they had asked the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to revoke the state Department of Agriculture’s authority to investigate and enforce violations of federal pesticide law. According to the release, how many of the department’s inspection files were still in […]
Kahoolawe watershed restoration effort nearly done as island appropriation bills move through Legislature
It looks like a two-year effort aimed at restoring the Hakioawa watershed on Kaho’olawe is nearly done. The project has involved 600 volunteers working 12,000 hours to put 20,000 native plants into the ground, according to a Feb. 26 newsletter from the Kaho’olawe Island Reserve Commission (KIRC). The funding for the project came from the state Department […]
EPA, Fish & Wildlife Service To Help Clean Up PCB Contamination At Tern Island
We’ve known for sometime that plastic garbage and refuse is wreaking havoc in the delicate ecosystem of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. But did you know birds and sealife there also have to contend with PCBs and lead from junk we buried there during and after World War II? For 37 years, the U.S. military buried highly […]
EPA, Fish & Wildlife Service To Help Clean Up PCB Contamination At Tern Island
We’ve known for sometime that plastic garbage and refuse is wreaking
Cat Apps, EPA Follies and Nude Art
CAT NANNY Facial recognition software, increasingly important to global anti-terrorism operations, is being brought to… cats. Taiwanese developer Mu-Chi Sung announced in July plans for marketing the software as part of a cat health device so that owners, especially those with multiple cats, can better monitor their cats’ eating habits. Sung first had to overcome […]
Maui Tomorrow Launches Free Smartphone App For Residents To Report Excessive Cane Smoke & Ash
Yes, yes, we all know (because Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar never misses an opportunity to remind us) that the burning of sugar cane in the fields of Central Maui from March to November every year is an old practice that has been on the island a long time and employs 800 people. That it causes […]
County of Maui Gets Sustainable Development Help From US EPA
On Feb. 7 Hawaii’s U.S. Senators Brian Schatz and Mazie Hirono, along with freshman 2nd District Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, announced that the County of Maui has won a technical assistance grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as part of the agency’s Building Blocks for Sustainable Communities program. Maui County was one of 43 […]
EPA Says Lahaina Wastewater Facility Is Clean
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published a press release after an interim evaluation of the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility and assures everyone that there is no poop in our waters. Well, at least none that’s their fault. The level of harmful bacteria is “low or non-existent, and well within the range considered safe for […]
Complaints About Sugar Cane Burns Are Flooding The County Of Maui And EPA. But Will Anything Change?
From March to November each year, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar (HC&S) burns about 400 acres of its sugarcane every week. That comes to about 70 acres a day–roughly the size of the Disneyland theme park in Anaheim, California. The burning takes place, according to the company’s website, because it is “the only economical means HC&S […]
Lipoa Point Unpreserved And Cane Smoke Causes Haze Too
LIPOA POINT UNPRESERVED! Yeah, folks, you read that right. On Thursday, Aug. 2, five members of the Maui County Council voted to approve Maui Land & Pineapple Company’s request to take about 150 acres of Lipoa Point–the heart of legendary surf and snorkeling spot Honolua Bay, and the subject of land development controversy for decades–out […]
UPDATED! Earthjustice Sues EPA to Stop Coal Plants From Harming National Parks, But What About Sugarcane Burns on Maui?
How’s this for some shocking news. According to an Aug. 6, 2012 statement sent out by Earthjustice, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data “shows that visibility is impaired ‘virtually all the time at most national parks and wilderness areas.’” Specifically, the environmental legal organization notes, “Visibility in the western United States is about 60–100 miles, or […]
You Should Worry About The Kihei Marketplace and the Large Capacity Cesspool Problem it has with the Environmental Protection Agency
Species extinction. Ocean acidification. Rising sea levels. Invasive species. Solid waste disposal. Land development. Aquifer depletion. Sugar cane burning. Energy conservation. Superfund sites. The list of environmental problems facing Hawaii (much less the rest of the planet) seems endless as it is, and I’m not even scratching the surface with the above accounting. Because when […]
Big Waste: Kihei Marketplace is having big problems with the EPA over its Large Capacity Cesspool. Here’s why you should worry
By Anthony Pignataro Species extinction. Ocean acidification. Rising sea levels. Invasive species. Solid waste disposal. Land development. Aquifer depletion. Sugar cane burning. Energy conservation. Superfund sites. The list of environmental problems facing Hawaii (much less the rest of the planet) seems endless as it is, and I’m not even scratching the surface with the above […]
Tales From Marshall Langfords Pellet Gun and the EPA Peers into Haleakala Haze
TALES FROM THE PELLET GUN It took a few days to nail down the key details, but it’s now looking like a Maui Police Officer shot and killed Marshall “Mosi” Langford, 31, of Wailuku during a May 22 confrontation involving a stolen car. According to news accounts as well as statements put out by the […]