Time for a hearing
Sunrise Shrimp Farm in Kekaha has applied to the Hawai‘i Department of Health for a renewal of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. A NPDES permit allows for the controlled release of known pollutants.
In this case, the Surfrider Foundation feels that the requested permit allows too much pollution to enter the ocean and that these concerns should be addressed by the community at a public hearing.
Water from the shrimp farm carrying pollutants and even dead fish flows through canals to the ocean, impacting swimmers, surfers and sea life. The canals often smell terrible with rotting dead fish.
There are concerns that the dead fish bring sharks in close to the ocean recreational area; a shark attacked there during one such fish kill. While there are permit notification and cleanup requirements for fish kills, there are inadequate preventative measures.
The community of Kaua‘i cares greatly about the health of our streams and near shore waters. By in large, people are unaware of the current level of pollution the shrimp farm currently causes, much less the risk for increased impact.
The shrimp farm proposes to discharge up to 20 million gallons a day of wastes into the ditch system of the Mana plain. The apparent target canal is an estuary requiring extra, not less, protection.
The Department of Health could make effective use of community knowledge to improve the permit and best management practices. This permit needs an open public hearing like we had at the Waimea Theater years ago.
Prior to 2017, the shrimp farm was locally owned by people who promised good environmental stewardship. Ownership quietly transferred to Hendrix Genetics in The Netherlands, who promote that the pristine, “biosecure” and remote nature of Kaua‘i’s waters are key to their shrimp farming success.
We would like to learn how they plan to keep those waters pristine while at the same time continue to operate the popular shrimp farm.
Please contact Department of Health at cleanwaterbranch@doh.hawaii.gov by Friday, Nov. 18 to ask for an open public hearing on this issue.
Gordon LaBedz, Chair, Surfrider Foundation Kaua‘i
What’s up with gas prices?
Kaua‘i has always topped the other main islands of O‘ahu, Maui, and the Big Island for gas prices. Why exactly is that? What do we have that might be taken into account for our highest gas prices of the other three large islands?
The state has one refinery in operation on O‘ahu, which is the source of gasoline for all of our islands. Then it has to get to Kaua‘i by a distributor. There are at least two distributors to Kaua‘i, which appear to be Tesoro and Aloha. There might be more.
The distributors have to take into consideration the distance from the source on O‘ahu to the outer islands, of course. Other than distance, what is the reason for Kaua‘i’s prices?
For example, from O‘ahu to Kona by ship, I found a mileage of about 167. From O‘ahu to Nawiliwili, less than 100.
The lowest prices on Kaua‘i as of this writing were $4.99 and $5.37 at other stations.
The lowest gas prices on Kona were $4.62 at Costco and $4.68 for the other stations.
So Kaua‘i is about 70 miles closer to the O‘ahu refinery than Kailua Kona, but we pay about 69 cents more at regular brand stations than Kona does. And we pay 37 cents more at Lihu‘e Costco than Kona’s Costco prices. What is the rational for this?
Paulo Tambolo, Wailua Homesteads
