Utility vs. 'Aina dispute has us singing the Wa'ahila Blues

By Lee Cataluna
Advertiser Staff Writer

It's the classic conflict, the struggle that has inspired countless contemporary Hawaiian songs, local plays, unsold screenplays, even an episode of "The Jeffersons" shot here in the '70s: development vs. conservation. Hotels vs. unfettered coastlines, housing developments vs. untouched valleys, power lines vs. unspoiled mountains. It makes for haunting lyrics, compelling drama and packed public hearings.

Standing amid the hot and heated crowd at Thursday night's Board of Land and Natural Resources hearing on the Wa'ahila Ridge project, you could almost hear the strains of songs like "Hawai'i 78," "Waimanalo Blues," "Ku'u Home o Kahalu'u."

Ever notice, though, that no one writes songs or stories about the need for more development? When Keola Beamer wrote "Honolulu City Lights," it wasn't a request for more transmission power. Even George Jefferson ended up siding with the conservationists. We don't like it much when the story ends with: "And then they brought in the construction crews anyway."

So it is with great anticipation and high drama that the story of Wa'ahila Ridge is unfolding. All the elements are in place: an unspoiled natural setting high above the clutter of urban Honolulu, a utility company with strong lobbying power and compelling arguments for erecting poles that would stand more than 100 feet high, and a hodge-podge collection of folks who passionately oppose the project, a group so diverse it includes the likes of Vicky Holt-Takamine, Jeremy Harris, Mike Gabbard and Henry Kapono Ka'aihue all on the same side.

The drama certainly was high at the public hearing, with HECO executives drawing comparison to California's power crisis. While the thought of blackouts is troubling, such mention seems melodramatic. There hasn't been a major blackout on O'ahu since 1983 and any mass loss of power would be much easier to cope with on an island with no temperature extremes than in a large Mainland state.

There's even costuming and choreography here, the type that happens so often at these development-vs.-environment public showdowns. The company representing development dresses up its crew of local employees in brightly colored protest T-shirts and buses them in to stand in silent solidarity among the crowd. HECO's shirts were bright yellow. It's corporate-sponsored "make big body" and there's something intimidating about it, as if protesting against the project means threatening these people's livelihood.

What is threatened is one of the few remaining places on O'ahu that doesn't bear the permanent scars of modern life. Look down at the Ala Wai ahupua'a from the airplane next time you head out of Honolulu International. The houses and streets crawl up the ridges and valleys like a rash, the utility lines look like hastily sewn stitches over the gashes of development. Wa'ahila Ridge is one of the few healthy-looking spaces of land. Wa'ahila Ridge is unspoiled.

What will come of this conflict?

Right now, it's a cliffhanger, since the Board of Land and Natural Resources isn't saying when a decision will be announced. If this were fiction, the sanctity of the mountain and the wishes of earnest preservationists would surely win out.

But this is the real world, where money talks, threats to tourism send people scurrying, and power lines get put up in pretty places all the time.

Lee Cataluna's column appears Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Her e-mail address is lcataluna@honoluluadvertiser.com.