HECO plan gets final hearing
By James Gonser
Advertiser Urban Honolulu Writer
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources will hear final arguments Thursday from all parties involved in Hawaiian Electric Co.'s conservation district use application for its proposed $31 million power-line expansion on Wa'ahila Ridge.
WHAT: The land board will hear final arguments on HECO's conservation district use application for its proposed $31 million power line expansion along Wa'ahila Ridge. WHEN: 4 p.m. Thursday. WHERE: State Capitol auditorium.
HECO and three project opponents — Life of the Land, Malama O Manoa and the Outdoor Circle — will each be given about 30 minutes to present arguments, according to Deborah Ward, state Department of Land and Natural Resources spokeswoman.
Contested case
The hearing is open to the public, but no testimony by private individuals will be allowed, Ward said.
"This is not a public hearing, it is a quasi-judicial procedure," Ward said. "Only the parties that were granted standing in the contested-case hearing will be allowed to present arguments."
Ward said the land board has heard oral arguments from the public and everyone involved and it has received written findings from its own hearing officer and all other parties.
"After this meeting concludes, the next step is private deliberations by the board, and then they will write a final decision and order," Ward said.
All parties will get a copy of the decision by the July 15 deadline, she said.
Retired Maui Circuit Judge E. John McConnell, appointed by the board to assess the issues last fall, released a
71-page document in February detailing his findings and recommending that the board deny HECO's request to build on the ridge.
HECO wants to install a 138,000-volt transmission line to link the Pukele substation at the back of Palolo Valley to the Kamoku substation at Date and Kamoku streets, 3.8 miles away.
The $31 million project would replace 20 40-foot wooden poles between Dole Street and the Pukele substation with steel poles as tall as 110 feet.
HECO officials said the work is needed to ensure service to 54 percent of its customers and to prevent major power failures such as one in the mid-1980s that left most of O'ahu in darkness.
Environmental and historic preservation groups argued that the project is not needed and that the construction would be an unsightly intrusion upon the conservation district and detract from its use by Native Hawaiians as a cultural and spiritual site.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2431.
