HECO's power line plan for Manoa hits snag
By Karen Blakeman
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawaiian Electric Company should not be allowed to string a line of 75- to 100-foot steel poles and high-voltage power lines on Wa'ahila Ridge above Manoa Valley, a hearings officer for the the Board of Land and Natural Resources said.
Retired Maui Circuit Judge E. John McConnell, appointed by the board to assess the issues in the HECO plan to install the lines, released a 71-page document detailing his findings and recommending that the board deny HECO's request to build on the ridge.
The board must vote on the recommendation.
The document was mailed to lawyers in the case Friday. HECO spokesman Chuck Freedman said yesterday afternoon that HECO officials had not yet seen the document and would not comment on McConnell's findings until they had read it.
Two of the three community groups that challenged HECO's plans for the Kamoku-Pukele transmission lines got their copies of the document in the morning mail yesterday, and had issued press releases by early afternoon.
"We're delighted," said Mary Steiner, chief executive officer of Outdoor Circle. "But we're not necessarily surprised. We knew from the start that this (electric company) project was ill conceived, and we thought the hearings officer would see it our way."
Outdoor Circle, Life of the Land and Malama O Manoa opposed HECO's attempts to obtain a conservation district permit.
"His findings confirm what we have been saying all along," said Helen Nakano of Malama O Manoa. "This project just isn't necessary and should not be built."
HECO wanted 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 install a series of steel poles, 100 feet tall, along Wa'ahila Ridge.
During hearings late last year, HECO officials said the work was needed to ensure service to 54 percent of their customers and to prevent major power failures such as the one in the mid-1980s that left most of O'ahu in darkness.
The environmental and historic preservation groups argued that the construction would be an unsightly intrusion upon the conservation district and would detract from its use by Native Hawaiians as a cultural and spiritual site.
McConnell wrote in his findings that HECO had "substantially overstated" the public's need for the new power lines. Improvements made to the electrical system in recent decades make a repeat of the 1987 Super Bowl Sunday Blackout — cited by HECO as a justification for the Wa'ahila Ridge construction — unlikely, the retired judge wrote.
Even if the necessity had existed, other recourses, such as underground lines, existed, McConnell wrote. Although burying the lines would be 28 percent more expensive than putting the towers on the ridge, that expense would be justified considering the adverse effect the towers would have on the area.
McConnell said the poles would detract from views of the ridge enjoyed by several surrounding communities and by people using Wa'ahila Ridge State Recreation Area, and would have an adverse effect on the environment.
He also said the spiritual aspects of Native Hawaiian cultural events on Wa'ahila Ridge, such as gathering plants for hula, lei and medicines, would be diminished.
McConnell also wrote that disturbing the profile of "Kauhi the Sleeping Giant," which legend says is outlined on Wa'ahila Ridge, would be a cultural, historical and visual loss to Hawai'i.
According to Hawaiian legend, as recounted to McConnell during the hearings, Kauhi, fiance to the beautiful goddess of Manoa, Kahalaopuna, was punished by Kahalaopuna's family for his jealous and violent behavior toward her.
They encased him in stone, lying on his back with his hands folded on his chest, his head in the mountains and his feet in Kanewai Field. Lying upon Wa'ahila Ridge, he gazes skyward throughout eternity toward the unobtainable rainbow: the beautiful Kahalaopuna.
CORRECTION: Hawaiian Electric Co. is proposing to replace 20 wood poies on Wa‘ahila Ridge with 20 taller steel poles. The replacement poles would be 75 to 100 feet high. An earlier version of this story was incorrect because of a reporter’s error.
