Posted on: Sunday, April 24, 2005

ISLAND VOICES

By Mike Markrich

People in government who work with environmentalists sometimes think of them as difficult people: No one disputes that they often come to the negotiating table with good intentions.

However, as they seek the moral high ground for what they believe to be correct, they can be demanding, exhausting, talkative, unreasonable, impractical, disorganized, self-centered, self-promoting and totally unrealistic.

Not unlike, as their critics are quick to point out, Democrats.

As the administration of Republican Gov. Linda Lingle moves into its third year, the environmentalists who felt marginalized in the 2002 election now present the greatest challenge to her re-election.

For those who know environmentalists who often work in one- and two-person organizations and whose greatest single investment is stationery, this might seem impossible. However, in a Hawai'i Democratic Party of career-minded professionals, aggrieved teachers and dispirited public-worker unions, they are among the few true believers willing to work long hours for what they believe to be a greater good.

Others in the party may lack a strong moral and intellectual belief system, but the environmentalists, like their predecessors in the party, the socialists and AJAs of a generation ago, have arguments to spare.

They point to the cut positions at the state Department of Land and Natural Resources and an angry editorial in the December 2004 New York Times implying that Hawai'i is "an ecological disaster area" whose governor, "Linda Lingle, has deliberately "starved" the department of desperately needed funds.

For them, the runaway weeds that can be seen smothering the native plant garden on the side of the DLNR building on Punchbowl Street are indicative of an administration that simply does not care about natural resource management. For some environmentalists, the 2006 election is not just about political parties; it's a referendum on saving Hawai'i from environmental disaster.

"People who give money to DLNR to save Hawai'i's natural resources could do just as well to throw their money into the air from airplanes," said one angry senior University of Hawai'i scientist who asked not to be named. "This is already national news. If things are not changed, Hawai'i will face a tourist boycott by national environmental groups."

As mayor of Maui, Lingle prioritized economic development before natural resources. She strongly took the position that counties, not the state government, should have the last word on land and water policies. For this reason, she has opposed the 1987 reforms that created the Commission on Water and Resource Management in order to administer the state's water code.

Although water is only one of a number of natural resources that the DLNR manages, it is significant because it was a reluctance to follow policies from the Lingle administration on water policy that led to the unprecedented recent public resignation of Yvonne Izu, a newly appointed DLNR deputy director.

Izu resigned after saying that she did not see her role as one of dismantling the commission.

To make matters still more complex, the DLNR has taken steps to reduce the budget for electronic monitors it places in streams to get information on water flow. A smaller budget means fewer monitors as well as less information. Because water allocation policy is based on stream-flow levels, hydrologists say, a reduction in the number of monitoring devices creates a larger amount of ambiguity in the amount of data recorded. It makes it harder to determine whether there are water shortages.

In an era where global warming has become a real issue, less information when it comes to water has serious long-term consequences.

"The situation reminds me of Southern California, where I grew up," said Maui resident and water activist Lucien De Naie. "There is this perennial over-optimism. People think build it and there will be water."

To give some idea of the seriousness of the situation: The main Hawaiian Islands sit over large underground bodies of fresh water, known as lenses, that float above the seawater under and around the Islands. As the fresh water on each island is pumped out of wells to provide drinking water, the level of the freshwater lens that floats on top of the seawater goes down.

Water experts monitor this process with statistics because if too much fresh water is pumped out, salt water can contaminate the entire lens, creating a massive fresh-water shortage.

Maui is an example of the water-use conflicts throughout the state that affect the DLNR. There has been a drought on Maui for the past 10 years, and over this time, the level of fresh water sitting over salt water in the main underground aquifer at Iao Valley has dropped from 18 feet to 11.4 feet.

Water-pumping rates per day on Maui have been reduced. But there are powerful economic incentives to continue pumping so that — with the exception of environmentalists — few are willing to say "no" to further building.

From the outset of her administration, Lingle has promoted the idea that decisions on natural resources and permits should be handled at the county level. This has always been popular for developers because they have greater influence at the county level.

As Rep. Hermina Morita of Kaua'i (D-14th Kapa'a, Hanalei) explains, it's a matter of money.

"The only way the counties can generate revenue is primarily property taxes, so on the county level, you're always looking at development to pay for services," says Morita.

The Lingle position on these issues, as well as on the department, is clear. She has linked the past economic difficulties of the state and the high cost of housing with the onerous burden of too much state regulation. In her public statements, she expressed the need for a balance between facilitating economic development and enforcing conservation laws that restrict growth.

To drive the point home, she appointed representatives from the real-estate industry, such as Peter Young, a former deputy Big Island manager and one-time real-estate appraiser, as DLNR chairman. Positions in the DLNR, which already was a troubled agency when Lingle took office, have been cut, making it nearly impossible in an era of shrinking government to refill them.

However, not all the fault can be attributed to the current governor. She took over a department that was just recovering from a traumatic re-organization. From its beginnings in 1903 as the territorial Department of Forestry, the department kept careful records and published annual reports. Basically, these reports were lists of things the department kept track of: the number of fires fought, the estimated number of fish caught, the number of trees planted, etc.

Not all the numbers were 100 percent accurate, but they provided guidelines for environmental management. Up through the administration of Gov. John Waihee, the DLNR was run by corporate executives like Sus Ono or Bill Paty who ran the complicated department based on a combination of political knowledge, the needs of the divisions and the numbers.

During the administration of Gov. Ben Cayetano, this system, which had gone on for 91 years, was changed. During this period, there was a new emphasis on large-scale public outreach campaigns alerting people to the dangers of problems such as invasive species.

These were well-intentioned efforts. However, there was also a de-emphasis on the old-style data reporting. From 1996 until 2002 (the last year of the Cayetano administration) the tables of data in the annual reports were discontinued, basically.

The result was that the different environmental management divisions within the department, which had been automatically sending the information in each year, stopped collecting and collating key data.

This weakened the department's ability to function. As the years went by, the task of making sense of everything became bigger.

What is needed at the DLNR is not a legislative audit but a new form of administration. The DLNR should become a semi-autonomous agency, like a board of water supply, staffed by politically independent professionals. The managers of the department should have long-term horizons and be diligent with scientific methods.

It would be easy to say that the present situation is entirely the fault of Lingle and her appointed chairman, Peter Young. However the truth is that the department has been dysfunctional for some time. There is no point in debating whose fault it is or in hoping that no one will notice.

When the light of a national newspaper like the New York Times shines on a weak state department in far-off Hawai'i, it's time to change. No one should forget that people throughout the world are emotionally committed to the preservation of Hawai'i's natural resources.

The Lingle administration would be wise not to overlook the complaints of the environmentalists.

Just because they are difficult does not necessarily mean they are wrong.

Kailua writer and researcher Mike Markrich formerly worked for the DLNR. He wrote this commentary for The Advertiser.