Posted on: Wednesday, February 23, 2005

EDITORIAL
Environmental review of ferry worthwhile

There appears to be broad agreement that a proposed interisland Superferry would be good for Hawai'i, offering a new and exciting way of moving goods, people and vehicles between islands.

But plans to build and launch the new high-speed carrier, already well under way, have run into a serious snag. A coalition of environmentalists and some businesses that see the Superferry as competition have demanded that the project undergo a complete environmental review process.

Threat to funding

Officials with Hawai'i Superferry say the process would effectively kill the project because it would be delayed for months, or even years, depending on possible litigation.

That would push things past a "drop dead" date of June 30, which in turn would threaten private and government funding.

Hawai'i Superferry CEO John Garibaldi says lenders will not wait forever for a "go, no-go" signal. They have other places to put their money and there are other customers, including the military, already waiting in the wings for the vessel now being built, he said.

Let's hope that he's wrong. If the project is as positive as it appears, it should sail through the environmental process.

That process often uncovers unanticipated or unintended consequences that should be dealt with.

Unexpected impacts

It makes little sense to launch this exciting project and then discover unexpected impacts down the road that could have been avoided by due diligence in the review process.

Garibaldi says he doesn't expect that to happen, since his company has long been aware of potential social and environmental impacts and has been working closely with state officials and others to mitigate or even eliminate such impacts from the start. These efforts range from high-tech environmental controls on board through route adjustments when it is whale season in Hawaiian waters.

These efforts suggest the ferry company is well on its way toward meeting any concerns an environmental review might turn up. And while the ferry system is different in some respects, similar businesses have been operating in the same waters for years without an EIS requirement.

While this call for environmental review is occurring relatively late in the process of this project, it should not have come as a surprise to ferry officials. There were earlier community discussions in which the issue was raised, including at the Public Utilities Commission in 2004.

Many of those asking for this review were involved in an earlier call for an environmental review on the state's Kahului Airport expansion project. The prospect of that lengthy review process helped lead the state to abandon the expansion project.

We'd hate to see that happen in this case. And we would hope that the demand for an environmental review is not a ploy by anti-growth forces and the ferry's business competitors to put a stop to the project.

At the same time, it would be troublesome to see the project go forward without adequate review.

State assurances

Superferry officials say they have been getting assurances from state officials that an environmental review would not be needed for their project. They point out that other forms of interisland commerce, such as freight shippers, the cruise industry and interisland airlines, have not faced such demands.

Still, the law says a project should be subject to an environmental assessment if it may affect the environment.

If the project is then deemed likely to have a "significant" environmental impact, then a full environmental impact statement is required.

Those requirements seem to fit the bill in this case.

Keep funding in place

We'd like to see the state (and perhaps even our congressional delegation) work to gain assurances that funding will remain in place even if additional months are devoted to an environmental assessment.

And both the Superferry company and its financial backers should not be forced with an assessment process that is dragged out endlessly through deleterious litigation.

Meanwhile, Hawai'i needs to clearly set, then universally apply, all rules for investment so that private industry knows ahead of time the process and timeline it faces. Applying conditions after the fact leads to an anti-business image.