Posted on: Thursday, March 10, 2005
Burdened ports raise risk that 'lights will go out'
| • | Harbor near capacity for foreign cargo |
By Mike Leidemann
Advertiser Transportation Writer
The increasing size, number and variety of ships using state harbors are creating a dangerous mix that someday could literally "turn out the lights" on one of Hawai'i's islands, maritime officials told state lawmakers yesterday.
Huge passenger, cargo and fuel ships sometimes move or sit side-by-side in the harbors, where an accident could shut a lifeline port for more than a week, causing fuel for generators to run out, the officials said.
"If we miss just one week of the fuel barges in Kahului, we're serious when we say the lights will go out," said Brad Rimell, vice chairman of the Hawaiian Ocean Safety Team, an organization of maritime users who briefed the state Senate Transportation and Government Operations Committee yesterday.
The harbors, some of which were built in the early 1900s, were designed to accommodate ships of about 5,000 tons. Today, some of the large cargo ships weigh up to 90,000 tons, and cruise ships visiting the ports carry more than 2,000 passengers.
"In the last 10 years, there's been a tremendous increase in the size and number of ships coming to Hawai'i ports, especially on the Neighbor Islands," said Tom Heberle, president of the Hawai'i Pilots Association. "When you're dealing with ships that size, the clearance and safety margins in our harbors are reduced to an absolute minimum."
Between 1992 and 2001, for example, the amount of cargo jumped 74 percent at Kawaihae on the Big Island, 56 percent in Kahului on Maui, and 29 percent in Nawiliwili on Kaua'i, according to the most recent State Data Book. During the same period, the increase was 43 percent in Honolulu.
With few options to expand existing harbors or develop new ones, state officials must find ways to offset the potential problems, the maritime officials said. Those include increased training, better harbor planning and requiring tugboats to accompany all ships entering or leaving the harbors.
The new, larger ships have vastly superior safety and navigation systems that make them easier to maneuver and operate, but they aren't foolproof, officials said.
They cited the case of the 550-foot bulk carrier Cape Flattery, which ran aground off Kalaeloa Barbers Point Harbor last month and took more than 10 days to be refloated. If the accident had occurred in port or a similarly strategic location, all shipping could have been halted for a similar length of time, they said.
"Even with all the new systems and backup, are they 100 percent safe? No, they are not," said Dale Hazlehurst, an official with Matson Lines. "The best thing we can do is now take the guidelines for using tugs and make them requirements." Matson already uses tugs as back-ups whenever its ships enter or leave a Hawai'i harbor, he added.
Committee Chairwoman Lorraine Inouye, (D-1st, Hamakua, S. Hilo), said she'll ask the state Transportation Department to look into the harbor congestion and develop new master plans to cope with it.
"It's all a problem of mixed use — too much mixed use," she said. "We've got to start doing better long-term planning instead of dealing with everything piecemeal."
Reach Mike Leidemann at 525-5460 or mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.
