If there's one point of agreement among those who know Hawai'i's environmental review statute, it's that a lot of people disagree on what it means. That much was evident after the years of roiling over the Superferry.

The law requires no environmental assessment for this project, said the lower court. Yes, it does, the state Supreme Court retorted.

Other high court rulings have generated considerable worry among developers, too. The most recent — the Koa Ridge decision in 2006 — confirmed the court's earlier finding that projects that merely touch a state road right-of-way technically use state lands and thus, under the environmental review law, require an environmental assessment.

The problem here is that many smaller projects also touch rights-of-way; their developers, hesitant to fall into any legal briar patches, are hoping for clear passage.

That's the impetus behind a request from the Chamber of Commerce, which is seeking a temporary exemption for projects that trigger an environmental review because of a right-of-way.

While the chamber makes a persuasive argument that the intent of the law wasn't to hamstring small projects for such a marginal reason, an exemption may produce more confusion over which projects would qualify for that escape hatch.

And in that confusion lies the danger of more legal fights, as well as some projects skating by without a needed review.

The purpose of an environmental assessment is to disclose potential impacts from a proposed development or activity so that the public is alerted to them and government can move to soften the blow.

Otherwise, some environmental impacts — including the possible destruction of archaeological sites and other cultural resources — would never come to light. Once the bulldozer hits, a historic site can never be recovered.

Many lawmakers have long been aware of the problem; the Legislature already has passed a bill seeking an expert review. The funds for that study lapsed and are on the majority agenda to be renewed this year.

The trouble with short-term solutions is they take the pressure off our leaders to get the problem fixed, permanently.

Small projects should be exempted from an environmental assessment, but the best way to accomplish that is through a comprehensive revision of the environmental review law, making the parameters clear.