A policy specialist who was laid off from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources last month maintains he was illegally fired because he repeatedly raised concerns about the agency not complying with the same environmental law that sank Hawaii Superferry.

David Weingartner says, in a whistleblower lawsuit filed yesterday, that the department's Division of Aquatic Resources failed to comply with the Hawai'i Environmental Policy Act as it approved nearly 100 permits since December 2006 for research and other work in the Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument.

That's the same law the Hawai'i Supreme Court said the Lingle administration misapplied in the Superferry case, eventually leading to the interisland carrier shutting down in March.

The approved permits for the marine sanctuary covered a wide range of proposed activities, including the use of so-called bang sticks, a type of firearm, to kill Galapagos sharks preying on monk seal pups, according to Marti Townsend of Kahea, an environmental group that has raised concerns about the lack of state environmental reviews for monument work.

Department officials have "dismissed our concerns repeatedly with no regard for their obligation to protect the public trust," Townsend said. "They aren't even doing the bare minimum."

No legal challenges to the lack of state review have surfaced.

Weingartner, who was hired in February to review permit requests, said in his complaint that he repeatedly told his supervisor and the division's administrator that the requirements of HEPA were not being met and expressed concern that the problem could lead to the shutdown of the entire monument permit process.

Instead of correcting the violations, Weingartner said, his bosses retaliated against him, leading to his dismissal at the end of June.

A DLNR spokeswoman said she could not comment because the agency had not seen the lawsuit, which was filed mid-afternoon.

One of Weingartner's bosses wrote in an April e-mail to him that the department considered the Hawai'i law duplicative if the permit review already included an assessment under the National Environmental Policy Act, according to the lawsuit. The Hawai'i law would be used only "when absolutely required," the e-mail said.

Three agencies jointly oversee the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands monument, one of the largest marine conservation areas in the world. Two of those agencies, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, have been doing their job ensuring that the permitted activities comply with NEPA, Weingartner said through his attorney, Dennis King.

But for DLNR "to basically just do a tag-along (with the federal agencies) doesn't meet the state's obligations," King said.

Hawai'i's law differs from the national one in some key ways, including a requirement that the proposed work be assessed for possible impact on Native Hawaiian cultural practices, Townsend said.

Weingartner said he was told in early June that he was being laid off for "cash flow" reasons, even though his position was paid for with federal funds and he volunteered to be furloughed to keep his job, according to the lawsuit.

Some of the monument permits that were approved last year included authorization to use electromagnetic devices, magnets and underwater speaker systems to keep Galapagos sharks from monk seals and to anchor steel rods onto the ocean bottom to do site assessments. One permit was approved for retrieving several historic artifacts from sunken ships.

Scientists consider the research crucial for learning more about the monument and its marine life.