State lawmakers are still advancing a measure to allow businesses to continue operating in state areas before an environmental review is completed.
Senate Bill 1074 could allow dozens of tour boat operators to return to the waters off West Maui’s Kā‘anapali, a tourism hotspot.
A recent court ruling requires them to stop their operations until the state Department of Land and Natural Resources conducts environmental assessments, or determines that the businesses don't need a review.
But the measure would side-step the ruling by allowing the “temporary continuation” of authorized ocean recreation and coastal areas programs while environmental reviews are underway. The bill would allow those boat operators to continue for one year without the reviews.
It’s similar to a House measure that died earlier this month, and testimony for both has been plentiful and mixed. Half a dozen hearings have been heard for both measures, and more than 400 pages of written testimony were submitted for the most recent one on Thursday.
Opponents say the bill would undermine the state’s Hawaiʻi Environmental Policy Act, or HEPA, and the land department’s mission to protect natural and cultural resources.
“DLNR is not a business development agency. It is a resource management agency entrusted with sacred kuleana,” said testifier Kai Nishiki, representing the nonprofit Nā Papaʻi Wawae ʻUlaʻula, which opposed the bill during a Thursday hearing. “The mission of the DLNR, to remind everyone, is ‘to enhance, protect, conserve and manage Hawaiʻi's unique and limited natural, cultural and historic resources held in public trust for current and future generations.’ … This bill blatantly contradicts that mission.”
Boat operators who support the bill say that they’re not hurting the environment and that their livelihoods are threatened. They include business owners who say it would be a temporary measure to keep local businesses afloat.
Peter O Riordan is a commercial boat owner-operator at Kā‘anapali.
“It’s getting exhausting mentally, financially and emotionally to fly over (from) Maui to sing for my supper,” he told lawmakers. “I’m a … community member of Lahaina who lost absolutely everything. I have nothing left but my business.”
He said he also has two children and another one due in a couple of months.
The testimony is like others who say Kā‘anapali operators need businesses more than ever to help Lahaina residents recover from the 2023 fires.
The DLNR itself said that it wants to balance its environmental goals with commercial and recreational activity, but was mostly concerned about the economic impact of stopping businesses from operating.
“Without a mechanism for continued operations during environmental review, impacted businesses are forced to cease operations indefinitely, resulting in job losses and economic harm without knowing the environmental impact of these long-standing ocean commercial and recreational activities,” the department said in written testimony.
It also offered amendments to the measure, including one that would remove some activities — including fishing — from being required to comply with environmental assessment laws. DLNR also wanted to remove the one-year provision, saying that it would take longer than that to do environmental assessments.
The House Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs passed an amended version of the measure in a 10-2 vote, with two lawmakers voting with reservations.
Committee Chair David Tarnas included a two-year sunset date for the bill to ensure it’s temporary. He also denied DLNR’s request to remove other activities from the review process.
