The coming GMO battle: Kauai Charter Amendment Article XXXIII

As the ongoing legal wrangling over Kauai's Ordinance 960 continues, the next wave of political action is rolling out as a county charter amendment (full text) from Kauai Rising who has begun collecting signatures to put the charter amendment on the November ballot.

ARTICLE XXXIII - BILL OF RIGHTS 

TO PROTECT FROM HAZARDS OF GMO AGRICULTURE, TOXINS AND TESTING, ESTABLISH AN ADMINISTRATOR OF ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH, AND PROVIDE FOR ENFORCEMENT

GMO issues are complex and I won't attempt a position here. Without attempting a legal analysis either here are some first observations.

The amendment establishes a County Administrator of Environmental Health and a "panel of experts" that would report findings to the county council to approve any GMO activities on the island, with a provision allowing the council's decision to be overturned subject to petition by the public. Additionally there would be a monitoring effort, a containment requirement to prevent impact on neighboring property. All costs and overhead would be funded through what would have to be very expensive application fees and there would be significant civil as well as criminal penalties for violations.

The amendment begins with a detailed enumeration of rights: safe food, clean environment, protect communities, saving seed. The assertion of rights seems intended to address the legal challenge of local government typically being trumped by state and federal as I have written about previously.

The full amendment is 18 pages long - Kauai Rising provides a very brief summary. On the face of it the amendment appears to be a much stronger version of Ordinance 960 (which only required annual reporting of GMO activities and was largely about pesticide use and buffer zones) that squarely tackles GMO operations. Under the amendment, GMO operations would be required to demonstrate "beyond a reasonable doubt," that none of the rights are harmed.

The length of the charter amendment I find quite curious: this is about 25% the size of the entire county charter (72 pages). County departments like police, fire, water, and so forth each take up about two pages in the county charter. Is it really wise to embody so much detail in the charter itself rather than in ordinances and rules as the county generally operates? There does not seem to be a way to bundle a charter amendment with legislation accompanying it which is why I imagine the authors have piled all the details in, the alternative being a separate law-making effort that would become yet another battle.

Kauai Rising seems to be the authors of the amendment as I can find it nowhere else on the web. Who actually wrote the amendment and with what legal help is unclear. There is not much press on this yet. Kauai Eclectic is dismissive of the effort.

Throughout the battle over "The bill" (Bill 2491 which became Ordinance 960) there were vague claims that its passage would result in loss of jobs that I thought exaggerated. The amendment, on the other hand, seems a clear threat to the currently operating chemical companies and its passage (surely to be challenged in the courts) would very much be an existential threat to operations here. The stakes are much higher indeed if this manages to get on the ballot. Charter amendments require signatures of 5% of registered voters to get on the ballot.

Navigation surprise

This is the story of poor product design we ran into shipping our car to the islands that came to a happy ending after much wasted time and effort. Our Honda arrived safe and sound off the boat but the navigation system did not work - "out of coverage area" it would say unhelpfully and every single time the car was started. I never figured out how to just make it go way - removing the DVD just gets you a message that the DVD is removed, every time the car starts.

In time I found hondanavi.com and saw that the latest DVD "includes the 48 contiguous United States, Hawaii and the border region of Canada," so we order it ($159). Ground shipping took a long time but when it turned up the package even said it includes Hawaii with a color coded map with a big blowup of Hawaii in the same color as the mainland - mission accomplished.... But when I installed it it didn't work, same thing, "out of coverage area". I looked at the "setup menu" and all that for clues, read the manual, and as a last resort called the 800 number.

After explaining the problem and giving my order number the fellow informed me it does not include Hawaii. "But the web site says it does, and the package the DVD comes in has Hawaii on the map..." Those details were irrelevant, so I got a return authorization. No, they would not pay for shipping back even though they misrepresented the product apparently.

Happy ending to the story: today I was near the Honda dealer in Lihue so asked the parts department about it. I gave them the details and mentioned that hondanavi.com didn't work this guy who seemed to know everything about Hondas wandered over, brought up a page on the computer and handed my a printout.

It works: you hold down three buttons at once (MENU+MAP+CANCEL) to get into a special diagnostic screen, select Detail Info & Settings, select Coverage area, and in there is a Mainland or Hawaii selection. That did it - the old map DVD worked just fine, up came the map. (Full disclosure: there was an extra step needed because we had gone back from the new version DVD to the old one that required another step in the secretive diagnostic screen to reload the old version software to make it happy.) Actually a good thing we didn't waste money on the new map DVD after all as I don't think many roads have changed in the last few years anyway.

Editorial commentary:

• The navigation DVD folks are missing the boat not having a "FAQ" for customer service on this.
• The car has GPS so it knows it is in Hawaii so why on earth does it need me to tell it too?
• At least the "out of coverage" warning could mention the relevant setting if not suggest it.
• This is a classic example of something customers cannot reasonably anticipate when buying that hurts them later. Companies need to learn that anticipating these problems and addressing them makes customers very happy but with this kind of 800 customer support they aren't even aware.

Mahalo to the service department!

32 hours

Just back from showing off the island to a friend making a short visit here - 32 hours - from mid-morning yesterday to evening departure tonight. I definitely raised an eyebrow when the New York Times wrote about a "36 hour" visit to Kauaʻi a few months ago, but did my best to give a complete tour while keeping it from becoming work.


Day 1 --- 10:30am (flight arrives early) pick up at Lihue airport, drive up Rice street and head west. First stop: Hanapepe. Little Fish was closed for construction. Walked the downtown, visit Talk Story bookstore, cross the river and back on the highway heading west. Stopped in Waimea for lunch at Island Tacos (seared ahi wasabi tacos) -- instead of ordering 2 tacos, get 2 orders of 1 taco (1$ extra) and we each get a serving of tortilla chips and salsa on the side. Turn right and head up the mountain. (The West Kauai Visitor Center was closed but had it been open would have stopped by while in town.)

Stopped up above town for good view of Niihau island and first views of the lower canyon. Stopped at the first canyon lookout and could see Waipoʻo falls flowing nicely across the canyon. Drove up to Kokeʻe and right to the Puu o Kila lookout at the end of the road. Despite it being somewhat overcast had a clear view of Kalalau. Back to the lodge and then headed back down the hill.

Back to the east on the highway we went makai to Koloa to get pupus at the Koloa fish market. Drove out to Spouting Horn and then back home to Kalaheo for dinner and to prepare for an early start in the morning.

Day 2 --- an early start it was --- gassed up at the Hanamaulu Shell by 6am and were headed north around the east side of the island as dawn broke over the eastern shore. Stopped by Hanalei Coffee Roasters for coffee then out past Haena to Keʻe beach at the end of the road. Plenty of parking at 7:30am but it filled quickly soon after.

We explored up the beach back toward Haena far enough to see the Na Pali coastline looking back to the west. There was one seal relaxing on the sand that disappeared once more people showed up. Went up the Kalalau trail just a short ways: at 1/4 there is a view back over Keʻe beach; at 1/2 mile, the first overlook with a view of the Na Pali coast about as far as Hanakapiai. It was clear enough to see Lehua (see below, the little island near Niihau) in the distance. For today that was far enough.

Lunch at Neide's (Mexican and Brazilian) in Hanalei - itʻs in the shopping center in town on mauka side. My first time to have Panqueca - roasted vegetables (or there are meat options) rolled in a crepe topped with a savory sauce and cheese. Food was good, large serving, around $15. (I was very disappointed to see that Hanalei Pizza across the street is no more, replaced by Puka Dog.)

Slowly worked our way back toward Lihue with a stop in Kapaʻa and enjoyed beers on the lanai at JJ's in Nawiliwili before heading to the airport.

Given short time to see the island I think it worked out splendidly.

NTBG concert, Queen Emma cottage

Saturday I attended the 50th anniversary NTBG concert featuring a number of great Hawaiian musicians and guest headliner Jerry Douglas. 

The event was on the lawn at NTBG south shore visitor center near Spouting Horn (Poipu). They said over 1,000 people attended, including both the governor and the mayor of Kauai county.


Lots of great musical performances and some hula as well, mostly Hawaiian style but also some country and a little jazz as well. The encore went on and on with more musicians joining in onstage for the finale.

It was a good event and I hope it becomes an annual tradition, or at least they don't want another fifty years.

In the Allerton Garden some renewal is in progress around the Allerton house down by the beach at Lawai Kai. In particular the Queen Emma cottage has a new roof and is freshly painted. This historic building dates back to the days when the queen maintained a residence here. Originally built up above the valley, after Alexander McBryde purchased the property he had the cottage moved down to its present location. Robert and John Allerton built their residence next to it, partly visible in the photo at left.

Tsunami

Yesterday a massive (8.2M) earthquake struck off the coast of Chile causing significant damage including tsunami. The chances of tsunami reaching Hawaiian coasts was low and after a few hours the official prediction was that it would not be a danger here. Tsunami can certainly propagate far across oceans but since no alert has been declared it would appear the chances of significant impact are low (to be clear, this is not intended as an interpretation of this event).

A long-time islander phoned me to suggest that other than staying well above and away from the shore, a good precaution is to fill up the tank with gas.

For future reference you can find official reports about tsunami at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center website. The official report on this tsunami event which should be updated as things progress is here. There is a little more information from the Pacific Disaster Center (pdc.org) here.
Official information about tsunami including what to do in the event of one can be found at this FAQ.

I must say the official information on the web is not very well designed and as a result it is hard to find solid information. It's actually quite a runaround with lots of indirection which it should not be. While the impact was still being evaluated I tried to find out some solid information:

• The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center website shows a graphical "low" meter ... yet they are evaluating the impact of a significant earthquake in the ocean. Isn't that at least a "medium"?
• There is small text asking you to "Click here to read the latest tsunami message" ... they can't be bothered to actually show you a summary right there. That you need to click is not easy to find.
• Clicking takes you to the report linked above that says "WE ARE STILL INVESTIGATING LEVEL OF TSUNAMI THREAT FOR HAWAII." (They don't seem to know that the Internet can do lower case making the thing harder to read than it could be.)
• And buried near the end is the one Hawaii related fact available: IF TSUNAMI WAVES IMPACT HAWAII THEIR ESTIMATED EARLIEST ARRIVAL TIME IS 0324 AM HST WED 02 APR 2014

Kauai Civil Defense was about the same in terms of obscuring the information and challenging the user to traverse a few web pages to find anything useful.

• There is a mostly blank page - where the latest info could easily appear - with a very small inconspicuous link "Pacific Disaster Center - Past 24 hours Message Archive".
• Click to go to Pacific Disaster Center (pdc.org) where there is a world map with several colored icons on it.
• Under Recent Events there is a like to the 8.2M earthquake, but clicking on that just changes the map. And there is a banner: " Breaking News:  Check Facebook for latest info on 8.2". So our civil defense depends on Facebook now.
• On the left under "News" is an article about April being Tsunami Awareness Month (this is a fitting start indeed).

That there are so many sources of information variously pointing elsewhere and completely different looking web sites to navigate to find the key results is really a shame. In an emergency the last thing I want to do is go clicking from here to there - everyone should have one place they can go to get official latest word on events like this.

It's almost as important to get an early clear opinion that the risk is likely low. Instead, it took hours to get anything more than "WE ARE STILL INVESTIGATING" - a preliminary assessment should be available within minutes, noting that it is provisional and better information will be developed soon (ideally, providing a time frame to expect to learn more).

Hilo tsunami

Notably on April 1, in 1946, a large tsunami hit Hawaii causing great destruction notably in Hilo on the big island. (The photo at left is from that event.)

Note: Lately I have not been posting much here so this timely event prompted me to get back to it. Having moved here I haven't found the right new direction for writing here: previously exploring and touring topics have largely been covered, hikes have long since been covered, and yet I have not been here long enough to have much useful to say as a resident either. I do plan to continue but it will take time to find a new rhythm. Suggestions in the comments are always welcome.