KAHULUI - The release of a draft environmental impact statement on state harbors improvements to accommodate the Hawaii Superferry has been delayed until January because the Superferry has changed its operational plans, state transportation officials said Friday.
The draft EIS was to have been completed by October.
A critic of the Superferry operations said she's not surprised at the delay based on preliminary information provided on the ferry's runs between Maui and Oahu. Irene Bowie, executive director of Maui Tomorrow Foundation, said a risk assessment prepared as part of the environmental impact process is already indicating there are "real problems for them."
"With their schedule changing and so many things changing, it must be difficult for them. But I just think the process has not been legitimate," Bowie said.
An EIS is required by a special state law that allowed the Superferry as a "large-capacity ferry" to begin operations while the report was being prepared. The Legislature went into special session in October 2007 to approve the measure that became "Act 2" after the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled the state violated its environmental laws by allowing the ferry to operate without conducting an environmental assessment.
In a statement dated Friday, Deputy Transportation Director Mike Formby said the delay is the result of changes in the Superferry's operational plans but does not discuss what changes occurred.
"The studies within the draft EIS are based upon the large-capacity ferry vessel's operational plans and any proposals to change those plans would have a direct effect on the analysis," the statement said.
"Rather than evaluating each change at the time it was proposed, certain studies for the draft EIS were suspended until the operational plan was firmed up, or the time limit of Act 2 necessitated these studies to resume. The decision to resume studies was made earlier this month."
When Hawaii Superferry announced its plans in 2004 for an interisland ferry carrying vehicles and passengers, the proposal was for two 350-foot vessels providing service between Oahu and Maui, Kauai and the Big Island.
The first ferry, the Alakai, went into operation in August 2007, although the service was stopped after two days - by a court order on Maui and protests at the Kauai harbor.
With the Act 2 exemption, the Alakai briefly resumed operations in December 2007 only to be stalled by damage to the vessel that put it into dry dock for two months. It has been fully operational on a Oahu-Maui route since April, including a second round trip two days a week.
Last week, Hawaii Superferry announced it would postpone the 2009 start of service to the Big Island, has not yet resumed service to Kauai and has reduced its sailing schedule to Maui to six days a week for the winter season.
The state's announcement said the delay in issuing the draft EIS "should not affect the completion date of the final EIS, which is scheduled for distribution in summer of 2009."
"While the completion of the draft EIS was delayed, it will ultimately increase efficiency of the study and ensure that the state does not incur additional costs," Formby said.
Bowie, who represents one of three Maui organizations challenging the legality of the Superferry operations, said the organizations want to see what the costs are.
The state's oversight task force on the Superferry this week is expected to receive data on what the state has paid to upgrade harbor facilities - including Kahului Harbor - and for the environmental impact statement studies.
"More telling will be some of the cost information that is supposed to be presented to the oversight task force at its November 6 meeting," Bowie said. "We were told they would produce numbers on what it is costing the state."
The meeting is scheduled for 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday at the Conference Center at the interisland terminal at Honolulu International Airport. The task force is set up by a provision of Act 2 to monitor the ferry operations while the EIS is being prepared.
Bowie said an appeal to the Hawaii Supreme Court of the Maui Circuit Court's ruling that Act 2 is valid is scheduled for a hearing on Dec. 18.
"We feel that the whole process in setting up this EIS has not been legitimate, and we're anxious to go before the Supreme Court," she said.
Maui Tomorrow, the Maui chapter of the Sierra Club and the Kahului Harbor Coalition filed a suit questioning the legality of Act 2 in granting an exemption from environmental laws to a specific business. While 2nd Circuit Judge Joseph Cardoza upheld the law, the Supreme Court said it will consider an appeal of his decision because it raises an issue of fundamental public importance and because there is a novel legal issue to be addressed.
Edwin Tanji can be reached at citydesk@mauinews.com.
