After reading the article about adding mooring sites in Keauhou Bay in West Hawaii Today, I couldn’t help but wonder why the DLNR would involve themselves in yet another controversy of their own making.
I’m not speaking of the failed high speed ferry, the overlooked studies that may doom the instillation of the Thirty Meter Telescope in Hawaii that cost taxpayers millions of wasted dollars, now their attempting to crowd seven more mooring sites into tiny Keauhou Bay — a body of water that suffered a bulk of the Hawaiian tsunami damage from the 2011 Japanese earthquake.
Not only are these moorings vulnerable to natural occurrences but crowding seven additional 40- to 50-foot commercial boats into this bay represents a danger to all recreational users, the additional boats also increase the threat of fuel pollution. Do we as a community really want to spent more than $700,000 to provide an additional seven mooring sites?
Having been a paddler for the last 10 years, I have observed that the existing moored boats have been good stewards to the bay. What is the DLNR planning to do with them, grandfather them in, or have them participate in a lottery to secure their mooring sites? It appears to me that allowing a change in Keauhou Bay will only result in the net gain of seven new mooring sites and the net loss of wasted taxpayer’s money, additional oil pollution, and a greater likelihood of a swimmer or diver being killed by a boat propeller.
In the last 10 years we have read in the newspaper about projects that the DLNR has managed that failed to go forward because they missed deadlines or their failure to follow the law. What I haven’t read is anyone in DLNR management ever being held accountable for these costly oversights. Please don’t let this happen to Keauhou Bay! Please call the governor’s Kona office at (808) 327-4953, and tell them that you’re not in favor of the DLNR’s plan to damage our beautiful Keauhou Bay.
The community has already spoken last year, when meetings and petitions were submitted to the governor’s office and DLNR opposing to any additional mooring sites in Keauhou Bay.
Michael Flaherty is a resident of Kailua-Kona
My Turn opinions are those of the writer and not of West Hawaii Today.