KAUA`I GROUP APPEALS SUPERFERRY RULING
Environmental attorneys for 1,000 Friends of Kaua`i may have stumbled upon a statute to make the Hawai`i judiciary rethink its barring of certain arguments against the Superferry.
That’s at least the hope, according to documents drafted by attorneys Greg Meyers and Dan Hempey, who filed a motion Nov. 13 appealing a September ruling by Circuit Judge Randal Valenciano.
Valenciano said in his ruling that 1,000 Friends couldn’t rely on the argument that the Hawai`i Superferry needed an environmental assessment, stating the statute of limitations had expired.
As a result of that ruling, 1,000 Friends of Kaua`i could have relied on two other arguments - one, whether the Superferry posed a nuisance; and two, whether the Superferry’s proceeding with service was constitutional....
They then asked the County Council to consider adopting an ordinance calling the arriving cars a nuisance, as, according to HRS 46-17, the county could trump the state in such an instance....
Under that law, the council of any county can adopt and provide for the enforcement of ordinances regulating or prohibiting noise, smoke, dust, vibration, or odors which constitute a public nuisance, it continues that in any case of conflict between a statute or rule and an ordinance, the law affording the most protection to the public shall prevail....
