"ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL," SAY SUPERFERRY OPPONENTS
Honolulu Advertiser - Thursday March 20, 2008
LIHU`E — About 120 Kaua`i residents met with state Department of Transportation officials yesterday and most opposed the return of the Hawai`i Superferry to the Garden Isle.
The Superferry began service between O`ahu and Kaua`i in August but was soon turned back by protesters on surfboards and in kayaks who blocked the entrance to Nawiliwili Harbor.
More than six months later, opposition remains strong here, at least from those who attended two meetings yesterday at Kaua`i Community College.
The speakers were concerned about the safety of whales and other marine life, the transport of invasive species from island to island, traffic and crime....
The two meetings yesterday were intended to give Kaua`i residents an opportunity to ask questions about the environmental assessment the state is conducting with the help of consultant Belt Collins.
At one meeting, Sandra Herndon said she was among Kaua`i residents who petitioned Gov. Linda Lingle for an environmental study regarding the Superferry two years ago.
"What I'd like to ask now, if it is possible for Belt Collins to deliver an independent study," Herndon said, adding that the company seemed to be "intertwined with the Superferry corporation."
The economic model that assumes Hawai`i will need more large harbor space "to continue to import all its food and goods" will crumble under the rising price of oil, said architect and planner Juan Wilson, representing the organization Island Breath.
The state needs improvements in small harbors for fishermen and small boats, "not a 40,000-horsepower, 40 mph football field," Wilson said....
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