Maui Judge rules against Hawaii Superferry
By KHON News
Maui Judge Joseph Cardoza has ruled against the Hawaii Superferry. The ruling prevents the Superferry from resuming service to the Valley Isle while an environmental assessment is performed. Such an assessment could take several months and with the Superferry losing an estimated $650,000 a month, company officials say they cannot afford to wait for an assessment. Last month a Kauai judge denied a similar request for a temporary restraining order which would have prohibited the Superferry from returning to the Garden Isle. However, Superferry officials have said it would not be feasible to return to Kauai if they were not allowed to also sail to Maui.
Story Updated: Oct 9, 2007 at 11:27 AM HDT

 

It's unfortunate for two reasons:
1. This should have been addressed long before it ever got this far.
2. If this goes ahead in the future (as did H3 & Rail on Oahu), we the taxpayer are going to end up footing increased costs again.

Hawaii's lawmakers and government really sucks.

 

and i heard they already started the build for the second ferry

 

its almost done.

 

From another report (sorry, don't have the source):

And (from my wife, who was watching the news):

Let's just hope something positive comes out of this.

 

oh i didnt know....**** i want the damn ferry to come already

 

It's really kind of frustrating that people are making such a big deal about the ferry just because the price wars for the airfares are so low right now and it had so much publicity on it. I mean it's not like there are a lot of other boats going in and out of the islands on a daily basis...or the people living on the islands create a huge impact on the environment they keep talking about trying to preserve...

dont we also end up paying more in taxes if the super ferry doesnt go through because of all the harbor grants given by the federal government that are contingent on the ferry?

 

Here is the funny thing. This all boils down to curruption not the environment. Prior to starting all this the company did an environmental impact survey for the ferry. Its not like this thing snuck up on any one. Hell National Geographic did a 1 hour special on it that spanned over a year from conception, design, to delivery. This thing has been in the works for along time and showed all the hoops they went through.

The bigest fuss was raised when an official "raised concerns" over the impact of extra vehicles on the road. Um tourists dont walk arround do they.... NOPE! They drive. Several political groups planted seeds of concerns in the public that were already addressed. Used thier pride against them. The issue is the money from the taxes of the ferry goes to the county seat and not the local government.

And this whole environmental impact thing, yeah its a BIG ******* joke. How many cruise ships go in and out of there? You are aware what happens about the 4 mile mark right? All the garbage, sewage, and other wastes gets dumped prior to comming into port so they can onload more supplies. The super ferry doesnt dump, it off loads at port. The hull is a catamaran style which has less impact on on marine life. And the whale BS. I can garontee you that the long distance freighters that come in have MUCH more impact on the ocean life than the Ferry. Hell look at all the flesh eating bacteria that originated from our own sewage runnoff during the floods. The least of the worries is that ferry.

The Canary islands have an identical ferry (same design and built by the same builders) running between their islands. Their inter island economy has boomed. There are people on the smaller islands that comute daily to work more than 45 minutes each way.

But honestly with as currupt as the Hawaii'an State governments is I realy dont see this going through. Even though all the i's were dotted and t's were crossed, every thing legal. The political infighting and agenda's are getting in the way of what good for the people.

 

There are harbor improvements that were already carried out in order for the SF to go ahead. Unfortunately yes we are going to have to foot the bill for these improvements that could have gone to other more needing areas of the state harbors.

I don't know the exact verbage of the requirements of the EIS/EA, but this is something the state lawyers should have addressed years ago.

 

If the company had performed an EIS (environmental impact study), this would be a non-issue, the results could be made known and they could be off and running. More likely they performed a draft environmental assessment.

As far as invasive species that is really a non issue as I agree with you that the long haul vessels have a much greater impact as they routinely bring in organic life from outside state waters.

I understand the concern the residents have with traffic, but they had their opportunity to make concerns known during public meetings. Now is really too late for them to bring this up, it sets a really bad precedent.

The one issue that I do have concerns with is the whale population. The SF hauls *** (collision hazard). It is significantly faster than anything of that size out on the water with the exception of Navy vessels. The sham that is the whale watching tours ("scientific/eco tours") that run out of Maalaea Harbor already impact the whales and have had incidents with whales and they were traveling at much slower speeds. That is the only issue I have with the SF, but that should be able to be addressed rather simply by adjustment of speed and routes.


Now lastly if the outer islands have such issues with us on Oahu, maybe they should get their refined gas from somewhere else. Two weeks and Maui is history, not sure how long before Kauai turns ***** up.

 

Not to mention if the government manages to mess this up the Superferry has a pretty dang good case to sue the state. They've invested tons of money after getting every assurance that there wouldn't be any problems with them operating here in hawaii.

If Kauai and Maui want to require an EIS before the superferry can operate lets do one for matson too. We'll see how they do when they have to fly in all their food and gas and suddenly a double cheeseburger at mcdonalds costs 8 dollars.

 

Nah it will pass with out problems for Matson. They bring cash directly to their local economy, so they dont want to mess with their own cash flow. The super ferry is exempt from alot of the port fee's and taxes, like the local bus system. So no direct flow of cash to the Maui local Govt. There for they can afford to **** with them.

 

You don't screw with the longshoremen. Screw with them and the state shuts down....literally.

 

**** the cops, **** the government, the people who realy run the show are DEFINATELY the longshoremen.

If they said, "Because Gov Linda "Dingle" is a **** and raising port taxes, we are raising our fee's and such 5 fold!" So now milk is $20+ dollars a gallon. The b!tch would be out of a job quicker than anything, instant resignation. Infact the federal Govt would probably step in too.

 

damn i just wanted it to be able to have sonics work on my Z ::lol::

 

Where you at again?

You can always freight it. That has always been a possibility that people forget. It takes longer but you have your car tuned where you want it

 

residing on kauai, one of the few places with a track still open! haha

 

^^^You'd have to go YB. If you ship the car back within a certain time frame YB gives you a discounted price for the ship back (I forget it might be something like within 3 weeks).