Opinion ID: 2629221
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Traditional and customary practices of the native Hawaiians

Text: OHA, the Ritte intervenors, and the Kahae intervenors intervened in the contested case hearing to voice their concerns regarding the effect of the proposed Kamiloloa well on native Hawaiians' subsistence gathering due to a reduction in groundwater discharge into the nearshore environment. The coastal boundary of the Kamiloloa aquifer system comprises approximately six kilometers of shoreline, extending west of the Kaunakakai Gulch to east of Ali'i Fishpond, and includes the Kaunakakai Harbor Channel and two large fishponds (Ali'i and Kaloko'eli fishponds). There are no perennial streams within the Kamiloloa aquifer system, and surface runoff reaches the ocean only after significant rainfall. Groundwater discharge into the ocean, however, is reduced by the amount of well pumping in either the Kualapu'u or Kamiloloa aquifer systems; at least five fishponds along the thirteen-mile stretch will likely experience reduced discharge of groundwater flow into the nearshore environment as a result of pumping from the proposed well. The nearshore environment fronting the Kamiloloa aquifer system consists of brackish water that is essential to the livelihood of several species of fish e.g., mullet, aholehole, and milkfishand limu [14]  e.g., ogo, manauea, `ele'ele, and huluhuluwaena. Native Hawaiians gather limu and other marine resources along the southern and eastern coastline of Moloka'i, including the Kamiloloa shoreline, for, inter alia, home consumption, fertilizer, and a healthier diet and lifestyle. [15] Dr. Dollar, MR-Wai'ola's oceanography expert, conducted a study to determine the effects of a reduction of groundwater discharge on the water quality in the nearshore environment. More specifically, the study considered three factors: (1) nutrient concentrations in well water collected from wells in the Kamiloloa aquifer i.e., the extent to which increases in freshwater could provide an increase in nutrients that facilitate the growth of limu; (2) the water chemistry of the nearshore environment as determined by water samples collected in the ocean down-slope from existing wells and from the proposed well site; and (3) the potential impact upon limu resources that could result from the removal of groundwater from the proposed well. Dr. Dollar concluded that the highest concentrations of limu were found in nearshore areas located on the western side of Moloka'i. He observed only four species of limu on the southern Moloka'i shoreline, three of which were edible (palahalaha, `ele'ele, and huluhuluwaena). Dr. Dollar only found ogo growing in boxes and found none in the wild and found `ele'ele in places only where there [was] a hard bottom for it to grow, not on the mud or right on the sand. Several Moloka'i residents, however, testified that they regularly found ogo within 10-50 yards of the shoreline located in the study area closest to the proposed well site and that they regularly and frequently pick[ed] limu beyond the Dollar study area, along the entire coastline between Coconut Grove (Kioea) and Kamalo, including Kapa'akea, Oneali'i.