March 20, 2026 News Read > Hawaii Free Press

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Friday, March 20, 2026

March 20, 2026 News Read
By Andrew Walden @ 6:24 PM :: 146 Views

Lahaina Redux: As Floods Rage, State Commission Warns Property Owners Not to Alter Streambeds

ALERT: Lake Wilson Dam 'Imminent Risk of Failure'

Hawaii’s Highway System Ranks 44th in the Nation in Overall Cost-Effectiveness and Condition

The last time Congress created a new state

Alaska, Hawaii, and the Politics of Statehood

Documents Reveal How Hawaii AG Selects Outside Counsel to fight Second Amendment Cases

Maui’s Online Firearm Permitting System Raises Serious Legal Concerns

Public testimony prompts lawmakers to rethink repealing income tax cuts

Scrutinize state budget to preserve promised income tax cuts

Finalists for Honolulu seats announced for UH Board of Regents

The Lost Decade Never Ended in Hawaiʻi

‘We’re Screwed’: Thirty Years of Indecision over Dangerous Wahiawā Dam

CB: … The Dole Food Co. has known for nearly five decades that the Wahiawā Dam could flood in heavy rainfall, putting 2,500 lives at risk.

As rain battered Oʻahu Friday morning, the dam rose rapidly above mandatory evacuation levels for the downstream towns of Haleʻiwa and Waialua, which were already flooding from the overnight rain, with residents posting on social media that they were struggling to find ways out on inundated roads. Just before 8:30 a.m., an “imminent dam failure” notice was posted by the city and county.

Even before last week’s Kona low, however, the state repeatedly warned the international company about safety issues. But Dole has not made the significant improvements to the dam’s spillway required by the state to bring its more than century-old reservoir into compliance with modern safety standards.

The company started racking up deficiency notices and fines in 2009 as the state land board attempted to hold it accountable. But after lawmakers cleared the way for the state to acquire the dam, the land board did an about-face, removing the threat of penalties for Dole’s noncompliance.

In doing so, it shifted the responsibility for fixing the dam from the company to taxpayers, who will bear the cost of repairs estimated at more than $20 million and climbing.

Since that decision in 2024, the dam has languished as a deal to acquire it – along with the reservoir and surrounding waterways – has dragged on. In that time, Dole’s parent company has logged record income levels and payments to its investors, even as its local operation has said that it cannot afford the dam upgrades.

“It’s not a matter of ‘if’ something happens,” state engineer Carty Chang said during a meeting on the dam in 2023. “It’s a matter of ‘when’… We have a very precarious situation, and nothing really has been done to address it.”

The state has gone back and forth over whether to acquire the dam since the mid-1990s….

read … ‘We’re Screwed’: Dole Did Little To Fix Dangerous Wahiawā Dam - Honolulu Civil Beat

Health outcomes from Hawaii jet-fuel exposure remain open question, study finds

SAS: … Doctors treating patients exposed to water contaminated by jet fuel in Hawaii five years ago should carefully document those cases to build a database of long-term effects, according to a National Academies study issued Thursday.

Little is known of the risks of specific long-term health outcomes associated with exposure to JP-5 jet fuel, according to the report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine that was jointly sponsored by the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs….

read … Health outcomes from Hawaii jet-fuel exposure remain open question, study finds | Stars and Stripes

Why I Support A Sustainable Aquarium Fishery In Hawai‘i

CB: … The marine aquarium fishery in Hawai‘i has historically been among the most sustainable fisheries on the planet. We can simply look to the data from the state Division of Aquatic Resources to demonstrate that. The idea that this fishery is damaging to our reefs or to fish populations is totally contradicted by the data.

If we, as a state, decide to ban aquarium fishing, it will almost certainly have little or no actual effect on our reefs, and will hurt a few fishermen. More importantly, it will hurt thousands of budding reef scientists who don’t receive the life-changing inspiration that I did.

Most egregiously, it will give us a false sense of security that we “did something”, even though it was essentially meaningless. Instead, it will distract us from the very real problems of largely unregulated recreational fishing and serious coastal pollution.

Blaming aquarium fishing for the problems we face on reefs in Hawai‘i is a scapegoat. It is a whipping-boy where we take out our frustrations on the weakest rather than address the actual challenges that we face.….

read … Why I Support A Sustainable Aquarium Fishery In Hawai‘i - Honolulu Civil Beat

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