Joan Conrow has a good cover story in the Honolulu Weekly about an issue I've been harping on for the past year. However, nowhere in the article does it ask WHY nothing is being done about the situation!
It's pretty simple really: as long as we have split jurisdiction between the State and the counties, there will never be a comprehensive long-term shoreline management plan. We need a Hawaii Coastal Commission that has the authority to enact statewide standards and the ability to ENFORCE those rules.
But we can't get there without interim steps, such as a joint State-counties task force to lay the foundation for such a commission. State Rep. Chris Lee introduced a bill that would have done just that. But Sam Lemmo, who works for the State DLNR, actually spoke out AGAINST the bill! And we didn't get any support from the UH Sea Grant people either... the same guys who have complained about the split jurisdiction problem. So what's their solution? More of the same: do studies and hope something changes...
Anyhow, here's the link to the Weekly article. At least the issue is getting more attention.
http://honoluluweekly.com/cover/2009/12/shrinking-beaches/
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