Monday, April 13, 2015

Ewa Farmland Conversion Impact Rating

Ewa Farmland Conversion Impact Rating

John Bond,       Kanehili Cultural Hui



HART Rail Covers Over 1000 Year Old Ewa Farmland, Top Rated Volcanic Alluvial Soil

This correspondence to FTA is specifically about the Farmland Conversion Impact Rating that was applied to the Honouliuli Ewa Plain farmland which is now planned to have three transit stations and Transit Oriented Developments as part of the FTA funded Honolulu Authority Rapid Transit (HART) system.

The issue is that the Farmland Conversion Impact Rating done by the contracted project engineering company was erroneous, very possibly intentionally so, which resulted in no subsequent important prime farmland mitigation.



This led to the HART rail project constructing an elevated fixed guide way through this very important farmland. FTA may argue that the guide way itself has a “de minimus” (no or minimal effect) impact on this traditional agricultural farmland, however the next planned rail construction phases are three stations and planned TOD’s: East Kapolei, UH-West Oahu and Hoopili.

The impact on the important agricultural lands will be very severe and essentially destroy them forever. FTA is funding this farmland destruction and it certainly isn’t a “de minimus” impact.   

Kanehili Cultural Hui (KCH), HART PA consulting party had identified a very important Section 4f discrepancy with the “Farmland Conversion Impact Rating” (NRCS-CPA-106) a fundamental requirement and farmland rating document for all Federally funded transit corridor type projects which uses prime or unique agricultural land.

As a consulting party Kanehili Cultural Hui (KCH) specifically brought this issue up at the Annual HART Programmatic Agreement meeting on Monday, March 2, 2015 at the HART Ali`i Place, Suite 150 conference room to discuss Implementation of the PA over 2014 and planned activities for 2015.

During that meeting KCH president John Bond asked Ted Matley of FTA if the West Oahu Farrington Highway (WOFH) Farmland Conversion Impact Rating decision could be revisited again because of very credible evidence that the Farmland Conversion Impact Rating was very erroneous and quite possibly intentionally so.

Area of Potential Effect - APE for West Oahu Farrington Highway (WOFH)

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What is a 4(f) "use"?

 In discussing 4(f), "use" may mean either a direct use or constructive use. A direct use occurs when land is permanently incorporated into a transportation facility or when there is a temporary occupancy of land that is adverse to a 4(f) resource. Constructive use occurs when a project's proximity impacts are so severe that the protected activities, features, or attributes that qualify a resource for protection under Section 4(f) are "substantially impaired".




TCPs are “places of religious and cultural significance” (NHPA Section 101 and NHPA regulations, Section 106). NHPA guidance (Parker and King 1990:1) defines a TCP as a property “… that is eligible for inclusion in the National Register because of its association with cultural practices or beliefs of a living community that (a) are rooted in that community’s history, and (b) are important in maintaining the continuing cultural identity of the community.” TCPs derive their importance from the practices or beliefs of a community because they are integral to the community’s history and identity. The people who are best able to identify these places and their importance are the members of the community that understand their value.

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KCH has done extensive auditing of the HART rail project’s handling of historic and cultural issues and has found several discrepancies and previously overlooked Traditional Cultural Properties and one with a very erroneous boundary to achieve a “no effect” on the project Area of Potential Effect (APE). There is substantial evidence that the HART rail project’s consultants intentionally misrepresented important APE decisional information to push construction forward.


The KCH analysis is twofold: 1. The original very low farmland rating document done by rail contractor Parsons Brinkerhoff does not reflect the obvious reality of the Ewa Plain farmland based on observation and known published criteria of what constitutes prime or valuable Oahu farmland in Hawaii. Our shared drive links provide the documents, maps and photos to support this analysis.

KCH: 2. The value of the Ewa Plain farmland must be seen in the full context of both ancient and modern Hawaiian cultural values- ahupua’a (mountain to sea) as well as why it was a 1000 year old continuously used Traditional Cultural (Agricultural) Property. How could a traditional native Hawaiian agricultural society based upon Konohiki (deeply skilled land and water management) support the largest pre-western population on Oahu if these lands weren’t among the very best on the island?
These Ewa farmlands were the major native Hawaiian population center because of the rich volcanic soil, fresh spring water and very abundant sunshine. And to this very day these same prime and valuable farmlands support large scale agricultural production.

FTA support for important farmland destruction is a social and environmental injustice and not Smart Growth. Instead of rail transit the Ewa Plain community is getting massive new urban sprawl, vast environmental damage, a huge increase in highway traffic and an important food security safeguard completely eliminated.


It should not ever be forgotten that during the early Honolulu rail design and engineering process there was an enormous amount of political pressure (and still is) placed on government agencies and employees to “get on board” and not be the odd nail that needs to be hammered down by powerful land development interests that want rail construction moved forward as fast as possible, no matter what had to be done to make that happen. 

At the time key project reviews were being made the State Historic Preservation Division was in a very weak and understaffed situation and considered the worst SHPO in the United States- on verge of being shut down and taken over by the NPS.
 

It is no surprise to see that the very flawed Farmland Conversion Impact Rating form was run through with few if any questions asked

KCH asks: How could the Hawaiian Island’s largest and most profitable sugar plantation – Ewa Plantation, thrive and prosper for over 100 years on the Ewa Plain if it didn’t have an ideal combination of abundant sunshine, pure spring water and rich Waianae volcano soil (rated A and B quality) which caused it to be an agricultural powerhouse?

Please review the link to the Historic Ewa Villages which show that the Ewa plantation was a major historic and culturally important community in the Hawaiian Islands known worldwide. It’s fame and fortune was all a result of the very valuable agricultural lands that sustained it and providing thousands of jobs. 


Further, as we show in numerous supporting government documents and agricultural evaluations that there is no way this very valuable prime farmland and Traditional Cultural Property doesn’t meet and exceed the criteria of the Farmland Conversion Impact Rating regulatory threshold of 160 points.

 Not fairly and honestly addressing these major obvious discrepancies while there is still time, however short, will forever be a dark stain on the HART project and the involvement of the Federal Transit Administration in sponsoring the destruction of a very valuable and a culturally very important agricultural TCP.

The Honolulu City Council INTENDED that these Ewa TCP Farmlands be identified and mapped- even when in an already designated Urban Boundary

The Honolulu City Council passed a resolution in 2011 to advocate establishment of an Agricultural Liaison:

RESOLUTION URGING THE CITY ADMINISTRATION TO CREATE AN AGRICULTURAL LIAISON POSITION – CCR 11-70.

The Honolulu City Council also passed a resolution in 2012 to expedite the identifying and mapping of important agricultural lands:

RESOLUTION URGING THE CITY’S AGRICULTURAL LIAISON TO EXPEDITE THE IDENTIFYING AND MAPPING OF IMPORTANT AGRICULTURAL LANDS AND ENSURE THAT THE CITY WORKS TO PRESERVE THE AVAILABILITY OF AGRICULTURAL LANDS FOR FARMING – CCR 12-23.

It is very important to note that the resolution contained a Further Resolved clause: “that the process of identification and mapping of important agricultural lands also consider agriculturally productive lands within urban growth boundaries that are classified as prime agricultural lands, provided adequate water supply is available;

This highlighted statement is very important because it says that even IF the agriculturally
productive lands are in a designated urban growth boundary, as the three HART Rail stations and TOD’s will be, the lands that meet the prime agricultural lands criteria must be mapped- and they HAVE NOT BEEN. 

This is because there has been direction from the Honolulu Mayor’s office to City Department of Planning and Permitting to prevent this Important Agricultural Lands (IAL) identification. Mayor Caldwell supports this valuable farmland destruction.

The Federal Transit Administration most likely knows by now that there is a great deal of unhappiness and dissatisfaction about the HART Rail project- how over budget it is, etc. However, FTA management may not be aware that one of the single greatest issues is the HART Rail project creating a massive urban sprawl development project that will pave over and destroy West Oahu’s largest contiguous farmland – the remaining Ewa Plantation lands.


http://www.hoopilitraffic.com/                               http://www.stophoopili.com/


The Honouliuli Ewa Plain agricultural farm lands MUST be seen in their full ecological, cultural environmental, and historic cumulative context and not as a single abstraction. In Hawaii this is the “Konohiki” viewpoint and also the “ahupua’a” sustainability concept because islands have limited space and resources.

A Continental US farmland rating system for a massive heavy rail transportation project in the very limited confines of traditional island farmlands tied in with vast sprawling home developments and shopping centers under the guise of Transit Oriented Development that FTA is supporting isn’t simply just unfair or inadequate, it is tragic and possibly even criminal in intent. 

The Ho’opili farmland constitutes 31% of all of the farmland on O’ahu currently producing food for the local market.  

From the March 2012 Agricultural Liaison Important Agricultural Lands Progress Report:

FTA transit funds are going into this very valuable farmland destruction and many West Oahu residents believe this will be creating a future environmental catastrophe.

Not only will there be a loss of key valuable traditional open space farmland, a loss of an important food security safeguard, a massively overcrowded highway system that even HART rail admittedly cannot adequately address, but also the loss of native endangered and migratory bird habitats, water runoff pollution of the impervious surface rail station - TOD development projects which will direct their storm water runoff into West Loch Pearl Harbor and the Ewa shoreline ecosystem, poisoning Ewa fisheries, reef system and shoreline habitat of sea birds, mammals and edible limu. 


ALL of the FTA sponsored HART Rail impacts are VERY NEGATIVE, a social and environmental INJUSTICE and not SMART GROWTH.

 FTA may not know that the Ho’oplili TOD project which covers over and destroys prime agricultural farmland is opposed by a large number of West Oahu residents as well as former Hawaii governors George Ariyoshi, John Waihee and Ben Cayetano.

FTA may not know that a large number of agricultural experts and community groups believe that this great misuse of very valuable traditional cultural property is tragically WRONG.

FTA and HART rail are the major sponsors of this valuable agricultural land and TCP obliteration which frankly appears to be more about real estate development and land speculation than the public transit system people were lead to believe they were getting.

It is also not lost on many local residents that the FTA HART rail agenda has required the decimation of the very popular TheBus system which has been the only mass transit system to be recognized twice by the American Public Transportation Association as America's Best Transit System for 1994–1995 and 2000–2001, beating other transit systems.

From the March 2012 Agricultural Liaison Important Agricultural Lands Progress Report:


Administrative Testimony, March 5, 2015 – City Council Bill 3 to Remove Ewa farmland’s Ag-1 designation and replace the land with a HART and FTA funded Transit Oriented Development.

Testimony of Kamana’opono Crabbe, Ph.D

Ka Pouhana, Chief Executive Officer, Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA).

The irrevocable loss of this prime agricultural land from agricultural use raises significant
concerns. Although OHA readily acknowledges that the Land Use Commission previously
reclassified the project area from the State Agricultural District to the Urban District in 2012, and that City and County plans have deemed Kapolei the secondary urban center 2, the continued loss of agricultural land threatens the future of agriculture in Hawai’i.
Policies supporting increased agriculture must be implemented, rather than policies that result in paving over prime agricultural land.

(As the Department of Permitting and Planning DPP acknowledges “the vast majority of the project site consists of ‘A’ and ‘B’ rated soils” according to the University of Hawai’i Land Study Bureau Detailed Land Classification for the Island of O’ahu; and (“[t]he majority of the project site is classified as ‘Prime’ according to the Agricultural Lands of Importance to the State of Hawai’i system. DPP, Findings of Fact, Analysis, Conclusions of Law, and Recommendation on File No. 2014/Z-5, pages 5-6.
(2) General Plan for the City and County of Honolulu, I. Population, Obj. C, Pol. 2, IIV. Physical Development and Urban Design, Obj. C; ‘Ewa Development Plan, 1-1, 2-3, 2-8, Table 2.2.1.)

Support for agriculture has a direct connection to Hawai’i’s ability to grow its own food.
One of the targets of the Aloha+ Challenge, which has been supported by OHA, the mayors of the four counties, and the legislature, and Governor Abercrombie, is to double local food production by 2030.~ The benefits of supporting agriculture in Hawai’i are vast, ranging from the obvious—food security, fresher food, maintenance of a rural landscape, and potential for reduced environmental impacts—to the less obvious—improved health for consumers and farm workers, a diversified employment industry, connection to the ‘aina, and sense of community.

In this testimony, which follows up on OHA’s December 3, 2014 testimony to the Planning
Commission and OHA’s September 19, 2014 comments to DPP, OHA reiterates its concern
about the applicant’s request to remove prime agricultural lands, with both high soil and
productivity ratings, from all present and future agricultural use.

(See more testimony and government documents in the Shared Drive link in this letter.)


Federal law concerning major projects like this multi-billion dollar FTA funded railway requires that in the identification of historic and cultural sites, a “reasonable and good faith effort” be made. We don’t see this as having been the case and certainly Federal Judge Wallace Tashima stated in his ruling in 2014 that he was greatly concerned about the identification of ALL Traditional Cultural Properties (TCP) along the rail route. 


Kanehili Cultural Hui provided to FTA and HART extensive detailed reports on all of these TCP issues for many years and not once were they acknowledged or taken seriously until we filed our HART Programmatic Agreement Stipulation 9 objection letter.

The Honouliuli Ewa Plain was the site of a very important ancient Hawaiian community with kalo fields feeding many hundreds of thousands of people over 1000 years. Annual Makahiki Ceremonies and processions along the ancient trail network through this traditional agricultural property honored the very important god of agriculture- Lono.


The main waterway through this Ewa Plain farmland is called Kalo’i Gulch (actually the surface feature of a much larger below surface karst waterway that flows to the ocean). The name says what the area was used for: Kalo farming. These Kalo farms were all connected by a series of ancient trails (Malden in 1825 identified the main network but hundreds of smaller trails existed) and this was all managed under a Konohiki land management system in the ahupua’a of Honouliuli.
What can be done to remedy this situation?

It could not be more clear what a great and tragic injustice is coming to the Ewa Plain- sponsored by the Federal Transportation Administration and the City’s HART Rail project.
FTA should immediately review and correct the erroneous Farmland Conversion Impact Rating based upon all of the substantial evidence Kanehili Cultural Hui has submitted in this letter and linked shared drive.

In addition, Mayor Caldwell should immediately direct City DPP to accomplish an honest Important Agricultural Lands (IAL) identification of Ewa Traditional Cultural Place agricultural farmlands as was the intent of City Council resolutions CCR-11-70 and CCR 12-23.

Further, before City Council Bill 3 is passed that will permanently remove and allow obliteration of these valuable Ewa farmlands, the Ewa TCP issue now under review through the HART Programmatic Agreement Stipulation IX should be settled as well as the pending Hawaii Supreme Court case concerning this same issue. 


Ewa Farm Land Conversion To Commercial Development Unconstitutional

City Bill 3 violates Hawaii Constitution, Creates Highway To Hell Death Trap

West Oahu Eco-Disaster: HART Rail Hitting Karst Water, Sea Caves And Polluting Ewa-Honoululi-Waipahu Wetlands


West Oahu's greatest natural apocalypse is unfolding, with hundreds 
of 8 foot in diameter, 200 foot deep drill bores, the ancient karst water, sea caves and 
wetlands are being fractured and polluted, then to be followed by 
a major new asphalt and concrete city based around 
three huge HART Rail Transit Oriented Developments.

The already fragile Ewa Plain ecosystem based on natural clean water will be destroyed.


HART Rail Ewa Plain Route Drills Into Major 1000 Year Old Native Hawaiian Burial Grounds


By John Bond,   Kanehili Cultural Hui

The Great Honouliuli Ewa Apocalypse Returns




Photos Of West Oahu Community Opposition At HART Rail Hoopili Station Meeting In Kapolei

Photos Of West Oahu Community Protests Of Hoopili Project Destroying 1500 Acres Of Prime Historic Ewa Farmland

Photos Of Protest Of Day Of Infamy City Bill 3 Which Destroys 1500 Acres Of Historic Prime Ewa Farmland