Proposal boosts fishpond recovery

Some federal and state officials are supporting the idea of shortening the permits process for work on traditional Hawaiian fishponds to encourage more restorations.

"There’s tremendous interest from the Hawaiian community about this," said Sam Lemmo, an administrator with the state Department of Land and Natural Resources. "It’s not just about restoring a physical pond. It has a cultural element, too."

A draft environmental assessment about revising the application process for Hawaiian fishponds has been published for review and comments by the state Office of Environmental Quality Control. The deadline for comment is May 23.

Before the arrival of Westerners in 1778, aquaculture thrived in Hawaii with more than 400 fishponds dotting the landscape, and about 10 percent of them are still in good-enough condition for restoration, fishpond advocates said.

Critics say the current application process takes several years and is so long and expensive that there are few who engage in fishpond restoration.

To quicken the process, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources has proposed serving as the clearinghouse for government review for the fishponds. The clearinghouse would help to handle processing permits from various government agencies, including the Army Corps of Engineers and the state Departments of Health and Land and Natural Resources.

National Marine Fisheries Service official Alan Everson said the revised process would be similar to the model used for beach replenishment programs in the state, with the Corps of Engineers giving authority to the state under certain conditions to allow continued work under a permit.

Everson, the Pacific Islands aquaculture coordinator, said the major government agencies that have to agree to the process include the Corps of Engineers and Department of Health.

Lemmo, administrator of the state Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands, said the goal is to shorten the permit application process to no more than a year.

The fishpond advocacy organization Hui Malama Loko I‘a, representing some 25 fishpond groups, is supporting the proposal, said Hi‘i­lei Kawelo, executive director of Pae­pae o He‘eia, the Friends of the He‘eia Fishpond.

"We’re all working together," she said.

Kawelo, whose group has been waiting for an Army Corps permit for years to repair an 89-foot section of a fishpond wall, said the proposal won’t remove the need for accountability, but realigns the permitting process.

She said the process needs to be changed because it acts as a deterrent to fishpond restoration.

View the proposal online at hsalinks.com/10mvQmW.

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A previous version of this story incorrectly said the deadline for comment is May 10, and that a public hearing is scheduled for May 3. The deadline for comment is May 23 and there is no public hearing.