Pest discovered aboard Taiwanese ship
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has intercepted a destructive alien pest on a Taiwanese ship at the Port of Honolulu, the agency announced Tuesday.
Customs agriculture specialists made the discovery in late September of 11 Asian gypsy moth egg masses, each of which could contain hundreds of eggs.
They were found during the deck sweep of the vessel and were on various surfaces of ship. Before allowing the processing of cargo, the agriculture specialists carefully scraped off the eggs and treated the surfaces.
This was the first discovery of this plant pest’s eggs in Hawaii.
The Asian gypsy moth is voracious and can eat more than 600 forest tree species, shrubs and other plants. It can spread quickly because the female can fly up to 25 miles, the agency said.
"If established in the United States, AGM could decimate America’s forest resources and agriculture production," Customs and Border Protection said in a news release.
Oily debris might wash up Wednesday
Hawaii Independent Energy warned that oily debris from a spill on Sunday 1.5 miles off Barbers Point could hit Oahu Wednesday morning.
The "slight possibility" of the oily debris arriving on shores west of Iroquois Point is based on the weather forecast and tides Tuesday evening, HIE said in an email.
On Sunday the release of 1,200 gallons of oil and water off Barbers Point occurred during routine maintenance of the hose used to transfer crude oil and refined products between oil tankers and Hawaii Independent Energy’s single-point mooring off Barbers Point, HIE said.
A spokesman for HIE said Tuesday an investigation is being conducted to determine the cause of the release, but no transfer of oil or refined products was occurring at the time of the spill.
HIE, the Coast Guard and the state Department of Health will deploy a shoreline cleanup and assessment team Wednesday morning as a precaution. The state Department of Land and Natural Resources is also responding.
Hawaii honored for best state Web portal
The state of Hawaii’s Web portal is the best one maintained by a state government in the U.S., according to the e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government’s 2014 Best of the Web and Digital Government Achievement Awards.
The awards, announced Tuesday, recognize city, county and state governments for outstanding portals and websites based on innovation, functionality, productivity and performance.
The top county portal award went to Oakland County, Mich., while the first-place-winning city portal was submitted by the District of Columbia. A Web portal is a Web page that serves as a gateway to information from other sources.
Woman killed crossing street, vehicle sought
Police are searching for one of two vehicles that hit a 60-year-old woman crossing Rice Street in front of the Bank of Hawaii in Lihue on Tuesday morning, Kauai police reported. The woman died at the scene.
The woman was in a marked crosswalk at 6:15 a.m. when a Toyota Tacoma truck, heading west, hit her, police said.
The man in the pickup truck stopped to help the woman, when a second vehicle, described as a full-size dark-colored SUV, traveling west in the outside lane of Rice Street, also struck the pedestrian, police said. The second vehicle continued on without stopping, police said.
Police have not yet released the woman’s identity.
Anyone with information on this incident is asked to contact Kauai’s Traffic Safety Section at 241-1617.
Pavement work spurs request to remove cars
The Maui Department of Public Works has notified residents that "sealcoat" work in the West Maui Paunau subdivision is expected to affect traffic this month and next.
The work, which is part of the county’s pavement preservation program, got underway Thursday.
Residents have been asked to remove all vehicles from the roadway and shut off all irrigation systems during working hours. Affected roads include Paunau Street, Pauoa Street, Pauwala Place, Pupu Place, Pauu Place and Kuai Place. The West Maui Senior Center, on Pauoa Street, will not be affected during this phase.
