An ambitious plan to establish the largest dairy in Hawaii by feeding 2,000 cows mainly pasture grass on Kauai is dead after a long and contentious battle with environmentalists and a hotel owner.
Ulupono Initiative, a socially minded investment firm that sought to start Hawaii Dairy Farms, announced Thursday that it is giving up the 8-year-old endeavor.
The decision follows years of planning, pasture development trials, environmental reviews and community opposition that included a legal challenge over concerns that cow manure from such a large operation would hurt tourism in nearby resort areas and pollute groundwater and ocean resources.
Ulupono said that it became clear there was “no reasonable regulatory path forward” for the dairy proposed on 557 acres of Grove Farm land in Mahaulepu Valley about 2.5 miles from residential and resort areas.
“Our proposal for the dairy farm was based on best management practices proven from around the world to create a more environmentally sustainable model of dairy farm that utilized active pasture management to minimize runoff and use grass as a low-cost source of feed,” Ulupono spokeswoman Amy Hennessey said in a statement. “But rather than incentivizing local food production to meet our state’s food goals, Hawaii’s environmental regulations seem to unfairly place dairies and other similar animal agriculture operations in the same category as wastewater treatment plants.”
Ulupono’s decision follows a recent legal settlement by one of only two existing major Hawaii dairies, Big Island Dairy on Hawaii island, to shut down by April 30 because of repeated wastewater discharges into the environment including streams. The only other dairy is Cloverleaf Dairy on Hawaii island.
One opponent of the Kauai dairy plan, environmental group Malama Maha‘ulepu, took to Facebook to spread word about Ulupono’s decision, saying, “We are ecstatic and we hope you are too.”
Kapaa resident Jere Graham posted one reply: “Wonderful!! So glad the Southshore has been saved from disaster!!”
Ulupono, led by billionaire eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, announced in 2011 that it intended to establish a new style of dairy farming in Hawaii based on pasture- fed cows and that it hoped this could become a model for restoring a 100 percent local milk supply that hasn’t existed in Hawaii since the 1980s.
The investment firm arranged a 20-year land lease with Grove in 2013, bought an initial heard of 882 cows in Missouri and hoped to begin milk production in 2015.
Supporters on the Garden Isle included then-Mayor Bernard Carvalho, the Kauai County Chamber of Commerce and a host of local farmers and restaurant owners.
But before construction began on the $17.5 million project, opposition built up from concerned citizens, members of Kauai’s visitor industry and environmental groups including the Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club, Malama Maha‘ulepu and some wildlife and fisheries groups.
Kawailoa Development Inc., owner of the Grand Hyatt Kauai Resort & Spa and the Poipu Bay Golf Course, filed a lawsuit in 2014 in an effort to force Ulupono to prepare an environmental assessment.
Ulupono elected to produce a more substantial environmental impact statement but withdrew the document in 2017 one month after finishing and publishing a final version.
Around the same time, the state Department of Health was still considering a waste management plan proposed by Ulupono that included what the firm said was bigger-than-required manure storage ponds and an emergency containment berm and spillway. Periodic water quality monitoring and a windscreen of trees to help mitigate odor also were part of the plan.
Ulupono said Thursday that it had exhausted all reasonable options to obtain approval for the dairy and that it is disappointing that it could not realize its effort to establish what it called a more environmentally sustainable dairy model.
The investment firm has put equipment it acquired for the farm, including irrigation supplies and a $750,000 unassembled steel barn, up for sale in an online auction through Island Bid Auctions ending Feb. 24.
Ulupono said it is now working with other parties to explore other ways to produce food on the Grove lands it leases.
“One of our core mission objectives is to increase local food production, in any form, so that we are less reliant on imports,” Hennessey said.
ON THE MOVE
Honolulu architecture firm AHL has announced the following new hires:
>> Emmanuel Geyrozaga as senior technical designer. Previously a project manager at TRG Architects, his current projects include the Hale Makana o Maili affordable-housing project in West Oahu.
>> Michael Honyak as a designer. Previously a researcher for the University of Hawaii Community Design Center, his current projects include Mayor Wright Homes and the science and math building at Brigham Young University Hawaii.
>> Christopher Gaydosh as a designer. Previously a project coordinator for the University of Hawaii Community Design Center, his current projects include the Hale Makana o Maili affordable-housing project in West Oahu and various military projects in Hawaii and on Guam.
>> Catherine Kenjo as a designer for the firm’s health care studio. Previously serving as an intern while completing graduate studies at University of Hawaii at Manoa, her current projects include the design of the newly painted Kapiolani Medical Center for Women & Children, the Ho‘ola Na Pua Pearl Haven Residential Treatment Facility and renovations at Tripler Army Medical Center.
