Hawaiian Homes Commission approves FONSI for Kalaupapa electrical rehabilitation

The Hawaiian Homes Commission on May 20 approved a Finding of No Significant Impact, or FONSI, for the Kalaupapa National Historical Park electrical system rehabilitation and upgrade project, closing the review under the final environmental assessment.

The motion approved by the seven-member commission directs staff to publish the FONSI and allow the National Park Service to proceed with construction under the mitigation measures described in the final environmental assessment. Commissioners voted unanimously in favor; the motion carried.

The National Park Service and Department of Hawaiian Home Lands staff told the commission the project is a distribution-system rehabilitation — replacing poles, insulators and other distribution components — not a project to change how electricity is generated. Nancy Holman, superintendent of Kalaupapa National Historical Park, told commissioners the work includes replacing about 237 poles, converting some single-phase lines to three-phase, installing dark-sky-compliant fixtures and relocating poles to avoid cultural sites. She said the design-build contract allowed the agency to work with contractors during design to reduce impacts to cultural resources.

Park and DHHL staff described alternatives studied during design, including pulling line to the water pump house and full undergrounding. The park said trenching would be likely to encounter sensitive cultural features and that substrate conditions make successful boring unlikely, so the final design retains surface distribution lines in areas already disturbed while using localized solar to serve isolated features such as the lighthouse.

The final EA and addenda, staff said, include mitigation tables, a revegetation and rehabilitation plan and an archaeological monitoring plan that would be implemented during construction. Staff also flagged measures to halt or reverse invasive-plant spread during construction and to protect threatened and endangered species. The park said it has concluded federal compliance (National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act) for the final design and is awaiting a letter from the State Historic Preservation Division after a 90-day consultation.

Commission discussion was brief. A commissioner thanked National Park Service and DHHL staff for advancing the project; another commissioner noted improved telecommunications assessments by Hawaiian Telcom as an ancillary benefit. Chair Watson then called for a vote; the motion passed unanimously.

The approved FONSI closes NEPA review at the federal level and allows the park to publish the FONSI in the Environmental Notice and proceed under the conditions in the final EA. Park and DHHL staff said the project is intended to stabilize an aging distribution system that staff described as increasingly prone to failures from salt air, wind and termite damage, and to improve reliability for the settlement’s water pumping, phone and internet connections.

Commissioners did not adopt additional conditions beyond those contained in the final EA and errata; staff said the EA and mitigation tables list the required measures.

If implemented as described, construction will be concentrated in previously developed or disturbed areas and along existing roadways, with targeted pole relocations to protect cultural sites. Staff said generators that serve the pump house will be replaced and put on a maintenance schedule to reduce past failure points.

The commission vote: motion to issue a FONSI for the Kalaupapa National Historical Park electrical system rehabilitation and upgrade project — approved (unanimous).