Hawaii County planning officials are investigating the storage of logs across from Kawaihae Harbor.
Hawaii County planning officials are investigating the storage of logs across from Kawaihae Harbor.
Planning Department Manager of Long Range Planning April Surprenant said timber storage is a consistent use for agriculture land, which the Queen Emma Foundation-owned property is, but the land falls within a Special Management Area, and changing the use requires an application. Neither the foundation, the lumber company or Edwin De Luz Trucking, which is hauling the harvested timber, has applied to do that work in the special management area.
“Given what we’ve seen as of today” the foundation and Tradewinds Forest Products LLC would likely be allowed to store the timber there, once the application is reviewed, Surprenant said.
She said she had permission from Planning Director Bobby Jean Leithead Todd to issue a notice of violation; a West Hawaii inspector would complete the notice. Surprenant did not yet know how much the landowner would be fined.
The notice will be sent to the Queen Emma Foundation, she said.
Kevin Balog, managing member for Edwin De Luz Trucking, said a call Monday morning from West Hawaii Today was the first he heard about any potential violation.
“If there’s something we need to do, we will do it,” Balog said.
He said the company never intended to violate SMA rules. He said the Queen Emma parcel is large and some parts fall within the SMA, while others do not. He noted he did have Fire Department officials visit the site, to provide fire prevention and suppression measure instructions. The company put water tanks on site at the Fire Department’s recommendation, Balog said.
Trucking company officials got the idea to locate the storage site on Queen Emma land after seeing MasTec Construction’s heavy equipment storage there.
Edwin De Luz Trucking has the contract to haul the harvested eucalyptus trees from Hamakua to Kawaihae, where the logs are being stored until a full load is available to ship to Asia. Balog said they have not stopped hauling timber yet because they had not received any violation notice.
Tradewinds has about 14,000 acres of land in Hamakua, Balog told West Hawaii Today for an article last month. Tradewinds Forest Products’ George Motta said the eucalyptus trees were planted from 1997 to 2000 specifically to be harvested, and now is the ideal time to do so, because of the trees’ size.
Tradewinds Forest Products is not the same company as Tradewinds Hawaiian Woods, a company that was planning a veneer mill in Hamakua. Tradewinds Forest Products leases land to grow trees, and was once offering funding to Tradewinds Hawaiian Woods to build the mill, the latter company’s CEO Don Bryan said. Tradewinds Forest Products was part of a partnership with Hancock Timber Resource Group, which leased the Kamehameha Schools land to grow the eucalyptus trees.
When Tradewinds Forest Products pulled funding from Tradewinds Hawaiian Woods in July 2010, the association between the two ended, Bryan said.
Tradewinds Forest Products tested harvesting and shipping logs to Oahu to be burned at an island power plant instead of coal. Transporting the whole logs wasn’t cost-effective, Motta said at the time.
Tradewinds Forest Products will also supply wood to Hu Honua Bioenergy when that company finishes converting a defunct coal-powered energy plant to a bioenergy facility.
Balog said the contract with Tradewinds Forest Products means about eight new jobs for the trucking company, and about 15 new jobs total for the Big Island.