Utility charged in bird deaths
May 20 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Diana Leone The Honolulu
Advertiser
The federal government has indicted Kaua'i's electric utility for
creating conditions that allegedly have led to the deaths and injuries
of hundreds of threatened and endangered seabirds.
The U.S. Justice Department indicted Kaua'i Island Utility Cooperative
for alleged violations of the Endangered Species and Migratory Bird
Treaty acts, the utility said yesterday.
"KIUC is deeply disappointed by the Justice Department's decision to
file charges in a matter where KIUC has been working diligently for the
past decade with every state and federal government agency and other
stakeholders to achieve workable solutions to protect endangered
Hawaiian seabirds," the company said in a statement.
A 1995 study estimated that 300 or more birds a year are killed or
injured by streetlights and utility wires, said David Henkin, a lawyer
for Earthjustice. The legal firm has sued KIUC and the St. Regis Hotel
in Princeville this year on behalf of Kaua'i residents, alleging
violation of the Endangered Species Act regarding the birds.
The species of concern are threatened Newell's shearwaters and
endangered Hawaiian petrels. Birds can be disoriented by bright lights
and fall to the ground exhausted, or can fly into electrical wires they
cannot see.
Shielding of streetlights since 1995 has reduced the number of birds
harmed, but more needs to be done, including undergrounding of utility
lines in key bird flight paths and preservation of their nesting habitat
in the mountains, Henkin said. Shearwater populations on Kaua'i have
declined 75 percent in the past 15 years, he said.
"We welcome the filing of a criminal indictment and we think it's
appropriate," Henkin said. "We welcome state and federal enforcement to
send a strong signal, not just to the utility, that we're no longer
going to allow people to flout the law."
Kaua'i-based KIUC attorney David Proudfoot said he could not comment
because he had not seen the indictment by late yesterday afternoon.
The Department of Justice, which had opened a criminal investigation
targeting KIUC in March 2007, could not be reached for comment.
The utility has been in talks since 2001 with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service and state Division of Forestry and Wildlife over ways it can
reduce harm to birds, said KIUC support services manager Carey Koibe.
KIUC's proposed Habitat Conservation Plan is awaiting action by the
state and federal wildlife agencies, Koibe said.
Reach Diana Leone at
dleone@honoluluadvertiser.com.
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