Sustainable living...

Hello fellow readers... I'm looking for a new venture to include with the Makalii Group. After meeting with several entrepreneurs on the mainland I am now more prepared to undertake a shift in our business. I would love to hear any of your ideas on how we could help the local Hawaii community to become more "Green"... do we need to offer consulting services for solar, wind etc? What about small ways for residents and businesses to go green? What, as a conscious resident, do you wish that you had to help you go green?
Thanks so much for your input!

Thanks and an update!

Thanks to everyone that has been following us since our inception last year. We have been very successful over the last several months obtaining new projects to work on and we just want to thank the local Hawaii community for your continued support!

So far this year, we are proud to be working with the Maui Solar Project and the Pacific Whale Foundation. We are also hoping to start work with the Natural Resource Data Solutions in a project in cooperation with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service very soon.

Again, thank you for all of your support! Please visit back often as we post more interesting info about our conservation projects!

Injection wells poisoning our shorelines, what to do?

On the County of Maui's Q& A page on Injection wells in the first question - "What is an injection well?" their answer includes the following:
"The County of Maui wastewater treatment plants and injection wells reduce the impact of human waste on the environment." They do claim that County injection wells are not the only causes of near-shore algae blooms that are smothering reef life and corals, that there are many privately owned Injection wells that also contribute, in addition to leaching of fertilizers and other runoff. However, there have been several studies claiming higher levels of Nitrogen nutrients in areas around injection wells, and at levels that would spawn the growth of more invasive algae (see "Factors influencing algal blooms on tropical reefs with an emphasis on herbivory, nutrients, and invasive species," Smith, Jennifer. University of Hawaii at Manoa, Dec 2003;"Ground-Water Nutrient Fluxes to Coastal Waters in the Kihei Area, Maui, Hawaii" Hunt, CD American Geophysical Union. Vol. 87, no. 36, Sep 2006;  "The Algal Blooms on South Maui: Do Nutrients Matter?" Smith, CM | Smith, JE. American Geophysical Union. Vol. 87, no. 36, Sep 2006.; "Ground-Water Nutrient Flux to Coastal Waters and Numerical Simulation of Wastewater Injection at Kihei, Maui, Hawaii," Hunt Jr., Charles D., 2007. U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2006-5283 version 1.0. for just a few examples.)

What is also disturbing is that the County was appropriated $184,000 in federal funds to implement a plan to upgrade the wells from the 1970s when it was discovered after 8 years of research that they needed some dire upgrades (see Maui Times Article - June 2, 2010 "Maalaea Injection Wells Damaging Coral Reef - But the County wants to conduct more studies") they instead hired a consultant to do more studies. According to the Maui Times article, corals in Maalaea bay were roughly 50-75% of the cover in 1993. This year healthy coral cover was measured at roughly 3%. And as far as we know, its not the County's wells that are necessarily causing the problem. It's the more than 20 privately owned injection wells, the deepest of which is only 75 feet!

Something needs to be done about our dependence on these injection wells. If there are already studies done, then we need to move to implementation of more environmentally responsible methods. Its not enough to say that our current facilities just cannot deal with the load capacity. It is also not enough to take time and federal dollars to conduct more studies when significant research by respected scientists has already occurred. Also, its important to recognize the limits that are being placed on our County systems and to take this into account when new developments are being proposed.

The Makali'i Group - new website!

Thanks to all of you who are viewing our sites - we appreciate the support as we grow as a company!


We wanted to let you all know that we have just finished our new website for The Makali'i Group. Please check us out at www.makaliigroup.com.

Feel free to leave us a message, follow us on Facebook, and soon follow us on Twitter!

Keep checking back for more updates, and please pass the word around that we are here and ready to help your business get to the next level in technology, planning and development!

Sincerely,
The Makali'i Group

Follow-up on Yesterdays post on Water in Maui

Happy Wednesday everyone!

We just wanted to follow up to our post yesterday because there was a very interesting editorial in the Maui News today (Wed., April 14, 2010) on page A3 by Tom Stevens in the Shave Ice section.

He commented on the upcoming potential for Maui's Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. (HC&S) plantation to be converted into an "energy farm." Stevens' thoughts were similar to our post yesterday, that it would be beneficial to our County water needs to NOT have sugar as the major crop anymore. Apparently there is some government funding going to the University of Hawaii and the U.S. Department of Agriculture to conduct feasibility studies for other crops or a conversion of the factory at Puunene into a new high-tech facility.

We would like to say Kudos to Tom Stevens for pointing out some (supposedly) obvious facts that:

1. Different crops could potentially use less water and generate "less dust, smoke and ash at harvest time",

2. That any decision by the state Commission on Water Resource Management next month on whether or not to return water to some streams will ultimately effect the outcomes of what HC&S could potentially grow in the future, and finally

3. Interestingly that despite the option to switch to more drought-resistant options, Stevens' writes that U.S. Senator Dan Inouye (who announced the planned study to send more than $4 million to Hawaii per year in federal funds to this project) says that "HC&S' water needs are not likely to diminish, regardless of what it plants."

Lets, as a community, begin to think outside of the 'Sugar Bowl' and attempt to move towards a more sustainable future for our local economy here on Maui. Thank you, Tom Stevens, for making the most valuable and pointed remark to conclude your piece, that "Maybe we're still, and always, talking about water."

Water Conservation on Maui

I would like to point out the inefficiency of watering plants (of all types) during the mid-day hours. I am often driving in Central Maui around noon and see many large sprinkler systems up and running, spraying large amounts of our precious water over the dry, parched Central Maui landscape on the West Maui side. You can also regularly see this happening to water the Sugarcane crop found along the Honoapiilani Highway, a crop that already uses an enormous amount of water to survive. A study from the University of Florida sited at least a 1.5% loss just from evaporation when you water during the daytime (http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ae048) . This didn't include the loss numbers from wind-blown episodes, which happens frequently in Central Maui and elsewhere. There are around 35,000 acres of sugar planted on Maui on Alexander & Baldwin lands (Pacific Business News, Friday, January 29, 2010). Sugar needs about 1500 to 2500 mm of irrigation during the growing season. Even with the minimum of the 1500 mm of rainfall (equivalent to 60 inches of rainfall), 1.5% of this equals nearly an inch of rainfall that can be lost over a small area due to evaporation alone.
The moral of this story is, water in the early mornings, when winds are light and solar radiation is at a low rate. This will invariably save Maui's water while maintaining a healthy crop of grasses for foraging animals or for your sugarcane!
For a list of 25 things you can do to prevent water waste, please visit the Maui County Department of Water Supply's useful list here

Thanks for listening!

The Makalii Group now up and running!

Aloha! The new Makalii Group helps businesses and organizations to grow in profitable, sustainable ways that protect our communities, our natural resources and our future investments.

We provide efficient, reliable and affordable solutions for non-profits, small and large businesses.Whether it is grant-writing services, GIS solutions or project management, we can provide on-site or remote assistance to help your organization's dreams flourish!

Makalii is the Hawaiian name for the constellation Pleiades, or the "Guiding Stars" of the voyaging canoes that journey across the Pacific using stellar navigation. The voyaging canoe is an island in the middle of a large ocean, a place of refuge. But it also shows the importance of taking care of the people and resources around you.

We believe that we must maintain this philosophy and protect each other and the finite supply of natural resources on the only planet that we have in order to be successful. We aim to be a guide for projects that see a larger picture, that believe in sustainable growth and that want to provide a prosperous future for local communities.

If you share in this vision, or would like information on our services, please contact our Founder/Consultant, Sarah McLane, at mclane@makaliigroup.com.

Cheers!