Politics charged
in Maui sewer case

The county attorney says
the state health and EPA actions
are timed to hurt Linda
Lingle's campaign

By Ian Lind
Star-Bulletin

Maui Mayor Linda Lingle's top attorney has charged that state and federal environmental agencies have unfairly targeted the Maui's waste-water system for enforcement actions "deliberately timed" to damage Lingle's campaign for governor.

In a letter addressed to the Hatch Act Unit of the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, Maui Corporation Counsel J.P. Schmidt requested an immediate formal investigation into possible violations of the Hatch Act "by one or more employees" of the Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health.

The letter was sent immediately after the county notified federal attorneys that it was withdrawing from negotiations over terms of a settlement of charges concerning a series of sewage spills that occurred between 1992 and 1996.

Schmidt told the Star-Bulletin he expects a lawsuit against the county to be filed in federal court soon, possibly this week.

Christopher A. Sproul, an EPA attorney assigned to the attorney general's office in Honolulu, said the county's sudden decision to leave the negotiations came as a surprise.

"I'm mystified as to what the county has done and why," Sproul said. "Maui County has a sewage spill problem and we're trying to fix it. We were trying to work out a mutually satisfactory settlement, but obviously it hadn't happened."

The EPA and Health Department announced administrative actions against Maui in February 1997 for sewage spills dating to 1992. In a news release at that time, the agencies cited a series of 265 spills between 1992 and 1996.

Negotiations had been under way for the past 18 months involving officials from the Health Department, EPA, the Department of Justice and the county.

Sproul said further comments at this time would be "premature."

"Exactly where we're going to go with this I don't know," he said.

According to Schmidt's letter, two county waste-water employees flew to Honolulu on June 8 for a meeting with Dennis Tulang, state wastewater branch chief.

Eassie Miller, who is in charge of waste-water operations on Maui, said Tulang arrived late for the meeting. "He explained that he was late because he was on a conference call with the EPA and, he said, they want the consent decree wrapped up 'before the election,'" Miller said.

Schmidt's letter says the election comment is not relevant to the waste-water issues that are the subject of the enforcement action.

"The only reason that such a deadline could be important is to damage the candidacy of Maui County's mayor for governor," Schmidt wrote.

Tulang was traveling out of state yesterday and could not be reached for comment.

Bruce Anderson, deputy director for environmental health, was in meetings and unavailable yesterday afternoon.

Schmidt said the EPA/Department of Health enforcement started as an administrative action that required the county to reduce theml6 Linda

Lingle frequency and volume of waste-water spills by 75 percent by the end of 1997.

The county says it has invested $120 million to overhaul its sewage system, and has reduced the number of spills by 80 percent and their volume by 97 percent.

Schmidt complains that instead of recognizing the county's progress and rewarding its efforts, the agencies have insisted on unfairly high fines and other conditions.

After Lingle officially entered the governor's race, the agencies added new demands that the county agree to supplemental programs that would cost $34 million but would provide no additional environmental benefits, Schmidt said.

"We decided they are negotiating in bad faith, and that something else is going on here," Schmidt said yesterday.

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Spending commission ruling
could cut into Lingle funds

Getting public money may mean she loses
up to $272,000 for her campaign for governor

By Richard Borreca
Star-Bulletin

Republican Maui Mayor Linda Lingle may lose up to $272,000 in money for her campaign for governor because of a ruling by the state Campaign Spending Commission.

Lingle is requesting public money for her campaign under a state law that allows candidates who agree to limit the amount of money they collect to get extra money from the Campaign Spending Commission.

The issue stands or falls on how the commission interprets two sections of the campaign spending law.

The commission wants to limit Lingle's campaign to $136,229 in the primary election and another $136,229 in the general election.

But Lingle's attorney, Richard Clifton, argues that the amount should be double that.

Robert Watada, commission executive director, contends that he and and several legislative chairmen agreed to the changes when the law was overhauled in 1995.

But there is no record of the Legislature agreeing to the campaign contribution change.

Back then, Watada said, the Legislature wanted more of the money to be available to House and Senate candidates who agreed to abide by campaign spending limits.

Watada said he explained that if you increased the money for legislative candidates, the money for gubernatorial candidates would naturally be restricted.

"We pointed out that if you do that -- you are working with a fixed amount of dollars in a trust fund -- there would have to be a decline in the other races," Watada said.

Clifton, however, said the entire law was aimed at encouraging candidates to limit campaign spending.

"If the commission instead adopts the conclusion (that Lingle's funds should be cut) it will be apparent that it is not serious about encouraging public financing and compliance with the voluntary expenditure limits," he said.