Bronster says she’s refuted
Lingle’s sewage-suit
claims before

By Mike Yuen
Star-Bulletin

Former Attorney General Margery Bronster has accused state Republican Chairwoman Linda Lingle of trivializing "serious health concerns" and of misrepresenting the state's lawsuit against Maui for its sewage spills when Lingle was the county's mayor.

Last week, Lingle, who ran unsuccessfully for governor last year, told the Rotary Club of Honolulu that Bronster abused her authority to help her boss, Gov. Ben Cayetano, get re-elected. Bronster had the state join the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in a lawsuit during the heat of the gubernatorial race to derail her campaign, Lingle insisted.

Bronster later branded Lingle's assertions as "nonsense."

Lingle said the lawsuit was without merit because a month after her defeat, U.S. District Judge Susan Oki Mollway threw out the state's claims.

But in a recent letter to Claude Thompson, president of the Rotary Club of Honolulu, Bronster wrote that she previously rebutted Lingle's claims, which "sound very similar to ones she made last year and which were refuted" in press releases her office sent out.

"Unlike fine wine, (Lingle's) statements have not improved with age," Bronster wrote in her letter. A copy was mailed to the Star-Bulletin.

"As I stated in the December 1998 press release, her statement that the federal court 'threw out the state's claims' for hundreds of sewage spills from Maui County's wastewater system could not be farther from the truth.

"The state's claims are very much alive. The state's claims based on federal law remain in federal court, the remaining claims were refiled in state court in January 1999."

Bronster said Maui residents have "suffered hundreds of repeated spills of raw sewage" from the county's wastewater system that flowed into public streets and waterways since 1992. It was Lingle's refusal to "amicably resolve the violations" that led to the state and EPA to file suit, Bronster added.

Lingle countered that Bronster "is making an outrageously false statement when she talks about hundreds of spills flowing in the public streets. That is a complete falsehood. She knows that's not true. It's another case of her just not being able to admit it when she is wrong. In this case, she's flat wrong."

Lingle insisted that despite Bronster's assertion that her administration refused to negotiate, a settlement had been reached but "her side went back on the agreement."

"The state was disappointed in the need to initiate litigation, because fixing Maui's environmental problems should have been everyone's foremost concern. I note that under the leadership of Mayor Kimo Apana, Maui County has returned to the negotiating table," Bronster wrote. "I have every confidence that the parties will reach a fair settlement that will avoid protracted and expensive litigation."

Apana is a Democrat.