Thursday will be the 24th day of the 60-day session.

State House lawmakers were on Kaua'i Friday for a hearing on a bill to respond to last year's fatal Kaloko dam breach.

An outside consultant has recommended the Legislature make sweeping changes to state dam safety law, including tougher enforcement, stricter penalties for noncompliance and greater state oversight of dam safety programs.

Many lawmakers, including those from Kaua'i, have supported the recommendations. But several large landowners, including Kamehameha Schools and Alexander & Baldwin, have said the changes would be expensive to implement, are not needed in all cases and could drive up the cost of water for marginal agricultural enterprises.

Kamehameha Schools has said it would cost $500,000 to comply with the regulations.

Superferry: The state Environmental Council released an opinion Thursday that the state Department of Transportation failed to consider the cumulative impact of Hawai'i Superferry when it ruled the project was exempt from an environmental impact statement.

The council, which advises the state Office of Environmental Quality Control, was advised by its attorney that it probably did not have the authority to issue declaratory rulings or opinions. But several councilmembers felt it was important to make a stand to defend the state's environmental rules.

State Senate Majority Leader Gary Hooser, D-7th (Kaua'i, Ni'ihau), asked the council for an opinion to help him force an environmental impact statement on Superferry before its July launch.

Hooser believes he has the votes in the Senate to pass a bill requiring an environmental review for the project. But state Rep. Joe Souki, D-8th (Wailuku, Waihe'e, Waiehu), the chairman of the House Transportation Committee, has said he would not hear the bill in the House.

Smoking fight: The fight between smokers and anti-smokers took a nasty twist Thursday.

The anti-smoking camp circulated a letter around the state Capitol by David Kawika Crowley, the co-chair of the Hawai'i Smokers Alliance, to a state health official that can at best be described as passionate.

Crowley called the dispute over the state's new smoking ban a war and warned against comparisons to the unsuccessful opposition to similar bans in California and New York.

"My friend, this is Hawai'i, a totally different and unique beast," he wrote. "You made the first very grave mistake of underestimating us local folk under outside attack. And I will insure your side's weak point will continue to make one mistake after another.

"Frankly, I love a bloody fight. However, I also cherish common-sense logical thinking. I'm giving you just this one opportunity before we jump into Round Two. We won Round One, sir."

Some in the anti-smoking camp said the letter was harassment.

"It borders on terroristic threatening," said Aimee Larsen Kirkpatrick, who helped get the smoking ban passed last session.

Crowley, of Hilo, who had taken to carrying an unlit cigar at committee hearings, got a chuckle at the reaction. "Show me where it's threatening," he said of the letter. "If you can't stand the fire, get the hell out of the kitchen."

After all that, the House Judiciary Committee Thursday night deferred a bill that would have created an exception to the ban for bars. The Senate Health Committee deferred the bill earlier this month, meaning it is likely dead for the year.

But state Rep. Tommy Waters, D-51st (Lanikai, Waimanalo), the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said he believes the ban is probably unenforceable and that he favors an exception for open-air bars. Waters predicted a similar bill would be back again next session.

OVERHEARD

"I think if we want to have an impact, we need to act now, rather than later."

— David Atkin, of the state Environmental Council, on the council's opinion that the state did not take into account the cumulative impact of Hawai'i Superferry when it exempted the project from an environmental impact statement.

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