i L i n d . n e t

A new study by the Campaign Disclosure Project featuring a state-by-state comparison of campaign finance disclosure rates Hawaii near the top, earning an A+ for the campaign disclosure law but only a B- for the usability of its web site. The study found “the lack of a current, searchable database is a setback for the state’s historically strong accessibility performance.”

In the midst of all the belly-aching over the EPA’s decision to require an upgrade to Honolulu’s municipal wastewater treatment, I couldn’t help noticing that Maui County is exploring the advantages of small scale wastewater plants distributed in local areas rather than more huge municipal facilities.

According to a recent story in the Maui News:

Advantages claimed for package plants include:

Few or no odor problems. Controlling odor is mainly a matter of age, says Taylor. The older it is, the more it smells. Central plants with long collection lines age the sewage. Local plants with short lines get the incoming sewage treated before it has a chance to stink.

Big savings in collection lines. Steve Parabicoli, who supervises reclaimed water reuse for the county, says laying pipe in Kihei costs $250-$300 a foot. This frustrates him, because he has high-quality (R1) effluent that could be used for irrigation, but the potential customers are far away. So the effluent is disposed of in injection wells.

If it could be reused, it would help the Department of Water Supply by displacing the use of treated drinking water to water lawns, and the Wastewater Reclamation Division by generating revenue.

With a package plant, the effluent can be used on the spot to irrigate lawns and roadsides. Developer Jesse Spencer, who is proposing to build a 1,000-house development at Maalaea, plans to build a package plant and use the effluent to water ballfields and a greenbelt on the dry hillside above the property.

Wilkinson said a WSI plant easily beats even the strictest California standards for both biological oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand, as well as denitrifying the effluent. R1 quality effluent is easy, he said.

R1 is the highest-quality effluent, approved for most uses except drinking after being filtered, treated and disinfected. The Lahaina and Kihei county plants produce R1 water. Kahului produces R2 but could be upgraded to R1 with the addition of ultraviolet light disinfection.

Big savings in power. Sewage treatment plants are usually located as low as possible, to take advantage of gravity to move the sewage. On Maui, that means on valuable shoreline, as at Kahului. If the plant is inland, as with the Kihei treatment plant, lift stations to pump the sewage up to the plant. If the effluent is to be reused, that’s more power to move it around.

By being near the source, package plants require little pumping if at all. Package plants can promise lower costs for the life of a system, Taylor said.

Wilkinson claims an extra advantage for his technology: resale value. If a project outgrows its plant, or if a homeowner moves, he can pick up the plant and move it. There’s no leachfield required.

In case you missed it, a Seattle television station reported yesterday that the Hearst Corporation will make a last-ditch attempt to sell the Post-Intelligencer, with the intention of closing the newspaper if a quick sale doesn’t materialize.

That advance report was followed today by an official announcement by Hearst. Like the Star-Bulletin in 1999, the P-I will be offered for sale for a 60-day period and will close immediately if no buyer is found.

The newspaper’s staff was called into a closed meeting today by publisher Roger Oglesby. Present at the meeting was Hearst Newspaper President Steve Swartz, who told the newsroom that Hearst Corp. is starting a 60-day process to find a buyer.

If a buyer is not found, Swartz said, possible options include creating an all-digital operation with a greatly reduced staff, or closing its operations entirely.

In no case will Hearst continue to publish the P-I in printed form, Swartz said.

Regardless, he said the P-I as a newspaper will not publish after the two months is up if no buyer is found.

The P-I is much like the Star-Bulletin prior to its sale to Black Press. The P-I is printed and distributed through a joint operating agreement with the Seattle Times, and lacks its own printing plant and business infrastructure. This would seem like another opportunity for Black, who owns printing facilities and a chain of community newspapers in the Seattle area, but Black has been struggling with large losses in the past year which may dampen his appetite for new acquisitions.

And a sobering article by Michael Hirschorn in The Atlantic speculates on the possible demise of the NY Times, which is also facing serious financial pressures.

Regardless of what happens over the next few months, The Times is destined for significant and traumatic change. At some point soon—sooner than most of us think—the print edition, and with it The Times as we know it, will no longer exist. And it will likely have plenty of company. In December, the Fitch Ratings service, which monitors the health of media companies, predicted a widespread newspaper die-off: “Fitch believes more newspapers and news paper groups will default, be shut down and be liquidated in 2009 and several cities could go without a daily print newspaper by 2010.”

In a conference yesterday with staff at the skilled nursing facility where my dad has been for the past month, one comment caused me to pause. One of the staff said dementia patients enjoy the tactile feel of paper, and will spend lots of time with newspapers and magazines, turning the pages, looking at photos, and just letting the pages stroke their senses.

I guess that’s how many of us who started reading newspapers before the dawn of the Internet feel about the newspaper experience.

Could the end really be that near?

And for your Friday time filler, check out this collection of panoramic “virtual tours” of various Hawaii locations.

And I have to say that yesterday’s squid blogging blew my Feline Friday out of the water. You’ll just have to hang on for a day or two until I catch up with a few more cat photos. Sorry to leave you hanging.

Perhaps I’ll just share this observation for Feline Friday: Now that we’re starting our daily walk in the dark at 6 a.m., we’ve found that cats are awake and out hunting, while most dogs are sound asleep when we pass by. Dogs aren’t really active until the sun starts to make its appearance. Is that just our lazy Kaaawa dogs or a more general fact? Unknown.