Text of Senator Sakamoto's Floor Speech - Gov. Msg. No. 276- Peter Young

May 1, 2007

Senator Sakamoto rose in opposition to the nominee and said:

“Madam President, I rise in opposition to the nominee.

“The previous speaker talked about focus.  My primary focus will be on the dam safety issue, specifically the Kaloko Dam breach in 2006.  I believe the people of this state want to sleep safely at night.  I believe the people of this state – whether they live by a dam, a stream, an ocean, or any natural resource – want to sleep safely at night . . . people died.  People don’t want insecurity.  I believe people of this state in the past, today, and tomorrow, expect there to be proper inspections, proper classifications of dams, proper mitigation . . . people died.  People have an expectation of state government.  The Dam Safety Act of 1987 gives the Department of Land and Natural Resources the responsibility of inspecting dams.  Obviously, this does not mean Peter Young himself has to walk out to every dam, or inspect every stream, inspect every burial, inspect everything, but people do expect the leader of the Department of Land and Natural Resources to protect them when they sleep at night . . . and people died.

“This wasn’t an old issue from 40 years ago, but it is an old issue and there’s no question resources are part of the picture, and in no way am I absolving others of any culpability in what happened, but certainly the American Society of Civil Engineers in March 2001 did issue Hawaii a D grade for our state regulated dams and that continued.  In December of 2001, the DLNR engineers sent a certified letter to Mr. Pflueger related to Kaloko Dam Reservoir, but that wasn’t the first issue.  Way back in 1984 there was a documented report relating to the Kaloko Dam issue.  The department knew.  The leader of the department either knew or should have known.

“People talk about the nominee’s accomplishments.  But this isn’t about somebody standing in front of an orchestra, or behind an orchestra, or being in a parade and taking credit for the parades either before him or after him.  This is about taking responsibility for parts of the parade that he either orchestrated or, perhaps in this case, failed to orchestrate.

“In March 2005, again the American Society of Civil Engineers issued a D grade for Hawaii’s regulated dams.  In October 2005, and thanks to our local media, they brought the issue before us.  They presented the bigger picture – ‘22 structures in dire need of repairs.’  They published big pictures and maps, a full page of them.  No one should have ignored this.  Certainly all of the people in affected areas were saying, ‘Am I safe; does this affect me?’  People died . . . people died.

“It’s reported that the dam safety engineer said in October 2005, ‘We have been very fortunate we haven’t had any major dam failure here.’  And who is responsible?  Those in the department can all say, ‘not me.’  It’s been also reported in the media, ‘State got dam complaint three weeks before it burst.’  And I’m not here to say if this is right or wrong, but if it is indeed right, apparently a Sierra Club conservation manager had reported a problem with the Kaloko Dam leaking . . . people died.

“People want to be safe.  People expect our state government to assure their safety . . . people died.

“An expert in the Report of the Independent Civil Investigation (Vol.1, p. 160) that was commissioned says, ‘In my opinion, it is likely that a visual inspection of Kaloko Dam and its appurtenant facilities by qualified persons would have identified the lack of a spillway in the reservoir.  Furthermore, because of the limited etc., etc.  The lack of funding’ – yes, it’s an issue – ‘apparently had led to difficulties in management of the program and in implementation and enforcement of the program’s requirements.  But,’ he concludes, ‘Notwithstanding the above questions, in my opinion, a more aggressive program of dam inspections under HRS 179D that would have included regular dam safety inspections of Kaloko Dam, would probably have allowed for early identification of the potential failure of the dam and allowed correction of the deficiencies leading to such failure.’

“My focus – even with all of the other things people say, is there a smoking gun? – perhaps because I’m a civil engineer, perhaps I’m more sensitive to these issues, but I believe the people of Hawaii feel like this indeed was a water cannon blast that created a canyon where it didn’t have to be.  This is not to say the state is culpable in itself, but that the state could have prevented this . . . people died.

“We need to do better and I believe, sadly, Mr. Young, who was our leader, perhaps not everything was in his control, didn’t do everything he should have . . . people died.”