Hanalei Valley Viewpoint Ecological Risk Screening Summaries (ERSS)

The State of Hawaii Department of Transportation Highways Division (HDOT) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) developed an Environmental Assessment (EA) to evaluate the effects of constructing the proposed Hanalei Valley Viewpoint at Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge (Refuge, NWR). The proposed project would allow the Service to deliver its mission more fully to the local community and visitors to the North Shore of Kauai and connect the public with the Refuge by providing a facility for visitors wishing to learn more about the Refuge.

The viewpoint project was originally proposed in 2003 through a public-private partnership involving HDOT, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the Princeville Corporation, and the Service; however, the project was not completed at that time. The site, conceptual facility design and operations, and anticipated impacts to the human environment were analyzed in the June 2003 Final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for the Hanalei Valley/Hanalei National Wildlife Refuge Scenic Stop (2003 EA/FONSI) (HDOT and FHWA 2003). A Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) was signed selecting both the location for the new viewpoint and the facility design elements, which were to be used in developing the final design of the new viewpoint (HDOT and FHWA 2003).

In 2004, the Service issued its own FONSI (USFWS 2004) for expanding the boundary of Hanalei NWR and constructing the viewpoint at the site selected by the 2003 EA/FONSI. The FONSI described why the Service believed the reasonably foreseeable impacts associated with the new viewpoint were not significant. The Hanalei NWR boundary was expanded in anticipation of accepting a donation of land that would accommodate the proposed viewpoint. The donation never happened and the project stalled. Final design was delayed until the proposed project was reinitiated in 2016.