LIHU'E, Kaua'i — The 30-year Hanalei boating controversy, which has quieted to a murmur in recent years, has roared back to life with Michael Sheehan's announcement that he will reopen his Hanalei River commercial boatyard.

Sheehan has said he will start operations tomorrow. The mayor says Sheehan has no authority to do so.

Protesters started lining the shoreline last week.

"This announcement has enraged many community members who lived through the divisive Hanalei boating wars," Carl Imparato, president of the Hanalei-Ha'ena Community Association, said in a letter Thursday to Mayor Bryan Baptiste. Imparato called it an "explosive situation."

Baptiste issued a statement Friday that he believes Sheehan lacks the necessary permits to begin staging commercial tour boats.

"I want to make it perfectly clear that I do not want to see the boating issue tear apart the North Shore community as it has done in the past," Baptiste said. "I will not stand by idly and let this happen. No economic gain is worth destroying a community."

Sheehan insists that his 1987 boatyard Special Management Area use permit provides all the necessary county permitting.

Sheehan said that a commercial tour boat will leave his boatyard tomorrow morning, although it won't be the Lady Ann Cruises boat that had been scheduled to operate. Lady Ann Cruises general manager Leina'ala Pavao said that in light of Baptiste's statement, Lady Ann will await clear legal direction before operating.

Baptiste said that under county regulations, only two firms — the kayak companies Kayak Kaua'i and Luana of Kaua'i — are permitted to run from Sheehan's boatyard. Sheehan said both firms operate from other locations, and are not using the boatyard.

"We do not believe that Lady Ann Cruises or Michael Sheehan is authorized to run their proposed boating operations out of the Hanalei River Boatyard and have written a letter to them stating this," Baptiste said.

State and county officials will be on hand tomorrow morning to watch and to enforce regulations if needed, he said.

Tour boating in Hanalei became big business in the 1970s, when young men in inflatable boats began taking paying passengers down the scenic Na Pali Coast — some just sightseeing and others being dropped off for camping. The business, the size of the boats and the number of passengers grew in the 1980s, and at one time more than 30 boats and more than 1,000 passengers were operating daily from in and around the county's small Black Pot Park, which lies at the mouth of the Hanalei River.

Boaters would load their passengers in the calm waters of the river and then take them out the river mouth for the ocean cruise down the coast — returning later in the day to offload passengers.

Much of the Hanalei community became annoyed with the boating, complaining that passengers were taking over their community park, overusing the small restroom facility, and that motorized boats were endangering families swimming in the river.

The battles over boating have involved permitting agencies in the state departments of Transportation and of Land and Natural Resources, the Coast Guard, and the county, and have been addressed in state and federal courts.

Today, three small firms run coast tours, without significant community opposition: Bob Butler's Captain Sundown sailing catamaran; John White's Na Pali Catamaran (formerly Whitey's Boat Cruises); and Ralph Young's Na Pali Coast Hanalei (formerly Hanalei Sport Fishing and Tours).

The three were the last county-permitted boat companies still operating after years of protests and government regulatory efforts, when U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor ruled three years ago that the state government has limited authority to regulate Coast Guard-licensed commercial boats.

Sheehan said he understands Gillmor's ruling to mean that any Coast Guard-licensed tour boat firm could return to Hanalei.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com.