The Hawai'i Superferry would be able to launch in July as planned while the state conducts an environmental study on its potential effect on state harbors, under a compromise agreed to by the state Senate yesterday.

Neighbor Island senators backed off a demand that the Superferry conduct an environmental impact statement even if it delayed the July launch.

"It was political reality. We have to come up with something that everyone can live with," said state Sen. Shan Tsutsui, D-4th (Kahului).

The state Department of Transportation would pay for the review, instead of the Superferry's developers, as part of the compromise amendments.

The amendments were necessary to guarantee Senate passage and keep the discussion of an environmental study alive in the state House, where a similar bill failed earlier this session, Tsutsui said. The Senate adopted the amendments yesterday and set the bill for a vote tomorrow. Approval would send the bill to the House.

Superferry developers and the state Department of Transportation yesterday said again that an environmental impact statement is not warranted.

The department has held that the project has led to only minor changes at state harbors that do not trigger a review. A legal challenge to the state's decision has not been successful, although an appeal is pending with the Hawai'i Supreme Court.

"We've always felt that you cannot require one private company or entity to do an EIS, and not require that for others," said Scott Ishikawa, a Transportation Department spokesman.

Other interisland transportation companies, such as Young Brothers, did not have to do an environmental review.

Terry O'Halloran, director of business development for the Superferry, repeated that developers have taken precautions to minimize vehicle traffic at harbors the ferry would serve, to control the spread of invasive species and avoid collisions with humpback whales.

O'Halloran said the Superferry is included along with other harbor users in the state's environmental review of the 2030 master plan for Kahului Harbor. He said these kinds of reviews are more appropriate because they do not single out a specific harbor user for scrutiny. Environmentalists and Maui County have sued the state for not adequately taking the Superferry into consideration in its 2025 master plan for Kahului Harbor in a case now before a Circuit Court judge.

The ferry is scheduled to debut in July with service between O'ahu, Maui and Kaua'i. A link to the Big Island is expected in 2009.

Superferry developers have hired three of the state's pre-eminent lobbyists — George "Red" Morris, John Radcliffe and Bob Toyofuku — to help kill the environmental impact statement bill. The developers also started an e-mail and media campaign urging people to contact lawmakers.

The Neighbor Island senators had said they would use every tactic available to force the review.

State Sen. J. Kalani English, D-6th (E. Maui, Moloka'i, Lana'i), the chairman of the Senate Transportation and International Affairs Committee, said the amended bill would still accomplish what the senators have wanted all along, which is the review.

English said the senators want to correct what they believe was an error by the Department of Transportation. The state Environment Council, in a largely symbolic opinion last month, found that the department did not consider the cumulative impact of ferry service when it granted the project an exemption from the environmental impact law.

"We feel that they (the Transportation Department) made a mistake. They erred by granting the exemption," English said.

The bill would require the department to address any negative findings from its review and make necessary changes to its operating agreement with Superferry.

The state attorney general's office has warned lawmakers that the state may get sued by Superferry developers if an environmental review delays the project. State Sen. Sam Slom, R-8th (Kahala, Hawai'i Kai), said the bill would likely invite lawsuits and not make any difference to the environmental activists who oppose the project.

"This basically is just a shift in strategy in terms of trying to delay this project," Slom said.

House Democratic leaders said yesterday that if the bill crosses over tomorrow, its future likely will rest with state Rep. Joe Souki, D-8th (Wailuku, Waihe'e, Waiheu), the chairman of the House Transportation Committee. Souki has said he would not hear the bill but the senators are hoping public pressure might change his mind.

House Speaker Calvin Say, D-20th (St. Louis Heights, Palolo Valley, Wilhelmina Rise), said he believes in giving committee chairmen discretion over their subject matters. He also said the state already has committed $40 million for harbor improvements for the Superferry.

"I personally think we should stay the course and see what happens," Say said.

John Harrison, the former environmental coordinator at the University of Hawai'i Environmental Center, said an environmental review is a planning tool that the state should have required early in the process to identify the impact of ferry service on the Islands. He believes it might be too late for the state to place meaningful constraints on the Superferry.

"It's truly an unfortunate situation and we're all losers as a consequence," Harrison said.

Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com.