The state Transportation Department late yesterday selected the firm Belt Collins to conduct a $1 million environmental assessment of the proposed Hawaii Superferry operations.

The study will include a comprehensive environmental review to address ferry-related facility improvements and operations at commercial harbors statewide, said DOT spokesman Scott Ishikawa.

DOT director Barry Fukunaga selected the company over four other firms whose names were submitted by a state procurement selection committee.

The exact cost of the contract was not immediately known. Officials said it will be done under a series of "work orders," but that the cumulative amount would not exceed $1 million.

The DOT originally had asked for permission to award the contract on an expedited basis to Belt Collins, but withdrew the request and opened up the process to competitive bidding.

The department had applied for the exemption to procurement law because, it said, Belt Collins, which is doing an environmental impact statement for the state as part of a 2030 master plan for Kahului Harbor on Maui, could be expected to do the work quickly.

The assessment could take eight months.

The decision on the contract came the same day a federal judge denied a request to block the Coast Guard from enforcing a security zone in Nawiliwili Harbor on Kaua'i. The Coast Guard created the zone after protesters on surfboards and kayaks blocked the Superferry from entering the harbor.

U.S. District Judge Helen Gillmor yesterday denied the request for a temporary restraining order against the security zone saying, among other things, that it allows both Superferry protesters and supporters to exercise their First Amendment rights on land around the harbor.

Among his arguments, attorney Lanny Sinkin said the zone is invalid because it was designed to prevent terrorism and subversive acts but in this case served to deny free speech by keeping protesters out of the water.

Government attorneys successfully countered that Coast Guard officials did not focus on terrorism or subversive acts in creating the zone.

Assistant U.S. attorney Derrick Watson told Gillmor that protesters have vowed to use their bodies to again try to block the ferry and that the Coast Guard followed guidelines that allow use of such security zones to prevent accidents.

Sinkin said after Gillmor's ruling that he will appeal to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals using his same arguments.

Meanwhile, state Rep. Hermina Morita, D-14th (Hanalei, Anahola, Kapa'a), has filed a formal complaint with the state Public Utilities Commission asking that Hawaii Superferry's operating certificate be suspended until an environmental assessment is completed.

Morita had filed an initial complaint with the commission last month that was rejected. Her formal complaint, filed Sept. 27, claims Superferry is in willful violation of its operating certificate.

The commission approved the certificate in December 2004 with the condition that Superferry comply with all federal and state laws, including the state's environmental review law.

The commission had noted that environmental concerns about the project had been raised at public hearings on the certificate.

The state Supreme Court ruled in August that an environmental assessment is necessary to determine the project's impact on Kahului Harbor on Maui. The state has chosen to include all four harbors the Superferry expects to serve in the environmental review.

A Maui court is hearing arguments on whether the ferry can resume service between O'ahu and Maui while the review is conducted.

Big Island service is planned for 2009.

"Once the exemption was thrown out, this was a house of cards that fell apart," Morita said of the state's February 2005 decision to exempt the project from the environmental review.

Morita is chairwoman of the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee.