Mililani Trask is flanked by LitnusJohn Tonga (R) and an unidentified male at a Hawai′i County Council meeting Tuesday, April 25 at the Pahoa High and Intermediate School. Photos by Tiffany Edwards Hunt. All rights reserved. Use with permission only.
The crowd is near capacity at about 400 people at the onset of the meeting at 6 p.m. Eighty people are signed up to testify.
Council members Donald Ikeda and Dennis “Fresh” Onishi are absent, and J Yoshimoto arrives within the first hour of the meeting.
At the meeting commencement Council Chairman Dominic Yagong notes that the Hawaii County Council hasn’t taken up any legislation regarding geothermal energy. Over the last several months, Energy and Sustainability has had presentations from IDG and HELCO.
“That has been the avenue for geothermal discussion on the island,” Yagong says, adding that the meetings have been “open” and “transparent.”
Yagong points to the sign hanging in the Pahoa High and Intermediate School cafeteria that reads, “Respect,” and asks that everyone respect others views when offering testimony tonight.
Prior to the testimony, there is a presentation by Pele Defense Fund entitled, “Pele’s Appeal.”
There is a loud applause for Palikapu Dedman from Pele Defense Fund, who doesn’t say much in order to move right to the video, which was created when geothermal was first introduced to the island in 1989. And there is a loud applause after the video created by Na Maka o ka Aina.
Robert Petricci recalls the experimental geothermal station from 1981 to 1989 and how much illness was created in his community, and gets emotional how the state and county ignored their letters but finally the newspaper was willing to bring awareness to the situation.
Petricci notes that there have been at least 18 Civil Defense geothermal related emergencies between 1991 and 1999 and he wonders how many that have gone on since then.
There was a geothermal well blowout in 1991 in which then-Mayor Lorraine Inouye issued a proclamation declaring a state of emergency.
“This stuff is more dangerous than people want you to believe,” Petricci says.
Aurora Martinovich talks about what is in the steam. Not like your kettle of water on the stove. It’s a toxic soup you’re dealing with, including but not limited to benzene, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, mercury vapor, methane non-methane hydrocarbons… in steam condensate and brine, same toxic soup, including cadmium, bicarbonate and carbonate, sulfates, chlorides, nitrates, boron, hydrogen sulfide, fluorides, beryllium, radon, asbestos, radionuclides.
“Anyone that tells you that geothermal is safe and clean is not telling you the truth,” Martinovich says.
A Lanipuna Gardens resident of 30 years, she recalls a neighbor who died of pulmonary edema.
“PGV has already killed at least one person,” she insists, noting the air pullutants, like ammonia that she believes contributed to her neighbor’s death.
“We have deadly wells in our backyard,” Martinovich notes that hydrogen sulfide can be fatal at 700 parts per minute and that Puna Geothermal Venture has a release of hydrogen sulfide at that level and more.
She blames her daughter’s chronic lung infections on geothermal. She noted that at least one Hawaiian woman she knows has a lost a child.
Calling for air monitoring and a health study, Martinovich says, “Nobody is keeping an eye on these people except for us. Please help us.”
Petricci recalls the geothermal opposition in the 1990s and how one protest resulted in the arrest of 142 people. He notes how many people are in this audience. “Look at this room,” he says of the capacity crowd at 7:20 p.m. “Have you ever come to a meeting in Pahoa and seen a crowd like this?”
Diane Thomas speaks on the environmental concerns. She lives at Pu’ulena Crater, which is within a mile of the PGV plant.
Photos on display tonight recalling geothermal protests that commenced 30 years ago with the first experimental station.
“In that crater are four endangered species, including the Newell’s Shearwaters, or ‘a’o, and the Hawaiian Haori Bat. She suggests that the lights at geothermal, particularly if there are more than one plant, they could detrimentally effect Newell’s Shearwaters, which rely on the moon, and also have a negative impact on the observatories.
Petricci maintains that geothermal also affects land values.
What comes down to is this about saving HELCO. People are pulling off the grid,” Petricci says. “It’s not about saving HELCO,” he says to applause.
He asks that someone or some people who have protested geothermal technology have a seat at the table with the geothermal advisory group.
He says it will cost four billion dollars for an interisland cable and that it would take 100 megawatts of power to push it through the cable.
“Our part here is we don’t want to just say no geothermal,” Petricci says, adding need to try and change the feeling of community being “torn apart.”
Martinovich notes that the community needs; a study on geothermal impacts upon Pele and practitioners; independent health study of geothermal neighbors; Jerome H2S Monitors for all households surrounding PGV.
“Even if we had good stationary monitoring, which we don’t… we are gassed in our sleep,” Martinovich said. Read the rest of this entry »
