Second Response of Mililani Trask on issues of Health:

Responding to my comments on Health impacts & allegations, I want to note that while there have been several cases filed against PGV & its predecessors, I still have yet to find any case where the Plaintiffs making the allegations were affirmed by a Court Ruling and where the Court found that their illness was attributable to geothermal development in Puna. If there is such a case I would like to read it.

When the issue of Health impacts are raised, the nexus between cause & effect is critical. In the Maureen Gap case, she claimed that she was ill due to the plant emissions. She lost because she couldn’t prove it.  Her treating Physician, allergist & psychologist could not establish any link to geothermal development either. The State’s own studies conducted in the 1980’s did not establish any connection between ill health & geothermal  production activities. The States studies included a wide range of residents, 88.8% of Leilani Estates were surveyed and 93.2% of Hawaiian Beaches.  It was a broad based & ethnically diverse study. The Legator & Sherman studies were not. They surveyed people who had been selected by

Puna Malama Pono (PMP) to participate in the survey. In flyers sent out on the survey, PMP encouraged people to participate if “they believed the geothermal plant made them sick.” People who did not believe the plant made them sick were not included in the survey effort.

Dr. Bruce Anderson, an Environmental Epidemiologist, had oversight of the 1984 State study. He was also the State deputy director of Health when Mr. Legator released his report in 1997. Anderson challenged the Legator data & conclusions because Legator had only “studied” a handful of people (69) who were admittedly opposed to geothermal & who had a background on hydrogen sulfide.

Many cases have been filed by people claiming a negative health impact but none have been litigated to a positive outcome for the Plaintiffs. I would like the actual cases citations where these people actually win a judgment. In addition, it appears that many of the people bringing theses claims filed with the intent of getting the PGV to pay them money. In some instances, people sued many times, for themselves, their pet goats, their bees, their trees. etc. etc. Each time they settled out for money, they never took the case all the way to a final disposition to get the plant closed or repaired. Later some of these folks sued again, some sued several times & settled every time. None were successful in getting a Court to substantiate their allegations and shut down the plant!

Bob Petricci admits in his presentation to the County that over 70 people filed claims & received “millions”, but he doesn’t say how many millions, who got the money & what for.

Where are these cases & why weren’t they pursued to completion? Petricci responds with the Legator & Sherman surveys, but those surveys did not prove any connection between allegations & truth.

Mililani B. Trask