Council to Mull Geothermal Buffer Zone

June 5, 2012

By Erin Miller

West Hawaii Today

emiller@westhawaiitoday.com

The full impact of a bill to create a buffer zone around Puna Geothermal Venture’s plant remains to be seen, county officials said Monday.

Bill 256, proposed by Council Chairman Dominic Yagong, goes before the full council Wednesday in Hilo for first reading. Yagong said the bill is the first step in dealing with the potential health ramifications of living so close to the geothermal energy production plant, although it could also have impacts, in the future, on people living in other parts of the East Rift Zone.

“The real key is, we need to take care of the people around the plant first,” Yagong said, adding that whether the buffer zone should extend farther into the rift zone is a good question. “We can go and expand it even farther from there (the proposed one-mile buffer).”

One thing the county cannot do, he added, is force people to leave their homes, even in a buffer zone.

Yagong’s proposal would move responsibility for the geothermal royalty funded Geothermal Relocation and Community Benefits program, which would be renamed the Geothermal Relocation and Public Safety Program, from the Planning Department to Civil Defense. Bill 256 would also allow spending relocation money for health studies, Yagong said.

Yagong said it would be up to Civil Defense to decide whether to conduct health impact studies before relocating residents. Civil Defense Director Ben Fuata was out of the office Monday. Mayor Billy Kenoi did not immediately respond to a message left Monday afternoon.

Planning Director Bobby Jean Leithead Todd said Yagong’s bill is “superfluous,” because the county already has the authority to spend the royalty money to relocate residents.

Homeowner relocation requests have increased significantly — from two between 2005 and 2011, to seven in the last few months — after the County Council began debating the bill, she added.

The existing program does give priority to people who have owned the house since before 1991, she said, but anyone living within that radius may apply for the program.

The department continues to issue permits, she said, because not doing so might be construed as the county taking an owner’s property.

Leithead Todd said one change to the existing relocation program she’d like to see in place is the ability for the county to purchase vacant land adjacent to the plant. Doing so would create a better buffer and would be cheaper than just buying homes.

“If I’ve got to buy the house at 130 percent of real property appraisal, that’s a lot more money,” Leithead Todd said.

Officials with Puna Geothermal Ventures’ owner, Ormat Technologies, expressed concerns about the bill Monday, through Policy and Business Development Director Paul Thomsen. Thomsen provided West Hawaii Today with a letter, being provided to community members, explaining the technology used within the plant, including the reinjection of the brine heated to create the steam that powers the turbines.

“PGV must operate under stringent air emission, water quality and noise standards set forth by the Hawaii Department of Health and Environmental Protection Agency,” Thomsen wrote. “In doing so, PGV continually monitors (hydrogen sulfide) through 35 point-source detectors placed throughout the power plant. PGV also maintains three monitoring stations that are located on the perimeter of the facility. These stations monitor meteorological and noise data, which can be viewed on the company website and is provided in a formal report given to the (Health Department) on a monthly basis, or as requested. For over 20 years, PGV has complied with state-mandated emissions standards.”

PGV also submitted a letter to Agriculture, Water and Sustainability Committee Chairman J Yoshimoto, requesting time to discuss the plant’s safety protocols and respond to the community’s concerns.

Thomsen said he sees bigger issues facing Puna residents than PGV, particularly naturally occurring pollution of water as it flows from Mauna Loa through the East Rift Zone, picking up chemicals from magma along the way.

“So the fresh water aquifer between the East Rift Zone and the ocean, from Volcano to Kapoho does not meet EPA drinking water standards,” Thomsen said. “This is a natural process that has been going on for millennia and is the source of the warm ponds along the coast from Kapoho to Kalapana. … Natural emissions from the rift in the Puna District are much greater than any potential emissions from PGV.”

He noted a 1998 Department of Health study that found no adverse health impacts from living near the plant.

The council on Wednesday also takes on the first reading of another Yagong measure, this one to ban aerial game hunts in Hawaii County. Bill 261 “declares that the acts of eradication by aerial shooting on this island shall no longer be practiced, and ensures that other methods of animal population control are utilized.”

Mainland magazine Outdoor Life ran an article online last week urging hunters to contact Yagong and tell him they opposed aerial hunting.

Source: West Hawaii Today

Harry Kim to File for Mayor

By Dave Smith - June 4, 2012
Source: Big Island Now


Former two-term mayor Harry Kim today took out nomination papers to run for the chief executive position on the Big Island.

Kim told Big Island Now this afternoon that he will definitely file to run for mayor tomorrow, which is the election deadline for the Aug. 11 primary election.

Kim’s candidacy adds a significant twist to the mayor’s race where he will become the 10th candidate, according to Friday’s report from the state elections office.

Those with the highest profiles, incumbent Mayor Billy Kenoi and County Council Chairman Dominic Yagong, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Kim, 72, served as mayor from 2000-2008 after a 24-year stint as director of the county’s Civil Defense Agency. He was prevented by term limits from running for re-election immediately after that.

Kim knows his chief opponents well.

Yagong ran against him for mayor in the 2004 nonpartisan primary where he received 26% of the vote to Kim’s 62%. Kim has known Kenoi for many years and coached him as a player on the Waiakea High School football team. Kenoi also served as an executive assistant in the last six years of Kim’s administration.

Kim said he didn’t have qualms with either candidate who he said have a “different style of management” from him. Kim had endorsed Kenoi’s bid for mayor in 2008.

Kim said today that his return to politics was largely driven by actions that occurred during the past session at the state Legislature dealing with geothermal development.

He said he was disheartened by the easing of restrictions for those activities including the removal of the requirement for subzones for geothermal development.

But what prompted him into direct action, Kim said, was a request from DLNR Director William Aila Jr. to the state Environmental Council. Aila had asked the panel to exempt exploratory geothermal drilling from the state law that mandates the preparation of an environmental assessment or the more rigorous environmental impact statement.

Kim said he was dumbfounded when a committee of the council voted almost unanimously to recommend approval of Aila’s request.

“I couldn’t believe (the committee) did this,” Kim said. “I said, nah, they wouldn’t do that.”

After being urged to intervene by Gary Hooser, head of the state Office of Environmental Qualify Control, Kim spent four days researching the matter and preparing testimony.

After Kim appeared in person before the full Environmental Council in Honolulu, its members reversed the committee’s recommendation and voted to deny the change Aila had requested.

After that, “I really started thinking about geothermal, safety and health in government,” he said. “How could they do this?”

Kim said he also wondered how, if the exemption stood, government could justify requiring environmental studies for other types of projects.

Kim said his jaw dropped when he heard Aila say drilling for geothermal is comparable to drilling for water.

“I realize that some people truly think that geothermal is harmless,” he said. “I would think people in authority should do some research.”

Kim said he decided to re-enter politics to make sure geothermal and other development “is done right.”

“I realized that it’s not just about geothermal, it’s about faith in government,” he said.

Kim said another subject he is concerned about is solid waste. He said he has never been a proponent of landfills anywhere in Hawaii, and believes the solution is a plant like Oahu’s H-Power where garbage is burned to generate electricity.

He acknowledged that the waste-to-energy facility considered during his second term carried a steep price tag of $125 million, but feels that it’s the government’s duty to find a way to do it affordably.

He said he was also opposed to the County Charter amendment that set aside 2% of county revenues to purchase land to be preserved as open space, partly because it didn’t include funding for maintenance of those lands.

“That’s not a good way to spend public money,” he said, adding that such funding should be found elsewhere.

In the area of public funding, Kim will likely be subjected to questions about his administration’s practice of increasing the size of government during flush times, when soaring property values inflated county coffers.

During Kim’s eight years in office, the county’s operating budget more than doubled to more than $400 million. That included a tax increase of nearly 25% for homeowners sought by Kim and approved by the council for the 2002-03 fiscal year.

Kim said today he will run a campaign similar to his other two, in which he describes himself as an “applicant” for the mayor’s job.

While he has relatively little time for fundraising, that also includes continuing his policy of not taking any campaign donations greater than $10. Kim said no amount of advertising he could purchase would overshadow public perception of his years of public service.

“I worked for the people here for more than 40 years, and by now they should know me and my methods,” he said.

Kim acknowledged that his health could be an issue in the campaign, as he suffered two heart attacks in his final year in office.

“My health at this point is good,” he said, while acknowledging that he is currently undergoing additional cardiac testing.

He also admitted that because of the health issues his family did not want him to run, but supports his decision to do so.

Puna geothermal plant to hold evacuation drills this summer

By TOM CALLIS
Source: Tribune-Herald staff writer
tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com

HILO — Hawaii County is planning its first evacuation drill for a disaster at Puna’s nearly two-decades old geothermal power plant.

Planning for the exercise is still in its early stages, but Benedict Fuata, the Big Island’s civil defense coordinator, said he is aiming to hold a three-day drill in mid-July.

It will be the first drill since the plant, now operating at 38 megawatts, went online in 1993. It will also act as a test of the county’s first geothermal evacuation plan, now being drafted.

Fuata said the county is acting in response to the outcry from dozens of Puna residents concerned that there isn’t enough health and safety protections in place. Those anxieties have resurfaced in the wake of Hawaii Electric Light Co.’s recent efforts to expand geothermal operations on the Big Island by up to 50 megawatts.

“I was mandated by Mayor [Billy] Kenoi to get to the bottom of this,” he said. “He has concerns and I have concerns.”

Fuata said he expects homes to be evacuated as part of the exercise but the scope of the drill hasn’t been determined. The plant, operated by Puna Geothermal Venture, sits in a largely residential area in Pahoa. County Planning Director Bobby Jean Leithead Todd estimated last week that between 87 and 140 homes are located within a mile of the plant.

During recent Hawaii County Council meetings, neighbors of the plant recalled having to flee their homes in 1991 during a well blowout, which released steam created by volcanic activity into the air. Some have claimed adverse health effects as a result.

Fuata, who became civil defense coordinator in March, said part of his job is to investigate those claims to understand the public’s risk. “I’m in fact-finding mode right now,” he said.

The steam, used to create electricity, carries harmful toxins, the worst being hydrogen sulfide. The plant operates with a closed system, meaning no steam is released unless there is a problem. PGV has its own community evacuation plan in place, but it is unclear why it hasn’t been tested since the blowout or why the county hadn’t developed its own plan before.

Fuata refereed to the company’s plan as “general” and said he thinks a more detailed and coordinated effort is needed. Both Kenoi and County Council Chairman Dominic Yagong, who is challenging Kenoi in this year’s mayoral race, said it’s time for the county to do more to address the issue. Kenoi said the county needs to be prepared for any disaster, whether a tsunami, hurricane, or geothermal related. “Every time you go through a drill you learn something,” he said. “You become better, you become more prepared.”

Yagong said he also has been discussing the need for a county plan with Fuata over the last few weeks. He plans to introduce a bill June 6 that would also require an evacuation plan to be developed for current and future geothermal operations. Yagong gave praise during a phone interview Saturday to Puna residents who have brought their concerns to light. “People have expressed their outrage and that has moved government to action,” he said.

The plant has had six air emission violations. Detected levels of hydrogen sulfide were not considered harmful, according to the state Department of Health, which doesn’t consider the plant to be a threat to public health.