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May 1, 2007 Thomas Langenstein P.O. Box 1 165 Captain Cook, Hawaii 96704 Councilwoman Brenda Ford-Committee Chair Public Works and Intergovernmental Affairs Hawaii County Council 25 Aupuni St. , Hilo, Hawaii Re: Amendments to Chapter 27, Floodplain Management Aloha Council members, Please accept this late testimony. I ask this body to support amendment to the County Code in the following areas: Change the mitigation standard from a 10 year to a 100 year standard, establish requirements to maintain adequate vegetative cover, create an integrated electronic informational database, and last but not least, please require updating the flood maps to include "historic drainage ditches". Asa 32 year resident who owns commercial property in the path of a "historic drainage ditch" and a residential property next to one, I ask the County to take responsibility for additions to drainage water that it continually approves of adding through my properties in unimproved, unstable ditches. The County currently has no dedicated easement for these drainage ways, and I get no tax relief or other consideration for the ever increasing portion of my properties that I cannot use. I consider this a public taking of my property. Should I choose to individually absorb the cost of engineering and installing soil erosion mitigation methods such as firming up the banks of this stream bed, I will become liable for the impacts of my actions on the people who live below me. If damages occur to those below me due to water the County dumps onto our lands, there will not only be mitigating costs, but legal costs to correct this injustice. For those who say that these amendments will cost the County too much, I say that you can't afford not to do it. It will be either afford it now or pay much more and create greater hardship on current residents, later. Thank you. Sincerely, Thomas Langenstein ~~~0.70 FJ, i; t.fa. b E<C.P. ~.i; ~jpyJIRG SAY. ++-.Fa Rf e.-~ , Lv..' x.,,