BIL 129 Draft 01 2012-2014 - Laserfiche WebLink

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(20) It is a common industry practice to use site-specific LLC/LLP corporations that are dissolved after drilling operations are completed. With no solvent company left to pay the costs of catastrophic loss, the neighboring landowners and the County may be left with the cost of remediation and recovery; and (21) Sufficient extreme catastrophic loss event insurance requirements would need to be in place and be sufficiently comprehensive to cover claims received between a disaster's occurrence and the time when the discovery of such a disaster might occur. The County is incapable of determining the sufficient amount of insurance required or what best practices for such insurance are applicable. However, it is unlikely to find insurance or a bond for current and future liability adequate to cover the loss of an entire water resource in the case that a hydraulic fracturing source contaminates that water resource which may then contaminate a second or additional water resources or a release of toxic gases that occurs years after the hydraulic fracturing is completed forcing people to move to survive; and (22) It is difficult to establish fault for some types of leaks and seepage events, and these types of fault-finding legal cases may take years to resolve leaving the people and the County bearing the brunt of the remediation and recovery. The purpose of this ordinance is to protect the public health, safety, and general welfare; the public trust; natural resources such as air, water, watersheds, rivers both above and below ground and its life, the ocean and its marine life, land, animals, both wild and domestic, plants both indigenous and imported; and the economic value of private and public property. This ordinance seeks to minimize public and private losses in the County of Hawai`i due to the negative effects of hydraulic fracturing used in drilling operations for exploration and production of gas, oil, or minerals, or the exploration or production of geothermal energy or related research including geologic research. The objectives of this hydraulic fracturing policy are: (1) To permanently halt or to prohibit the initiation of hydraulic fracturing for any purpose; (2) To protect human life and health; (3) To protect the public natural resources trust doctrine as required by the Hawai`i State Constitution (Article XI) and the Hawaii County Charter, Section 13-29; (4) To protect the air, land, ocean, aquifers, rivers, animals, plants, watersheds, forests, and all natural resources; (5) To protect potable ground water resources; (6) To protect the economic value of private and public property, minimize public and private financial losses, prevent the loss of purpose for which the land may be used, or the reduction of property value; 4