2019-03-07 Hearing Transcript - Piilani Partners Request for Reconsideration SMA 18-000070

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ones that set the denial in motion by their refusal to approve or accept the Commission's desire for a continuance. That's why we're even here today. They could have approved it at that time, and they could have just waited for the Commission to eventually come to the point where they would reconsider it. So, I'm wondering why, why the reconsideration? Also, I'd like the address, not in great depth, some of the issues that everyone else has brought up like how does pumping water that is a public resource for private property benefit the people of Hawaii? As others have also mentioned, the people of Hawaii are here. They're the ones that send in comments. How many have you, how many people from this island have you heard from that approve of this? Virtually, I don't know all of the comments sent in on-line and other ways, but I assume it's a very small number. Finally, and this is totally different from anything that anyone has said, but I'd like to point out that the location of the bottling plant, directly across from the site of the Merry Monarch Festival. Is that the—what we want to present to people visiting Hilo for the Merry Monarch Festival? A bottling factory? To me, that's a real eyesore, and that's just an aesthetic thing. It has nothing to do with the most compelling reason which is converting a public resource into private property. Thank you. CLARKSON: Thank you, all. Any questions for these testifiers? Apparently not. Please be seated. Cherie Griffore, Greg Dauw, Deborah Ward, and Sherri Thal—or Tal. Would you please come forward? Please raise your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Planning Commission today? TESTIFIERS: I do/yes. CLARKSON: Please introduce yourselves, speak into the microphone and proceed. GRIFFORE: Okay, my name is Cherie Griffore, and I'm on the executive committee for Surfrider Hawaii Chapter Kona Ka [Kai] Ea, and we voted as an executive committee to oppose the Piilani water bottling plant. We have a thousand members, a 1,127. This is my personal testimony, and I just wanted to point out that it's really nerve wracking testifying and everybody's coming here testifying again, and the water bottling plant didn't bother to testify today. Single -use plastics, it takes ten minutes to make, twenty minutes to use, and pollution for generations and lifetimes. You all have reusable drinkware, so you already know. You've been made aware that the S.B. 522 passed in the Senate Ways and Means, so it's going to ban single - use plastics. Hawaii County was the first to ban plastic bags. Other counties followed, and other states followed. We also banned Styrofoam, so we're in the right direction. The Mauna Kea Aquifer is untouched. The impact study is still not done. The Special Use Permit [sic] is still not approved. Why push through before all the requirements are done being completed? Please do not commodify our natural resources without due process. The plastic particles are going to blow everywhere, and Hawaii is the capital for the most endangered species. We are in the middle of the ocean. When we had the hurricane scares, the produce shelves were empty. They and water is always the first thing to sell out. If we don't have water and protect our water for the future, we're screwed. EXHIBIT B 11