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facility that will not, that will actually add carbon to our atmosphere a long time before those
<br />trees regrow.
<br />We are 2,000 miles from another water source. For instance, a glacier or a river. We don't—we
<br />don't live in a place where we have an automatic, you know, way to get more water, and we're
<br />500 miles from Oahu's water which is at risk because of the Red Hill contamination by military
<br />fuel. And, there may well be a demand for that water should those waters become contaminated.
<br />We have in the headline today, well not today, but last week, about desalination of water in
<br />Kona, because the Kona waters are already salty, unpleasant to drink, and dangerous not only for
<br />residents, but for the tourists. And, yesterday, in my mailbox, I got a special report from The
<br />Economist about thirsty, the thirsty planet. It's a special report just on water, and I'll just
<br />paraphrase a couple of things. The water has to rely—sorry, the world has to rely on just .75 of
<br />the planet's available water, almost all of which are subterranean ground water. And, it's, the
<br />research says that ground water systems are likely to take far longer fully to respond to
<br />differences induced by climate change than does surface water. Only half the world's ground
<br />water flows are likely to find a new equilibrium within a hundred years, and the and regions
<br />where water is scarce or often where response times are the longest. So, the full impact of water
<br />withdrawals now may not be felt for decades or much longer in some cases. And, with that, I
<br />close and ask you to reconsider.
<br />DAUW: My name is Greg Dauw. I live in Kea`au, Hawaii here, and I want to say mahalo for
<br />your considerations for this project that is being considered here. I am in opposition to
<br />reconsider the Windward Planning Commission's decision of February 7th, 2019 meeting, and
<br />I'm going to just defer any more arguments because I can't say it as well as the people who sit at
<br />this table and have preceded me. So, I'm going to just say we need to save our water for the
<br />people who live here, and we need to be environmentally sound.
<br />CLARKSON: Thank you, all. Are there any questions from the Commission for these
<br />testifiers? If not, please be seated. Sure the Director has asked to just speak to you, the
<br />audience briefly about the permit process.
<br />YEE: So, I just want to clarify. Any citizen, you know, resident, you can make an application to
<br />the Planning Department for SMA, for your house—if you submit an application and you kind of
<br />check the minimum qualifications, your application if it has to be heard from the Commission
<br />will come forth to the Commission. I think most of you who are kind of here understand that,
<br />but I'm not sure everybody does. Meaning, just because there's an application in front of the
<br />Commission does not mean there was support from the Commission, and in a lot of cases, a new
<br />application, they—it's the first time they're hearing it. Okay, I do my job as the Planning
<br />Director to work with staff to vet applications, make sure they hit the minimum qualifications in
<br />terms of—and, then I make a recommendation to the Commissioners. Okay, and so, just because
<br />they're hearing it doesn't mean that they're approving it or disapproving it, okay? That's—this
<br />process of having the community speak to `em about the project is exactly the democratic
<br />process we have here in Hawaii. I just wanted to clarify that. Thank you.
<br />CLARKSON: Thank you. Our next four testifiers I'm going to call up would be Millicent
<br />Cummins, Ariel Murphy, Iokepa Kaeo, and Joseph Kualii Lindsey Camara. Who are we
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