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Doctrine is also the precautionary principle. That the State has the duty to take anticipatory
<br />action to prevent harm to public resources. In the Waiahole I case, the Hawaii Supreme Court
<br />discussed the precautionary principle and ruled that the lack of full scientific certainty should not
<br />be a basis for postponing effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. Now, I sort
<br />of just come back to the fact that we just found out about this water resource, and doing more
<br />research, the last well that was dug into the Mauna Kea deep confined aquifer, they had, they had
<br />water coming up at 11 bar, 160 psi of a, out of a five -inch pipe, and it's highly pressurized at a
<br />thousand feel below under Mauna Kea flow, so it's something that, you know, I don't feel
<br />comfortable with any more drilling going into there.
<br />So, just to reiterate the precautionary principle, and going back—so touching now on, on the
<br />decision in February to defer to the until after the CWRM has come up with its water protection
<br />plan, I was at the last meeting on the 28th. I did give testimony, and why I think you guys should
<br />uphold that decision to defer to the until after we have this water protection plan, CWRM did,
<br />does acknowledge in the water protection plan that the deep confined aquifers are things that we
<br />need more information on. Currently, this water resource is undesignated so what it basically
<br />means, as it currently stands, even though this is our most, our most abundant, most abundant,
<br />most pristineoh, it's three minutes already, okay, shucks—okay, so basically under the current,
<br />how it currently stands, there's no protection for this water, even though it's the most valuable,
<br />this resource is the most pristine. Under the current framework of things because its
<br />undesignated, there's really no protection for it other than, than looking at how we're going to
<br />drill a well. There's no consideration given to whether we should drill a well or not, the amount
<br />of water they used, and whether or not there are alternative sources, which there are, 350 million
<br />gallons a day
<br />CLARKSON: Please, please wrap it up, sir
<br />CAMARA, J.: Okay, thank you very much. And, so one thing I want to help you guys out with
<br />in making this decision, one way if you're not going to uphold the decision to defer, you guys
<br />can straight out deny this permit because they're asking for the wrong aquifer. It's not the Hilo
<br />Aquifer, it's not the Onomea Aquifer. It's the deep Mauna Kea confined aquifer, so you can
<br />deny the permit on the basis that they're asking for the wrong aquifer. There's no known
<br />sustainable yield,
<br />CLARKSON: —Thank you
<br />CAMARA, J.: recharge area, recharge rate. It's unknown, so—so, whatever your guys
<br />decision, I just really hope you guys will protect this resource. Mahalo nui.
<br />CLARKSON: Thank you. Are there any questions for these testifiers from the Commission?
<br />Thank you. At this time, I'd like to call forward Jaerick Medeiros-Garcia, Leah Sherwood,
<br />Shelley Mahi-Hanai, and Ku`ulani Muise. Apparently, someone—Claudia Rohr? Please raise
<br />your right hand. Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth on this matter before the Planning
<br />Commission today?
<br />TESTIFIERS: Yes.
<br />EXHIBIT B
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