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here to represent the funeral home and answer any questions that you have and, you <br />know, if you have any technical questions or any kind of information that you need on <br />the equipment, we’re here to help you out. <br />WATANABE:Well, follow-up, Mr. Salavea? <br />SALAVEA:Thank you, Mr. Chair. So in regards to the statements made by <br />Mr. Nakakura about the condition or the smoke and the ash coming out of the stack, that <br />isn’t part of the normal operating procedures and -? <br />RAGGETT:It’s not true one bit. If that was the case, we’d all be out of <br />business as far as the cremation manufacturing goes. If you ask 50 percent of the people <br />in this, 100 percent of these people in the room 50 percent would choose cremation. <br />We’re manufacturing crematories on a daily basis, and there’s six manufacturers within <br />the United States; and if all of us had those problems of what Shawn has been describing, <br />we’d all be sued and out of business. So there is no true finding in that at all. <br />SALAVEA:And a follow-up to that is, could you summarize for us, the <br />Commission, in the most layman terms possible, what is the expectation and what <br />regulations you folks or the crematorium needs to abide by? I mean, if there is <br />particulate matter coming out the way he’s claiming, like you said, I don’t think that <br />would meet EPA standards or somebody would be complaining, right? <br />RAGGETT:Exactly. In the State of California where we manufacture them, <br />there are four different agencies that govern cremation equipment. There are three <br />agencies of government here in Hawai`i. But the first agency is obviously the City, they <br />dictate whether it’s okay to put them in; and if it’s not okay, by Conditional Use Permits. <br />The second agency is Air Quality. Every single crematory in all of the United States and <br />even in the Philippines and Mexico and everywhere else, they require air quality permits. <br />The crematories are source-tested, they’re UL-tested and they are mechanically-tested <br />before they go out; and, so, all of these machines are governed by that agency. And if the <br />machine were to have a problem, that agency does unannounced inspections and once-a- <br />year inspections to make sure that those problems don’t happen. And, so, what we have <br />to, the rules that we go by on manufacturing these is that when the Applicant decides to <br />purchase a crematory, then we file the application with the Air Quality. They, we submit <br />all the data, and all the emissions, and all the reports, and the particulate, and the <br />mercury, and anything else that comes from a crematory to them. They determine if it’s <br />low enough volumes that it won’t affect the, you know, the atmosphere or the <br />neighboring communities. We have these things placed near schools, playgrounds, parks; <br />and we don’t have any problems. And, so, once they issue the permit, then we place the <br />machine in; and then the Air Quality agency comes out and inspects it after it’s up and <br />running to make sure that it’s all exactly the way we said it was. <br />Some of the other requirements from the State of California is that the Consumer Affairs <br />is involved where they have unannounced inspections. And they govern cremation to <br />make sure that people are doing what they’re supposed to do as far as paperwork, <br />EXHIBIT D <br />8 <br /> <br />