2014-01-09 Windward Exh B - Items 5 & 6

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GONZALES: I just want someone to answer Commissioner Henkel’s question. We can’t, I don’t want to hear from everyone in the room. SIRACUSA: Well, I can answer as far as the Study, because the two women on the end were not part of the Study Group, and I assume that Greg’s question was regarding what the Study Group considered to be a comprehensive medical study, health study. So I have it right here in our recommendations, and I can quickly read it off to you to address the question from the horse’s mouth so to speak: “1. Undertake a comprehensive health effects study. Using robust scientific methodologies, the County should commission a comparison group study to test four hypotheses: First, Central Nervous System degradation of the sample population will likely be more pronounced as a function of highest peak exposure to H²S. Other symptoms, particularly respiratory effects, may be more pronounced as a function of length and extent of exposure, as well as time since exposure. Second, Central Nervous System and other negative health effects from exposure to emissions including H²S will be greater in areas of highest exposures. Such exposures will be a function of meteorological conditions and emission rates over plant history. Third, heavy metal and other chemical contamination from geothermal energy production sources may have spared into the soil and into water catchments and affected drinking water supplies. This spread of heavy metals could cause health effects to residents in proximity to geothermal plants. And finally, as a consequence of noise and vibration, residents who have (a) lived closest to geothermal project development; (b) directly experienced geothermal gas releases; (c) have been evacuated; and (d) or have experienced the highest noise and vibration levels may be more likely to show anxiety disorder symptoms.” These are the things that are in the, actually, in the recommendations. It’s Pages 9 and 10, for your reference. Thank you. HENKEL: How do you collect the data for that? Do you go door to door? Do you ask people to come in to tell their effect or what? SIRACUSA: Part of that would be determined by the team that gets the RFP. And as I said, we have, you will, you will get to see that RFP, because we have developed it already, but I don’t have a copy of it with me. But it spells out things very, very meticulously. And you will get to see that when it is presented to you later on down the line. But there is a process and part of what the RFP will, you know, what they, those who responding to the RFP will state what procedures they plan to use. And I do want to say that one of the things Civil Defense is working on right now is identifying people within the affected community, who already have health problems, who would need help, say, in evacuating, if there were another event, and these are people who were like the sensitive indicators, people with respiratory problems, for example, or the disabled or the homebound. And so there will be different procedures that will be used to, you know, to get information from those people. And we also want to look at the young because the very young, including infants, are more susceptible. But seniors are also more susceptible. So this is a broad spectrum. And the RFP is also looking at, say, control groups in northern Hawai‘i Island or even Kaua‘i where there are different situations. The northern of this island gets volcanic emissions but not geothermal, and so that they can isolate that out and see how much is getting from what source or the other source. They will also have a control group on Kaua‘i, which doesn’t get any of those. And then those things can be compared and, you know, selected out, so that even people’s lifestyle things have to be selected out; if someone was a heavy smoker, for example, you know, that has to 18 EXHIBIT B