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proposal to the Hawai‘i County to do a long-overdue health study. It was then that the Mayor
<br />commissioned the Peter Adler study, to do a study of the studies to determine what needs to be
<br />done. So now we have the results – and so the County spent $50,000 on this – so now we have,
<br />after one year after Puna Pono made the proposal for the health study, we had the results of the
<br />Mayor study; the results, to no one’s surprise who lives in the community, is we need a health
<br />study. Now we are six months after the Adler report came out, and the question to the Mayor is that
<br />we do another meta-study. So my concern is, yes, we need to do these other studies, but let’s not
<br />put off doing a comprehensive study for another year. Let’s not wait till after an election, the next
<br />election to do, to complete the study. And please reserve the funds, because there would be a, it
<br />would really be a pity after you spend a year deciding what needs to be done, and then they find out,
<br />oh, we don’t have funds for it. So in conclusion I thank the members of the Commission for
<br />moving forward with the recommendations of the Study Group, I only request that you make every
<br />effort to expedite, rather than delay, the comprehensive health study. It is long overdue. Mahalo.
<br />
<br />GONZALES: Thank you. Any questions? Sir?
<br />
<br />SPARKS: I’m Steve Sparks, and I’m a resident of Leilani Estates in Puna. And I’m about two and
<br />a half miles as the bird flies from the Puna Geothermal Ventures. I have the same concerns as these
<br />people, it seems like. Why do the Adler report, and have as No. 1 recommendation be a health
<br />study, and then put it off for six to seven months, which is what this Burns proposal is to put it off
<br />for six or seven more months. We are now into, he says, 38 years? That’s a long time of having
<br />effects on some of the residents who have been there 40 or 50 years. I mean their children have
<br />grown up there. They have been exposed to this for a long time. And they are seeing effects that
<br />doctors cannot understand. We need to do this study now. We need to fund this study now. And
<br />we would like to put an RFP out now to get people. It’s going to take another six months to get an
<br />RFP, and so if we can get the RFP out, the Burns people to do their meta-analysis, or meta-whatever
<br />they call it, at the same time we get people ready to do a health study. We have delayed this thing
<br />too long. We need to do it now. And, yeah, the long-term effect of H²S is affecting our, it’s public
<br />health problem. I mean, just because -. There have been studies, lots of studies, this is one that’s on
<br />H²S done by the National Research Council; I mean there have been a lot of studies already done of
<br />the effects. We need to study what’s happening in Puna right now, especially before HELCO puts
<br />a, starts building more plants in Waimea, in wherever. So let’s do this and continue doing it. Let’s
<br />continue the funding for this health study. Thank you.
<br />
<br />GONZALES: Thank you.
<br />
<br />OLSON: Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Members of the committee. My name is Jon Olson. I
<br />reside at 13-631 Leilani Boulevard. My residence is about 450 feet from the plant boundary, about
<br />a quarter of a mile to the nearest well pad. During the most recent incident, major incident, back in
<br />November, those high readings that the Fire Department took were in my driveway. I’ve been there
<br />since 1989. The first thing I would like to address is the fund itself, what you refer to as the
<br />Geothermal Asset Fund started on the conference table of Governor Waihe‘e, or, yes, Governor
<br />Waihe‘e. It was intended to be a benefits fund for the community. It was intended to pay for
<br />programs and infrastructure for the surrounding community that was enduring the impacts of
<br />geothermal. It was turned over to the County to administrate. A former inauguration of this body
<br />and the Planning Department changed it into and morphed it into what you see before you today,
<br />which has nothing to do anywhere with other than spending which would have been the
<br />community’s money for studies and other things to defend, try to defend itself from the impacts of
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<br />EXHIBIT B
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