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<br />conducted by an independent agency. Gleaning the facts from this most recent incident will <br />inform Hawai‛i County about priorities for the health study that is proposed. I’m guessing that <br />the health study should be expanded to include acute exposures like the one many of us <br />experienced. Unfortunately, Hurricane Iselle was a perfect storm of high winds, giant Albizias, <br />PGV contractual obligations, an inadequate emergency response plan, and Hawai‛i Department <br />of Health indifference. I live one mile from the plant. My wife, my 75-year old mother-in-law, <br />and I all became nauseous that evening. That was before we heard the reports of the leak by <br />Civil Defense. We could not leave our farm due to downed trees on the road. We all sufferered <br />from headaches and lethargy for the following week. <br /> <br />Imagine spending the day preparing for a hurricane, and just when you come inside to take <br />shelter, you are poisoned by H2S and other heavy metals, and you cannot leave due to falling <br />trees. This is what happened to the people who live near PGV that night. PGV said that the <br />system worked as designed, and we followed all the permits, and yet a hundred people or more <br />were made sick, including elderly, pregnant women, and children. There’s something wrong <br />with the system where people are made sick and a company says we followed all the permits. <br />Our system worked as designed. <br /> <br />The County bears particular responsibility for those who were made sick from this flume because <br />the County issued the GRP permit to PGV. Also, the Mayor vetoed a bill to improve the <br />emergency response plan for PGV. That was in 2012. For these reasons, the Mayor and the <br />County should request that the Center for Disease Control and the EPA conduct a thorough <br />investigation of incident so that it is not repeated again. Senator Schatz has already made this <br />request in a letter to the CDC and the EPA. I hope the County and the Mayor will show similar <br />leadership on this issue before it happens again. We don’t need more people to get sick and <br />possibly people to die because of a County permitted organization that is willing to put people at <br />risk for the sake of profit. Mahalo for your consideration. <br /> <br />MIYASATO: Could I have Suzanne Kelia [sic] [Wakelin], Haley Baldwin, Robert Petricci, and <br />Shana Ritsema. Could you all please your right hand? Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth <br />on this matter now before the Hawai‛i County Planning Commission? <br /> <br />WAKELIN: I do. <br /> <br />BALDWIN/PETRICCI/RITSEMA: (affirmative nod) <br /> <br />MIYASATO: Okay, you can start. Please state your name and residence. <br /> <br />WAKELIN: Good afternoon. My name is Suzanne Wakelin. I live at 13-5628 Malama Ki <br />Place in Pāhoa. So, I live with my family approximately one mile from PGV, and I am one of <br />th <br />the people who got sick and trapped in our home during the storm on August 7 when PGV went <br />off-line release geothermal steam. So, the Ormat and PGV PR says that PGV operated as it <br />supposed to. However, it’s one thing for me and my husband to be poisoned. It’s yet another <br />thing for that to happen to my mother who is 75 and my neighbor’s children under the age of ten, <br />and all the other vulnerable people in the community. So, it’s supposed to be hydrogen sulfide <br />that’s monitored according to the Department of Health State permit although there is actually a <br />10 <br />EXHIBIT F <br /> <br /> <br />