2014-09-04 Hearing Transcript-Mayor - GAF Study

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I’m gonna switch now. I have a lot of things I could say. The Department of Health website has never worked, ever. PGV says the emergency response system operated as designed. It’s designed to save the plant at the expense of the community. That’s unacceptable. The GRP needs, the Geothermal Resource Permit, from the County needs to address that. So does the State Department of Health. Why is there no where for geothermal victims to go to help outside of Puna Pono Alliance? None of these people can find—I asked the Mayor to please come out and help us, and he told me, you just make sure you document this very well. And that is unacceptable. I want to show you some newspaper articles, 1977— AUDIENCE MEMBER: Microphone— PETRICCI: 1977— AUDIENCE MEMBERS: Microphone— PETRICCI: I’m sorry—1977, 40 people said they were sick from geothermal well testing. I believe this was in 1992, Harry Kim wanted to put in a real emergency response—but, he refused to sign off on the restarting of the PGV plant after the blowout because he had five conditions, and they weren’t that stringent, that he wanted met before they could restart that plant. They overrode him, and that was when they decided that the Mayor is actually the head of Civil Defense, not Harry Kim, and they overrode him, and they restarted the plant without any emergency response plan that was functional as we saw in this last storm. Any monitoring system that is functional. There’s no data. And you have the Department of Health coming in public on television and in the media and saying there’s no way those people got sick, and he has no data to make that statement. And the Department of Health has done that since HGP-A. And I don’t know why they do it, but it seems to me that they believe their job is to protect PGV, and that we’re expendable as a community, and that’s the only way I can see it. The asset fund in 1990, I believe, residents blast the new Geothermal Asset Fund. She’s asking me to stop, and I want to say that I’m testifying as a resident and as President of Puna Pono. Can I get extra time because you will not believe lethal levels released. I mean, every one of these. The HGP-A closed by emergency decree. And I mean on and on and on and on. And here we are with another hundred people. It’s time that we do something about it. Thank you. HEAUKULANI: I’ve got a question of you, sir. I take seriously our kuleana over this fund, and I agree with everyone that’s testified here that we need to use this money in the best interest of the people that are being impacted. Now, I’ve heard a couple of times today, I think Senator Ruderman, too, mentioned a—you know, some kind of a proposal or plan to make sure that if we fund this study, that it’s gonna do what it is that needs to be done down there. I don’t want to just burn up $750,000. I voted against the meta-study because I just thought it was just a study of a bunch of studies, and I’m tired burning up money— PETRICCI: --I agree— 13 EXHIBIT F