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<br />plant. I’ve heard those jet engine sound several times in the past, past. I was not overly
<br />concerned at that time, that we would be exposed to a lot of hydrogen sulfide. I thought their
<br />procedures were in place to protect the neighborhood. And since that time, I’ve been to some
<br />meetings that said the safety procedures for emergency shutdown is to vent gas to the
<br />neighborhood. At the present time, I think that all the safety features, except one major feature
<br />of safety were down at the time. The system that did work was gas was vented into the
<br />neighborhood. If it would not have been vented, the plant could possibly have exploded and
<br />made something near a quarter mile crater, deep and wide. So, that system did work. The
<br />monitors, the scrubbers, the other things did not work at that time. One of the main reasons I
<br />came here to testify today is I don’t want to see the neighborhood continually getting gassed, and
<br />I want something to be done so that can never happen again. But, like I said, I heard sounds like
<br />jet engines several times in the past, I heard people complain about the hydrogen sulfide but I tell
<br />you, experience it personally, you really don’t believe how bad it is. I am also of the conclusion
<br />that another health study at this time, you’ve got a lot of people out there that’s sick, people
<br />aren’t being admitted that their sick and affected with this gas, and I question whether it would
<br />be good to have a health study of the type, type that you propose at this time. Thank you very
<br />much.
<br />
<br />MIYASATO: Good afternoon.
<br />
<br />KIM: Thank you, my name is Harry Kim. I reside at 471 Ho‛okina Place in Hilo, Hawai‛i. I
<br />thank you for your time. I don’t blame anybody here in the panel or the audience of not being
<br />confused. If you have been listening to radio or newspaper, reading newspaper accounts to what
<br />has happened, and here you have a lot of people testifying in regards to negatives that happened,
<br />how can you on the board not be confused when PGV, Department of Health, have stated in
<br />writing and verbally, and the community presentation, that nothing has happened, and no threat
<br />was made to the people of Hawai‛i. If you want discrepancy, you don’t have to go very far, and
<br />I wish we could speak for an hour or two to show you these discrepancies of information. And
<br />th
<br />number one, go back to about little over a year ago, March 13 release, PGV stated that their
<br />monitors showed no more than 30 parts per billion or so. The HAZMAT people of the Fire
<br />Department reported 1 to 2 million parts per mil. That alone tells you discrepancies in regards to
<br />who says what.
<br />
<br />I am against the County government funding this health study. I hope all of the people who are
<br />behind me you know will understand why. Number one, I do not feel it would do what they
<br />want it to do. Number two, I don’t think you have enough money in your kitty to cover the costs
<br />of a thorough health study. And number three, I think the situation is that we must have a very
<br />complete study in regards to the operations, as well as the health effects. Senator Schatz was
<br />approached that if he would approach the CDC to begin that task, and he complied that with that
<br />request by writing a letter to CDC in regards to begin that task of looking as to what’s happened
<br />here. When I leave, when I left the job in the County government whether it be Civil Defense or
<br />Mayor, I was asked by a reporter, how I felt about my time, and I told him my greatest failure, I
<br />have had a lot of failures like most people I guess, but my greatest failure in government, as a
<br />government employee, was to do my job of protection in an environment of people because of
<br />the geothermal failure. Our State government passed Act 97 which took away 100 percent of the
<br />County authority in regards to controlling geothermal. This same State government, with the
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