2017-05-15 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case

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fish that are not healthy, to the turtles that are not healthy, washed away out to sea, so that 306 people minimum can come and hang out, not even be able to walk to the beach, not be able to get into town anytime soon. The things that we have right now already are not supported; adding to it is not, we are not ready for it. We are not ready for the water. We were not ready for the sewage leak that just now got fixed. I haven’t been back since the sewage leak happened. I don’t, I don’t think that it’s been gone, you know. Whenever you have a leak in your house, you’ve got an HVAC team that’s in there, hazard team cleaning, bleaching, tenting your house. And it just got repaired for now into a, into a water system, a tributary that has life in it that goes out into the ocean and spreads whatever happen in there. So, physically, it’s already a problem. I see kids walking to the Kahakai Elementary School up and down Ali‘i, and I think that more cars there sitting in traffic not knowing that there are children waiting for the bus or children walking home, children walking to Banyan, anything along the road right there, 306 more cars a day is a problem. I already have people speeding through on Plumeria Road where I live; they speed through my neighborhood to get away from the Royal Poinciana speedbumps to go up to Upper Road. So, physically, the permaculture of it, it just, it’s not sustainable now, and later there is no way that it’s going to sustain. Right now we are having really big problems. You know, all over the world right now we are kind of having a water protector struggle, because water is life. Water, clean water, is the only way that we’ve been doing what we’ve been doing, especially here in Hawai‘i. The water is all around us, saltwater, but when we have a freshwater come in, it’s very rare, it’s very beautiful, it’s what keeps it green, feeds us, you know, nourish our body. But whenever you get any infectants, like we’ve talked about, anything that goes into the ground goes into the water. And everything that’s in the ground right now, including family that might not be my blood, not my skin that I come from, but it’s my earth family, it’s people who have been there for thousands of thousands of years. So, now why just when we have the money, if it’s been protected this entire time, just because we have the money, I don’t think that that means that we can undo what’s been sacred this whole time. So, just from being around for my short time and not even having my lifetime experience here, I’ve been blessed by every single aspect of this island. I try to pick up every single piece of trash. I try to yell at anybody I see standing on the coral. They don’t know any better, maybe they, they are not meaning to stand and kick and break and, you know, get too close to the turtles, they are not trying to do that. But that’s what we’ve got going on right now with the limited amount of guests we have. I can’t imagine adding 300 more minimum people to that every day, coming in and unknowingly undoing the great work of this island. So, I thank everybody for showing up, and I’m glad to be here. Thank you. ROLLY FROST: I forgot one thing. There is a mechanism called an Environmental Impact Statement. I don’t agree that Towne Development is a benign company. I think they should be made to do an Environmental Impact Statement. Thank you. TONYA COULTER: Aloha. Good morning. My name is Tonya Coulter and I live in South Kona. And I’m coming here today as a parent, as a homemaker. My family moved here. My husband is a teacher in a public school in South Kona. And one of the things that I want to talk about – I’m sorry, I’m very nervous – is the fact that there are impacts to this kind of development, 13 2017-05-15 Public Testimony on SMA 16-063 Contested Case