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<br />UNGER: Mahalo.
<br />
<br />PLUNKETT: Aloha. My name is Kamuela Plunkett. I live in Pu‘ukapu, which is part of Waimea
<br />kalana, a traditional land designation that runs from the top of South Kohala down to the coastline.
<br />My background is in anthropology, archaeology, and my current study is specifically on the
<br />resource distribution and planning, heritage, preservation, restoration according to landscapes. So
<br />I submitted a letter and I believe it’s Exhibit 43. And I would just appreciate it if you guys took
<br />the time to read it, and I’m just going to build off of, off of this letter. I do believe that the
<br />expanded development is going to affect all of the resources that everybody has been talking
<br />about, the anchialine ponds, the fish ponds, but also what I want to talk to expanding on this is the
<br />sense of place. I use the trails and the beach three to four times a week. And the question about
<br />the trails, one thing you’ve got to realize is that the trails are not just walkways of the ancestors;
<br />they also connect the resources. Although it’s not in this project area, there is a huge quarry site to
<br />the south, and these trails come from there, and the question is why do they end? They end in the
<br />vicinity of the water, the pond. If you look along those trails, there’s excavation sites. There is a
<br />huge excavation site. Whether they were excavating, creating these pockets in the lava field for
<br />getting a blading material, building material, or searching for more water, that’s the essence of this
<br />cultural landscape. And when you are coming from the south, heading into ‘Anaeho‘omalu and
<br />Waikoloa, if we just build, you lose the aspect. Right now that portion of land is a transition point
<br />from natural, cultural slowly into the resort full-on mode. If we build right there, we lose that
<br />transition, we lose the sense of place. And also, the natural resources. That area is part of the
<br />northwest Mauna Loa aquifer system, and everything under it, all the water we use are connected.
<br />So it’s not just about the initial construction but it’s the ongoing maintenance of the place. I found
<br />a few more ponds that is not on the report. And the anchialine ponds, if you find ‘ōpae ‘ula in one
<br />pond that is not connected on the surface but they both have ‘ōpae ‘ula, that’s just common sense
<br />that they are connected. And ongoing, ongoing development, maintenance and increased human
<br />presence is going to affect these ponds, as well as the fish ponds to the north and the bay.
<br />
<br />I’m going to end with this, more like a story. So in my research from the 60’s on, the community
<br />has become more and more detached from the coastline. From Mauna Kea Beach Resort and you
<br />come all the way down the coast, and now we are at the last portion of South Kohala. The last
<br />portion, the closest access point to trails and the beach that I know of, because I access the trails
<br />every week. And what I see, no matter what the General Plan says, I believe we are at the turning
<br />point. I believe planning and proper resource management, cultural resource management, is at
<br />the turning point. And I just want to read this from the County’s water plan. It says that full
<br />build-out of the Land Use Pattern Allocation Guide demands nearly four times the amount of
<br />water than full build-out of zoning due to the great proportion of urban area in LUPAG. Anyway,
<br />what this is basically saying is that the proposed urban expansion for the coastline is four times
<br />greater, the estimated water use is four times greater than the aquifers can put out. So when is the
<br />turning point? I believe this is the turning point. When are we going to start to have our planning
<br />and our permitting match what our resources can provide, both cultural and natural? Thank you.
<br />
<br />UNGER: Mahalo.
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<br />EXHIBIT B
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