2019-01-03 Public Testimony Transcript - Piilani Partners SMA 18-070

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preservation, conservation. It's about restoration because conserving and preserving is not enough. We've done so much damage. And, another thing I want to say about the water is we talk a lot about the plastics, and it's true. We can see the plastic bottles. We can see the pictures of the trash all over the place, all over the world. And, in [inaudible] California, a very blessed, blessed—there's a very beautiful area called Monterey, Monterey Bay area, where the Waikiki white sands came from Pebble Beach and, you know, the cattle came from Monterey to the ranches here initially, but Monterey's a beautiful, beautiful place. They have a very deep trench there in the ocean. Extremely deep, comes into the Salinas River mouth, and it has the uploading of all those nutrients, and, the wealth of the ocean which makes it a very rich resource for all the wildlife and the people. When the Spanish arrived there in the old days and they found it, Monterey Bay, they said the sea lions and seals were so abundant, you could walk across or back to Santa Cruz. Santa Cruz is 45 miles across the bay. So, what I want to say about the plasticI see, you want me to shut up. But, I want to say about the plastic is that the plastic is not just in the, on the beach, and in the sand. The sea salt. When you go Island Naturals today or wherever you buy your sea salt to stay healthy, it's got plastic in it. Plastic is in all the sea salt, okay, so CLARKSON: Please wrap it up. RATHBURN: we need to mitigate that. If not, just staunch it, stop it. There's something called hemp, and I hope that somebody in this universe will come before you guys at some point like Piilani with a project to maybe produce a hemp plant. You can produce vessels that will be able to be recycled complete without damage here locally and not sent out. CLARKSON: Okay, thank you. RATHBURN: Thank you. BENJAMIN: Aloha kakou, my name is Kathryn Benjamin. I live about a block and a half away and separate issue but we're talking about water this morning is that year after year after year, I watch pesticides, herbicides, Roundup get sprayed right next to the preschool, the Chiefess Kapi`olani School, right into the waterways, not 200 feet from where your uncles are going fishing. We have abused water in every corner of this world, and this is not you personally. This is not America. It's every capitalistic, every colonial structure on this earth. We are past the point. I'm hearing a lot of optimistic people saying we'll look back at 2019 as the year where things change. We need it to be the year that everything changes immediately. There is not time to go to meeting after meeting after meeting after meeting. How many hours have all of you spent sacrificing when we're supposed to be earning money or taking care of our children to come and speak at these things so that everyone can take our testimony, put it in a big pile, and carry on with the project? It's beyond infuriating. I remember feeling this rage when I was a 10 - year old child. Our children right now know that what we are doing is inane. It is insanity to continue to poison our waterways this way. And, yet, capitalism? Colonial structures and this prolonged and very strange, illegal occupation of America in the Hawaiian Islands. Is the EXHIBIT C 15