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

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CLARKSON: Please introduce yourself When you start, we'll start over here to my left, your right, and proceed down the table. Please directly into the microphone, and you'll have three minutes. CAMARA: Aloha, O Joseph Kualii Lindsey Camara ko`u inoa. O Mauna Kea ku`u mauna. O Wailuku ku`u wai. I live with my `ohana in the ma`ukele of Kaumana. I'm here to testify against the issuance of SMA Permit 18-000070 to Piilani Partners, LLC for the installation and operation of a commercial well extracting water from the Mauna Kea Aquifer. The Public Trust Doctrine. The Mauka Kea Aquifer and all fresh water sources in Hawaii are trust resources held in trust by the State Department of Land and Natural Resources who has the fiduciary responsibility to protect, control and regulate the use of of water resources for the benefit of its people. The SMA Permit will allow for a public trust resource to be harvested for commercial gain with no compensation to the trust beneficiaries, the people of Hawaii. The State also has a specific fiduciary responsibility to Native Hawaiians to be compensated for the use of trust resources. Piilani Partners, LLC plans to make no compensation to the County, State, or Native Hawaiians or consultation on this matter for the use of this trust resource that it proposes to extract and profit from. I watched some video of the December 6' Planning Commission meeting where Mr. Fuke and attorney Pam Bunn articulated that the proposed use of water for this SMA is far below the sustainable yield of the Mauna Kea Aquifer or Mauna Kea or Onomea they called it, and there are no competing uses for this water source. What their statements do not capture that this, that the Mauna Kea Aquifer is a closed, pristine water body that has not been tapped for use. The Mauna Kea Aquifer contains fresh water under a closed, pressurized system, making it artesian. Beyond the straightforward extraction rate from the Mauna Kea Aquifer, drilling and well installation pose a far greater risk to the aquifer. If drilling or well installation activities compromise the caprock which seals the over 100,000 -year old closed system, there is no way to fix the problem. The caprock being 1,000 feet below Mauna Loa substrates, 1,000 feet below the, below the surface. The Mauna Kea Aquifer is a highly pressurized system that if compromised could leak out and forever compromise the system. Even if this SMA does not compromise the system, it sets a precedent that anyone can extract from this system which over time will increase the likelihood that it will be forever compromised. Lessons can be learned from our past mismanagement of our rare artesian water sources like the Pu`u Loa Aquifer underlying Pearl Harbor and Ewa Plains in Oahu. This resource was once artesian, but overdevelopment of wells compromised the system and now the once pristine system is now contaminated with military and agricultural waste which is really one of the greatest tragedies in Hawai`i's history. Alternatives to this resource must be considered. There is abundant fresh water above the Mauna Kea Aquifer that is not artesian or sealed which flows to the sea in the Mauna Loa Aquifer that EXHIBIT C 2