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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0354.029 2024-2026P /.GRcac- GOMM.3bq Sara Steiner Testimony for Waika Consulting presentation to Hawaii County Council 7/8/2024 at 3:00pm Waika Consulting and their Facebook page, Power 4 The People, are promoting geothermal as the only way for Hawaii to replace the reliability of oil generation for electricity. I will briefly talk about the regulatory, financial, toxic and legal problems with the last 35 years of geothermal in Hawaii. Up until now, it appears all laws and rules in Hawaii have been drafted to protecMeQc, 'QQ_ polluters and allow them to exist without protecting the residents or environment which, by ftEp way, will not change by adding more geothermal plants. Waika Consulting is convinced that having geothermal in Hawaii will benefit the native -nz Hawaiians because of the royalty money the Departinent of Hawaiian Homelands would male if TT it was on their land. It is a dream, because they think the royalties are free money and they M going to build homes for Hawaiians. Uj First, you have to look at how much money the State and County of Hawaii have paid to respond to countless toxic gas emergencies at PGV in Puna since 1990. Just the emergency response expended by State and County alone in the last 35 years has got to be way more than the royalties paid for the same time. Waika and Power 4 The People have downplayed the dangers of H2S, their website claims it occurs naturally at the surface and they show a photo of the fissures by PGV. Actually, Hydrogen Sulfide is a deadly gas located deep underground in the geothermal fluids and only appears at the surface when piped up to a geothermal plant. When H2S migrates up to the surface through vents it mixes with water for thousands of feet and becomes Sulfur Dioxide (sulfur vents) which is not the same thing, still deadly though. This is what all you on other volcanoes have to look forward to - there is an entire legal industry protecting Hydrogen Sulfide and it downplays the danger of the gas which has killed many people in many industries over the years, including PGV. The County would have seen that proof in my comments about Dr. Kaye Kilburn's book in PGV's Environmental Impact Statement. Harry Kim cancelled our Hydrogen Sulfide health study to be paid for by PGV funds for some unknown reason, but it sure helped PGV... In 2018, Governor Ige had to take over the plant because "PGV was not taking the eruption seriously" so the State had to take over and pay for flying in emergency equipment like a giant quench pump, 50,000 pounds of salt, clays, chemicals, metal plugs for the wells, even an Onnat Vice-Prez was airlifted in because PGV was clueless and does not keep emergency equipment onsite. The residents are still waiting for our escape roads since 2018. Foot dragging is what we get as the State and County protects PGV interests instead of residents' health and safety. This emergency response problem will not change with more geothermal plants, it will increase! You won't find any records of source monitoring of deadly Hydrogen Sulfide or air modeling, because PGV is not required to do that by the state or county, so there is no proof of the over 70 gassings we have suffered since PGV began in the early 1990's. A hundr ed people were gassed by PGV during Hurricane Iselle because HELCO asked PGV to stay online and they didn't shut down like their Emergency Response Plan called for and the storm hit and the plant tripped offline and the Emergency Steam Release Valve malfunctioned and residents were gassed in their own homes trapped by fallen trees. PGV's lawyers paid off the attorney and he settled without bringing the class action. Since 2018, we have no escape roads and no Emergency Response - Comm. No 6 • 2 Ref. To:1 Ref. Dote JUL - 8 2025 we are told by 911 to call PGV hotline if we feel sick. The H2S laws in Hawaii do not protect the residents, they protect the polluter. This is what you residents on other Hawaii volcanoes will get with more geothermal plants. How is that Pono? Look at the Hawaii Judicial website and see at least 36 lawsuits against PGV and the State and County, money Puna residents have expended for decades of trying to gain health protections from regulatory agencies or compensation from harm from various incidents. Even the Attorney General's office noted in their 2022, 2023 and 2024 report to legislature that one of the biggest costs in manpower and money to AG is representing the State of Hawaii in defending matters (lawsuits and contested cases) over permitting of PGV. I did two UIPA requests to the AG to rind out how much taxpayer time and money was going to protect the State and PGV from the residents and was told there are no records available, and nobody keeps those records. So they knew it took the most time and resources but don't keep timesheets? The people have a right to know how much of their taxpayer dollars goes to preventing the residents from having a contested case over PGV's Air Pollution permit FOR SEVEN YEARS!. Yep, from 2015 to 2022, the Health Department cancelled our contested case two times, and there is still an appeal languishing in Environmental Court of the Third Circuit. We could never get our public hearing where we bring our evidence of harms and get to subpoena witnesses. This will happen to all of you residents when you try and question how any new geothermal plant will be regulated to protect you. It is my opinion that the State and County of Hawaii are not technologically capable of properly locating or monitoring a geothermal plant precisely because they don't care about the residents or environment in favor of royalties. We have the USGS up at Volcano, but they do not have the capability to monitor geothermal -induced micro fractures in the Lower East Rift Zone and since 2018 they have no data available but still show seismometers in the area like they are protecting us. I have complained many times to USGS — no results. We are told that PGV has installed their own seismometers — but they do not share the data with USGS or the State or County or other interested scientists or residents to prove they don't affect the volcano. How crooked is that? I have showed the County proof of geothermal protocols in other states in the mainland because of their inherent safety problems and propensity to cause earthquakes in my comments and lawsuit over PGV's Environmental Impact Statement. Hawaii is just not interested in protecting the aina, this will not change with more geothermal plants. I have proof of negative impact from the only two seismic studies PGV ever allowed,(1995, 2006-2009) which show thousands of microearthquakes a year emanating from PGV's property and traveling miles in all directions. My colleague Larry Wood found where the University of Hawaii co-authored a precision relocation of Hawaiiearthquakes for the 2018 eruption (due to lack of USGS seismometers in area). They show the "smoking gun" of earthquakes under PGV's wellfield while they were injecting cold water into the erupting volcano trying to save their wells. I have demanded that the State of Hawaii make rules to seismically monitor PGV and they declined. I wrote Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland, and all my Hawaii Congresspeople Hirono, Case, Schatz, and none of them ever respond. This is how much your government cares about your safety or environment. The residents of Hawaii islands must know that the State and County did not take the best interests of the residents living in subdivisions surrounding PGV and have allowed PGV to make their own rules about how to deal with Hydrogen Sulfide. Right now, reportable Hydrogen Sulfide sniffers are located upwind and over a hundred and fify feet above the Plant on the new lava flow, when in reality, the heavier-than-air gas hugs the ground and flows downhill with the wind. In 2018, Governor Ige decried that PGV wasn't taking the eruption seriously and the State took over the plant and had to pay to fly in equipment and chemicals and metal plugs because PGV kept no emergency equipment on site. PGV's 2624 EIS states that State can come in and take over anytime there is an emergency. How is that okay that the taxpayers are on the liability hook for geothermal plants during emergencies? That is Not Okay! Geothermal is not a firm or reliable power, it is hard to locate, expensive to build, highly variable power and comes with great risks. Geothermal is not clean or green, sustainable or renewable, and uses plenty of petroleum products to run their turbines, drilling and other equipment. Why would the County of Hawaii want the taxpayers to be on the hook for not only $200 million to build some new plant on our Island, but also responsible for all the emergencies that come with it. Solar, wind and waterpower is a proven resource which won't pollute Hawaii or come with so many strings attached! Sara Steiner 13-430 Pohoiki Road Pahoa, HI 96778