HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0651.004 2010-2012 _T-.fe-Y1 ) (V-\ctu3cuik.- G-)---66-Q ■v-■642 -- ;,\&y-Nr ' \4__ ?0,/ 47ARIESC
t cA,,,A0 k ci cl- I --6-Lfg-up 0 bc 'IC d6 The, ,..
,...,- , c-",
) .
SUBMITTED BY: w -C---
AUORA MARTINOVICH =c�
.. NSP No. 0008.02-N COMM. 651 ,..--
Attachment 118 _~-;n
Page 10of11
Amended: August 25, 1999 9
tea Condensate Fluorides (Total)
Benzene
Ammonium (Total) Mercury (Total)PH
Arsenic Total Dissolved Solids
Lead Total Suspended Solids
Cadmium
Bicarbonate and Carbonate Beryllium
Chlorides lfates Vinyl Chloride
Ch Radon
Nitrates Radionuclides (gross Alpha and
fi Boron (Total) Beta)Sulfide
Briar Fluorides (Total)
Benzene
Ammonium (Total) Mercury (total)pi„pH
Arsenic Total Dissolved Solids
Lead Total Suspended Solids
Cadmium
Bicarbonate and Carbonate Beryllium
Chlorides
Sulfates Vinyl Chloride
Chlorides Radon Bro Radionuclides (gross Alpha and
Booron n (Total)
Hydrogen Sulfide Bev)
l..••raat•nsibie Gases Carbon Dioxide Benzene Arsenic Hydrogen Sulfide Beryllium
Ammonia Asbeatoe
Mercury Vapor Radon
Methane
Non-Methane Hydrocarbons Radionuclides (gross Alpha and
Beta)
Vinyl Chloride
The sampling and testing
of the resource shall be performed once upon experiencing the
first steam release, and at least once during abated well cleanout and flow tasting
operations.
During normal operation of each well, the sampling and testing of the resource shall be
performed on an annual basis. During the testing of the noncondensible gases. if the
hydrogen sulfide concentrations deviates�e more sampling gland testing of the resource for the
) measurement, the permrt'tee shall repeat within the next six (8) months. The
._ _ steam corder te, brine and noncondaf�ib�t oanS83oncaa'R.er performing,an annual .
stilt (o S I
r e our ee - 4' `I'ft/ { I • I
resource test. Comm. No. I.
iiLvr1J e .� /�! '� Ref. Date APR 413 Mt
'
THE BRIMSTONE. BATTLES: A. Reunion Chronicle Si eclat Re 'art
IloustonChronicle.corq Chronicle Yews The Brimstone Battles Discussion Forum
Poison in Paradise
Residents says operators of geothermal power plant are committing
sulfuric sacrilege in goddess' garden
PUNA DISTRICT, Hawaii—This is the
realm ofPele, artful goddess ofHawaii's .,•volcanoes. _ w ' -!g
". wr 8 `, ;y Vii.
w•
rrF" *t ' ''. -' -fir ' - ,. tr
Those who have lived on the Big s „. i, .
ig Is land _,,i.- fir ,r. . .��, �4
for some time cannot help but feel the - '' '
presence of the impulsive deity, who, $ 3,. "` ,,,
legend has it, does not take kindly to -�.' `� ` .P - ' r'-: r '" x' Y
man-made intrusions. Believers go to - . 'tr , �' ''
the rim of the -'° . '� r . . , ,.+;
moping Kilauea crater to " ' . . „ ,
�� I ��.N:. fly �^
make oft-eying to her and ..} - ' f.- ' _ .• • -
give thanks. : '` z
It was against the mystical backdrop �. _ ''.`'t k ..:.?�,:Y
Lava flows from the; Pu'u O`vo vent on the southern slope of
that an enterprise known as Puna Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii.Kilauea is one of the
Geothermal Venture (PGV) began most active volcanoes in the world,emitting tens of thousands of
punching holes in Hawaii's black tons of sulfur dioxide each year.
volcanic rock in 1990.
Disciples of Pele warned that such drilling was blasphemous and invited ruin. PGV nonetheless went
forward, having committed to a$130 million, 25-megawatt geothermal power plant that would
produce electricity from subsurface heat, hastening development in one of the flew relatively
undisturbed pockets of the island.
Whether Pele exacted her revenge remains a matter of dispute. This, much, however, can be said:
Some residents of the lush and eclectic Puna District are convinced that hydrogen sulfide escaping
ti-om the PGV well Geld and power plant is making them ill.
And when a prominent Texas researcher came 4,000 miles to document the residents' symptoms in
hopes ofadvancing knowledge about an insidious chemical, he caused an upheaval worthy of
flawaii's headstrong goddess.
'I've never encountered anything quite like it,"sail Dr. Marvin Legator, director of the Division of
Environmental Toxic' at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
Legator, 71, was accustomed to conflict, having often sided with community groups that had accused
powerful corporations of environmental misdeeds and government agencies of ineptitude.
chron.com/content/.../hawan.html
1/3
14/GVll IIVUWV1M.!II VI IMIC.t.UlJI ' I I IC DI immune...
Even by his standards, however, the official reception in Hawaii was chilly. It seemed that the only
ones who wanted him here were the people ofLeilani Estates, a rustic subdivision just south of the
geothermal plant.
Most goverrnment and business leaders were less than convivial; PGV was a pet project, blessed by
luminaries such as U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, and Legator was in a position to spoil it. At one point,
there was talk ofundersea cables that would carry 500 megawatts of electricity to tourist-saturated
Oahu and Maui Inouye even sought federal funds far the project, but it went nowhere.
By the time Legator entered the picture in 1996, some of the Leilani Estates residents already had
organized into a group called Puna Malama Pono (rough translation:Protect the Goodness of Puna).
They had complained for years about lethargy, dizziness, insomnia, vomiting, diarrhea—the very
symptoms that are associated with chronic hydrogen sulfide exposures in the medical literature and
that Legator himselfhad observed near a synthetic-rubber plant in the West Texas city of Odessa.
rl Legator is among a handful of researchers intrigued with
Symptom *survey PIt!t±a� U ;,
tt the effects ofminuscule—and purportedly safe—levels of
hydrogen sulfide on the human body over a period of
months or years.
"It's so ubiquitous, and we've had so much misleading
information out there about it,"he said "If you survive
;; (an exposure), nothing's going to happen to you-that's
the dominant theory held today.
Researcher Marvin Legator explains a health
survey of residents near the Puna Geothermal "All the regulatory agencies still hold to that same crap.
Venture during the Big Island Science
Conference at the University of Hawaii The whole house ofcards collapses on them when you
start taking about chronic, low-level exposures,
because that's where the problems are."
For Legator, Hawaii represented an unusual investigative opportunity:Here was an isolated
population exposed over a period ofyears to generally small but quantifiable amounts of hydrogen
sulfide fom a known source.
En a 1981 report, three scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California concluded
that "atmospheric releases of hydrogen sulfide constitute the most significant public health issue of
gothermal energy production,"and that carcinogenic and neurotoxic compounds such as benzene,
arsenic, mercury and radon also could be released at levels of concern.
Two of Legator's research associates went on a scouting expedition to the Puna District in March
1996, conducting interviews with 69 people. Legator made his first visit at the beginning of this year
and announced his preliminary findings—symptoms consistent with hydrogen sulfide exposure—at a
Jan. 9 news conference at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Legator thought he had made it clear that more work needed to be done. He realized that something
chron.com/content/.../hawaii.html 2/8
--•---- ivww�iii n v�ilue.com- I ne brimstone
was seriously amiss, however, when he read an article in the Jan. 12 edition of the Hawaii Tribune_
Herald.
The headline was, "Official:Health Survey Bogus."The story quoted Bruce Anderson, deputy
director of the state Department of Health in Honolulu, as saying that the results of any survey
Legator conducted would be inherently biased because the subjects were rabidly anti-geothermal and
had years to bone up on the effects of hydrogen sulfide.
The attacks didn't stop there. On March 26, a PGV official appealed to William Cunningham,
chancellor of the University of Texas System in Austin
'PGV is surprised and disappointed that the University ofTexas would knowingly allow its fine name
to be attached to a health survey of the type produced by Dr. Legator,"wrote Jack Dean, the
venture's vice president and general manager.
Dean did not respond to Chronicle interview requests. Legator said that he Sek no pressure from
either the university or the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences—which Kinds research
centers at UTMB and 25 other universities—to discontirnie his work in Hawaii.
Still, he was so put offby the experience that he asked the Collegium Raniazzini, an international
association of public-health researchers, to consider forming a defense committee for scientists
browbeaten by industry.
Legator and his associates have not finished their analysis of the complete Puna District survey, given
to 97 people who live near PGV and 58 members ofa control group in Hilo, 20 miles away.
Nonetheless, Legator said that nary members of the "exposed"group appear to have been impaired
by hydrogen sulfide. 'The vast majority—almost 90 percent—are showing neurotoxic effects,"he said.
In an interview, Anderson said that Legator "essentially recruited individuals with known prejudices
against geo-thermal power development in Hawaii.
Obviously, if you ask people who are upset about a development activity if they feel they've been
affected, they're going to tell you they have.
If there's a health problem down there, we're going to take action to address that concern,"
Anderson said. "If it means shutting down(PGV), so be it. But if(Legator) is alarming people
needlessly, that's not a good situation either."
The saga in the Puna District began in December 1975, when the first well was drilled for the state-
run Hawaii Geothermal Project, an experimental, three-megawatt power plant near Leilani Estates
that went on line in 1981.
Almost from the start, residents complained about the rotten-eaa stench, a sure sign that hydrogen
sulfide was present.
However, when the state Health Department compared the one-year prevalence of illness in Leilani
chron.com/content/.../hawaii.html
3/8
LL/w{,i I I'..- LUI II.I I I I I I C Dl I I ...
Estates with that in Hawaiian Beach Estates, a subdivision farther from the plant, it found no
compelling di8ierences—although it saki that more of the Leilani Estates residents seemed to suffer
from colds.
The experimental plant was closed in December 1989. But geothermal was far from dead on the Big
Island.
Plans were made to drill into the Fist Rift Zone of the active Kilauea volcano. Transmission lines
would slice through the towering Ohia trees of the Wao Kele 0 Puna(Green Forest of Puna), the last
major rain forest in the United States.
Native Hawaiians and sympathetic environmentalists were enraged by what they considered to be the
supreme act of sacrilege, a defilement of Pelee herself 4.
"If no other place in the world is like this, it has to stay lice this,"
saki Palikapu Dedman, president of the Pele Defense Fund, 't,
which organized large protests against the undersea-cable s�
project.
The 50-year-old Dedman is a fisherman and coffee grower who t�' t"
takes his religious beliefs seriously. He likens geothermal drilling
in sacred areas to the sacking of a Christian church.
"Our religion is something you can see and feel,"Dedman saki as
he crouched on the edge of the Kilauea crater, in what is now
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Steam wafted from cracks in
the earth around him—proof he saki, that the volcano is a living
thing
Palikapu Dedrran,head of the Pete
The first PGV well was drilled in late 1990, with the blessing of Defense Fund,calls geothermal
Inouye, the seasoned Democratic senator and World War II drilling a sacrilege.
hero.
Inouye had made no secret ofhis fondness for geothermal energy. He extolled it on the Boor of the
Senate on June 27, 1990, noting that Hawaii depended on 130,000 barrels of imported oil per day
and needed a cleaner, more reliable source of energy as insurance.
In a letter to the Geothermal Resources Council dated Oct. 7, 1991, Inouye declined an invitation to
be the keynote speaker at the group's annual meeting but promised his continued support.
"Geothermal is the most technically and economically feasible and environmentally sate energy source
Hawaii has at its disposal,"the senator wrote. He failed to mention that a thundering well blowout at
PGV had sent a plume of hydrogen sulfide into the Puna District four months earlier.
Wilson Goddard, a consulting engineer from Lucerne, Calif. who has conducted periodic analyses of
PGV since 1988, saki that there is nothing inherently sinister about geothermaL
chron.com/content/.../ha■vaii.html 4/8
"If it's done right and in the right location, it can be benign,"Goddard said. "Geothermal in Hawaii is a
very powerfiil resource, with a very high percentage of hydrogen sulfide. The history of that(PGV)
development, unfortunately, has not been good."
PGV is jointly owned by Ormat Energy Systems, an Israeli company with an office in Sparks, Nev.,
and Baltimore Gas & Electric.
The plant, whose output has risen from 25 to 30 megawatts, collects about 800,000 pounds of
geothermal fluid (in essence, water heated by molten rock) per hour from two wells. The fluid is
separated into steam, which is sent to a turbine to produce electricity, and brine, which is injected as
waste into three other wells. Hydrogen sulfide levels in excess of 800 parts per million haw been
measured in the vapor from one of the wells.
Among the Leilani Estates residents who blame PGV for their poor health, few have suffered as much
as the Hanrsons, who moved here in 1986 from Southern California. Both Dru, 46, and Kate, 36,
say that they are lethargic and have had cysts removed from their nasal passages. Like several other
women in the neighborhood, Kate has had double menstrual cycles and sore, fibrous breasts. Dru
y ��� � •y;, often has blurred vision.
. , �r-
3 p..... The three Harrison children—Brieanna, 11;
. ` 4 ' ,; , Tyler, 8; and Kaili, 6—have experienced high
- ,-.,y r if ' fevers, abdominal pain and other battling
-I ' Lt,ilk .ii T" l conditions. One morning not long ago, Kaili,
{ '`'°�"` "` 's.-- who was born a month before the June 1991
i,,..4-111.71.1":‘.`.1.:, well blowout, got out ofbed and collapsed in a
I.„ ,
r x"14'4*
A ,g,;c► heap.
' s soh 4 'r.�' � �i.�'�` "She '
i... . t. C. t 'She said, 'It feels lke my legs aren't there,
Brieanna Harrison holds up her school journal account Dad,"'Dru Harrison said. He had to carry her
of her various ailments.With her,from left,are brother
Tyler,sister Kaili and mother Kate. for the better part of two days as she slowly
regained her ability to walk. The family doctor
attributed her temporary paralysis to viral cramping.
"Just to go through this over and over again with your children—you feel so powerless,"said Kate
Harrison.
Aurora Martinovich, 35, and her 11-year-old daughter Waiala live within 2,000 feet of the PGV
fence in a neighborhood called Lanipuna Gardens. Another erstwhile Californian, Martinovich frets
about emissions from the plant and has become one of its most vociferous critics.
"The state has invested so much money in seducing developers out here,"she said. 'They're
prostituting Hawaii to the highest bidder.”
Martinovich and the other Puna Malama Pono members have been mocked as counterculture ne'er-
do-wells who oppose all economic development.
chron.com/content/,../hawaii.html 5/8
4/14/LV41 ...................—...—.—.--... ...— —........—..—...
To be sure, they are an idiosyncratic lot, a blend of dark-skinned natives and pale refugees from the
mainland. Marijuana plants occasionally can be spotted amid the region's terns and papaya trees.
Pahoa, the district's dominant town, is a cobrf 1, slightly run-down hamlet evocative of the late
1960s. ---
r .� c
'It's arrogance, a lot of it,"Leilani Estates resident Geoff , r-
to /ty 1•
n_ a .-
Last said of the geothermal boosters. 'The lowlifes in r'' ` ' �
Puna can't tell them what to do." -....4.):44 - t • ` ly
'They're trying to label this community a bunch of -"Y-x,,,.,4 + ;. y 4
radicals,"said an irxl' Chantele Singleton, the 4� '�' .. "',• }g•' . '
UTMB outreach coordinator assisting Legator with his -"` ��: �'`
symptom survey. ��'" . ` : r .. '4.. 'x^17- ;. ,l
YmP ey Aurora Martinovich keeps an eye on the Puna
Geothermal Venture from the fenceline.Among
Legator was encouraged to come to Hawaii by a PGV's most vocal critics,Martinovich believes
colleague, Dr. Janette Sherman. An internist in the plant is emitting unhealthful levels of
Alexandria, Va., who for years saw patients in the
hydrogen sulfide.
islands, Sherman conducted a health survey of 71 people for a lawsuit tiled against PGV by some of
the Leilani Estates residents.
She noted in a 1993 report that many of the subjects complained of recurring ailments such as
shortness of breath, swollen glands, nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.
Perhaps more significantly, 83 percent reported neuropsychiatric problems-depression, anxiety,
sleeplessness-that had long been linked to hydrogen sulfide exposure. "This represents an epidemic!"
Sherman wrote. "If this incidence were reported for a communicable nicable disease, a state of emergency
would be declared."
Legator submitted a study proposal-"Assisting a Community Exposed to Emissions from a
Geothermal Plant"--to the environmental health sciences institute's Galveston center in March 1995
and was awarded a$5,000 grant two months later.
At a scientific conference at the University of
TY
Hawaii-Hilo in April, he explained the rationale
behind his symptom survey: "It's nothing very
A° , , .,, uA * ._ much more than a physician taking a medical
r,,ri "` P .:? history so he knows where to go. It's a
s�
"�' � �� , � ����0� ,p}r'-�r>�, springboard for a more focused study."
cut ..,.}.' i, i4 4:
1
..p ,a,a
.f ; . Some attribute the Puna District illnesses to the
n ) {,t; } u y.. ..�' . island's naturally occurring volcanic gases.
Graffiti painted on Pahoa-Pohoiki Road next to the Puna "Emissions from the volcano make every other
Ceothermal Venture symbolizes the feelings of many of erogenic source pale by comparison,"
the plant's neighbors. Residents of the Leilani Estates
subdivision blame their illnesses on hydrogen sulfide Anderson said.
releases from the facility.
chron.com/content/.../hawaii.html 6/8
-t,y-./—1J. Ivll. Vl Il.l II vi Illl C.l.VI l l' 1 I IC DI II I IJIVI IC...
• Legator, however, noted that these gases
consist primarily of sulfur dioxide, which affects the body differently than hydrogen sulfide. The former
tends to cause respiratory distress; the latter disrupts the central nervous system.
A 1996 report by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency suggested that PGV was a significant
source of hydrogen sulfide. The agency published a list of 19 releases from the wells and the plant
between February 1991 and May 1993; among these was a monstrous blowout of well KS-8 that
began on June 12, 1991, and lasted 31 hours.
Goddard, the consultant, concluded that the blowout was PGVs doing not an unavoidable act of
nature, and well KS-8 was plugged.
During a 30-minute cleanout ofwell KS-9 on Feb. 8, 1993, hydrogen sulfide levels again soared,
sickening two plant workers and live police officers off site.
In its report, the EPA criticized PGV's air monitoring and emergency planning and the state Health
Department's supervision of these activities.
It noted that the EPA's San Francisco office had lodged a complaint against PGV for failing to report
the 1991 and 1993 releases to the National Response Center, and that state and local officials had
not received timely information about these incidents.
In an interview at his office in Hilo, Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Harry Kim expressed
regret and revulsion over what he characterized as a government debacle.
When I leave this job, the lowest low will be our fiil>re to protect the people with regard to
geothermal,"Kim said.
The 1991 blowout "should not have happened, would not have happened if goverment had followed
up on its responsbulties,"Kim said. "This was a life-threatening situation, not an inconvenience."
Asked his opinion ofLegator's health survey, he said: 'The credibility of county goverment and state
government on this issue is zero. That's why the University of Texas is here."
Things have been somewhat quieter at PGV the past flew years. There have been no blowouts,
although the plant's neighbors say that they still smell pungent odors-mainly at night-and worry about
continuous, low-level hydrogen sulfide emissions.
'It's just there all the time,"said Barbara Dettweier, who lives with her husband, Al, about a half-mile
away. 'It literally dries up your throat and chokes you."
Adrian Barber was working in his Spartan office,just beyond the PGV fence, during the 1993 well-
cleanout. He experienced what oil field workers call a "knockdown" from the hydrogen sulfide.
'There was no warning,"said Barber, a British-born fanner rock 'n' roll record producer. "All of a
sudden, the whole world turned vertical. It disoriented me; I'm crawling across this vertical surface to
get to the door. I was vomiting "Ihere was ringing in my ears."
chron.com/content/.../hawaii.html 7/8
Barber, president of Pura Malama Pono, is acerbic and fiercely protective of his adopted home.
We are the poorest island, and this is the poorest comer of that island,"he said. Beneath the ground,
however, lie pockets of 600-degree water with the potential to produce colossal amounts of energy.
Although the Puna District has not become the '"industrial hell"Barber and his neighbors fearfully
envisioned when the first PGV well was drilled seven years ago, they have not let down their guard.
Some believe that if PGV suffers no more major mishaps, if Puna Mauna Pono can be held at bay,
the proposed 500-megawatt leviathan migit be revived by the developers.
'They've got enough heat in this volcano to make many powerful men rich beyond their wildest
drew,"Barber said.
Back to top
chron.com/content/.../hawaii.html 8/8
1 )vv: 0 r t 01,- L t&.CO ;■ (-7e t4 k.c,'tvnG) it-c-i.Co 4cv 1 Cwt - z_ot.c { ..-zrzL
prxra r_
GODDARD at GODDARD ENGINEERING - ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES Pepe 30
TABLE 4-1
HEALTH EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTANTS FROM GEOTHERMAL DEVELOPMENT
Ammonia (NH.,). Odor threshold: 5.2 ppm (Amoore et el, 1983). Eye irritation: 5
• ppm (NIOSH, i 974), 72 ppm (Industrial Bio-Test Labs, 1973). Inhalation irritation:
20 ppm (EPA, 1977). Nasal irritation: 32 ppm; chest irritation: 134 ppm (Industrial
Bio-Test Labs, 1973). Increased morbidity and mortality: 70-105 ppm (Bittersohl,
1971 ). Pulmonary edema: 1 ,700-4,500 mg/m3. Low levels: no permanent adverse
health effects (EPA, 1977). Leaf damage in sensitive plants: 3-12 ppm for 4 hours
(Benedict et AL., 1955).
Ammonium Bisulfide (NH4HS). Penetrates the skin more rapidly than hydrogen
sulfide. Since it is an inherently unstable solid, it readily dissociates back to hydro-
gen sulfide and ammonia gases.
Ammonium Sulfate (NH4)2SO4. Toxic to plants (Malloch It AL, 1979; Sharp,
1976).
Arsenic (As). All forms of arsenic are toxic at various levels; some are potentially
carcinogenic (Lee and Fraumeni, 1969; Tseng gt aI , 1968; Lander, 1975; NIOSH,
1975). Arsenic compounds are known to be corrosive to skin and are identified as
a carcinogen. Brief contact has no effect, but prolonged contact can cause skin
irritation, with mucous membranes the more sensitive to irritation (CAL/OSHA,
1983). Fluids containing arsenic levels of 5 mg/I (ppm) are considered toxic by the
State of California (Department of Health Services, 1984). Odor threshold: 0.50
' ppm (Amoore gt al., 1983). The fatal dose is 70-180 mg/m3.
Boron(B). Data related to humans are limited. Several forms of boron are irritants
to skin and mucous membranes. Ingestion of 15-20 gm of borax caused acute
poisoning. Boron particulate fallout damages plants (Malloch gt DI, 1979; Sharp,
1976). Exact levels are not given but, for comparison, irrigation water with 10-
100 ppm boron content is toxic to plants (Eaton, 1935).
Carbon Dioxide (CO2). 2% in air can stimulate human respiration. Not considered
hazardous when adequate oxygen present (Gennis, 1978). Odor threshold: 74,000
ppm (Amoore et aL, 1983).
Chlorides. Not expected to produce adverse health effects (OXY, 1981 ).
Ethane (CH CHa). A simple asphyxiant. No hazard known in well-ventilated envi-
ronments (Gems, 1978). Odor threshold: 120,000 ppm (Amoore gt el., 1983).
Hydrogen (H2). A simple asphyxiant. No hazard known in well-ventilated environ-
ments (Gennis, 1978).
Hydrogen Sulfide (H2S). Odor threshold: 0.0081 (Amoore gt DI, 1983). Increased
neurasthenic effects (fatigue, dizziness, nausea) with long term exposure: above
0.1 ppm. Eye irritation threshold: 10 ppm. Inhalation irritation threshold: 50-100
ppm. Sense of smell stops: 150 ppm. Fatal: 700 ppm. Damage to sensitive
plants: more than 0.30 ppm (Thompson, 1976); 40 ppm for five hours (McCallan
at el., 1936).
Li
GODDARD & GODDARD ENGINEERING - ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES Page 31
TABLE 4-1 (Continued)
HEALTH EFFECTS OF AIR POLLUTANTS FROM GEOTHERMAL DEVELOPMENT
MercQry (Hg). The human lung absorbs 75-85% at concentrations of 50-350
mg/m , almost completely at lower concentrations (Kudsk, 1966). Inhalation
produces many adverse effects. Mercury may also be absorbed through the skin or
by ingestion. Elimination is slow, resulting in long-term effects which are only
partially reversible. Children appear to be especially susceptible (Britt gt g_I., 1976).
Methylmercury (CH Hg + ), the most toxic form, may cause growth deformities
(Walton gt gl, 1978T. Inhalation of 100 Ng/m3 can cause chronic mercury poison-
ing, of 1 ,200-8,500 Ng/m3 can cause acute poisoning. Occupational exposure to
10-30 Ng/m3 of elemental mercury may cause slight anemia, hypothyroidism and
increased excitability. Prolonged exposure may cause neurologic disorders (Walton
gt gj1-, 1978). Mercury is toxic to plants at levels in the parts per billion range over
several days (Jacobson et g+I,L, 1970). Over 10 ppm dry weight in plant tissue is
toxic.
Methane (CH4). Odorless. Not known to induce ill effects even at high concentra-
tions in ambient air.
Nitrogen (N2). No known hazard from its increased presence in ambient air.
Radon-222 (2nRn). Adverse health effects, including lung cancer, may result from
inhalation of Radon-222 and its short-lived, alpha-particle emitting daughters (BEIR,
1972). There is at present no known level of exposure to radiation below which
• no biological damage occurs (Kestin gt aI, 1980).
Sulfur Dioxide (SO2). Annual concentrations of 0.05 ppm (130 Ng/m3) led to in-
creased frequency of respiratory illness. The threshold for increased chronic
bronchitis in adults and increased acute lower respiratory disease in children is 95-
200 ug/m3 (EPA, 1974; 1975). Hospital admissions with respiratory illness in-
creased when 24 hour sulfur dioxide concentrations were 0.12-0.19 ppm (Finklea,
1973). Odor threshold: 1 .1 ppm (Amoore 2t al, 1983). Irritation threshold: more
than 3 ppm (Case gS aL, 1977). 1-10 ppm (2,600-26,000 Ng/m3) increased airway •
resistance in humans and other animals. More than 400 ppm caused death. 0.3
ppm for 8 hours is toxic to plants (Gauch gt at., 1954).
Sulfates. Taste/odor threshold: 700 Ng/m3. Irritation Threshold: 350-2,000
Ng/m3. 10-3,000 Ng/m3 can cause illness (Case gt , 1977; Layton gt g_I , 1981 ).
Brief exposure to 700-5,000 pg/m3 sulfuric acid mist (H2SO4) resulted in increased
airway resistance.
Suspended Particulate Matter. The health effects of suspended particulate matter
depend on the particle size and chemical composition. "No effects" threshold: 100
ug/m3 (Case gt al„ 1977). Morbidity threshold: 300-375 Ng/m3 (DHEW, 1970).
Mortality threshold: 200-750 ,ug/m3. Particles larger than 0.5-2 pm diameter are
usually trapped in the upper respiratory system and cleared in a few minutes.
Smaller particles may remain in the body for months or years (Case 2t DI, 1977).
3.4./wL+ I IUVDII/I I<.I II VI II.JC.I.VIII - I I IC DIiI II�lVf1C...
Estates with that in Hawaiian Beach Estates, a subdivision farther from the plant, it found no
compelling diffirences-although it said that more of the Leilani Estates residents seemed to suffer
from colds.
The experimental plant was closed in December 1989. But geothermal was for from dead on the Big
Island.
Plans were made to drill into the Fast Rift Zone of the active Kilauea volcano. Transmission lines
would slice through the towering Ohia trees of the Wao Kele 0 Puna(Green Forest of Puna), the last
major rain forest in the United States.
Native Hawaiians and sympathetic environmentalists were enraged by what they considered to be the
supreme act of sacrilege, a defilement of Pele herself
\71(S.,
"If no other place in the world is like this, it has to stay like this," \
said Palikapu Dedman, president of the Pele Defense Fluid,
which organized large protests against the undersea-cable �' 't` n` „
project. , \\*.The 50- N year-old Dedman is a fisherman and cot£ee grower who r' . ��` •
takes his religious beliefs seriously. He likens geothermal drilling
in sacred areas to the sacking of a Christian church
"Our religion is something you can see and feel,"Dedman said as
he crouched on the edge of the Kilauea crater, in what is now
Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Steam wafted from cracks in
the earth around him-proo1 he said, that the volcano is a living
thing.
Palikapu Dedman,head of the Pete
The first PGV well was drilled in late 1990, with the blessing of Defense Fund,calls geothermal
Inouye, the seasoned Democratic senator and World War II drilling a sacrilege.
hero.
Inouye had made no secret ofhis fondness for geothermal energy. He extolled it on the floor of the
Senate on June 27, 1990, noting that Hawaii depended on 130,000 barrels of imported oil per day
and needed a cleaner, more reliable source of energy as insurance.
In a letter to the Geothermal Resources Council dated Oct. 7, 1991, Inouye declined an invitation to
be the keynote speaker at the group's annual meeting but promised his continued support.
"Geothermal is the most technically and economically feasible and environmentally sate energy source
Hawaii has at its disposal,"the senator wrote. He failed to mention that a thundering well blowout at
PGV had sent a plume of hydrogen sulfide into the Puna District four months earlier.
Wilson Goddard, a consulting engineer from Lucerne, Calif, who has conducted periodic analyses of
PGV since 1988, said that there is nothing inherently sinister about geothermal
chron.com/content/.../hawaii.html l/8
--• ---- ivuwwi ivi n vi,I Ie.cum - 1 ne ttnmstone...
was seriously amiss, however, when he read an article in the Jan. 12 edition of the Hawaii Tribune_
Herald.
The headline was, "Official:Health Survey Bogus."The story quoted Bruce Anderson, deputy
director of the state Department of Health in Honolulu, as saying that the resulis of any survey
Legator conducted would be inherently biased because the subjects were rabidly anti-geothermal and
had years to bone up on the effects of hydrogen sulfide.
The attacks didn't stop there. On March 26, a PGV official appealed to William Cunningham,
chancellor of the University ofTexas System in Austin.
'PGV is surprised and disappointed that the University ofTexas would knowingly allow its tine name
to be attached to a health survey of the type produced by Dr. Legator,"wrote Jack Dean, the
venture's vice president and general manager.
Dean did not respond to Chronicle interview requests. Legator said that he felt no pressure from
either the university or the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences-which funds research
centers at UTMB and 25 other universities-to discontinue his work in Hawaii.
Still, he was so put offby the experience that he asked the Collegium Rainazzinni, an international
association of public-health researchers, to consider firming a defense committee for scientists
browbeaten by industry.
Legator and his associates have not finished their analysis of the complete Puna District survey, given
to 97 people who live near PGV and 58 members ofa control group in Hilo, 20 miles away.
Nonetheless, Legator said that marry members of the "exposed"group appear to have been impaired
by hydrogen sulfide. 'The vast majority-almost 90 percent-are showing neurotoxic effects,"he said.
In an interview,Anderson said that(Legator "essentially recruited individuals with known prejudices
against geo-thermal power development in Hawaii.
Obviously, if you ask people who are upset about a development activity if they feel they've been
affected, they're going to tel you they have.
If there's a health problem down there, we're going to take action to address that concern,"
Anderson said. 'If it means shutting down(PGV), so be it. But if(Legator) is alarming people
needlessly, that's not a good situation either."
The saga in the Puna District began in December 1975, when the first well was drilled for the state-
run Hawaii Geothermal Project, an experimental, three-megawatt power plant near Leilani Estates
that went on line in 1981.
Almost from the start, residents complained about the rotten-egg stench, a sure sign that hydrogen
sulfide was present.
However, when the state Health Department compared the one-year prevalence of illness in Leilani
chron.com/content/.../hawaii.html 3/8
THE BRIMSTONE. BATTLES: X Houston Chronicle NON eclat Re i ort
IloustonChronicle.cont Chronicle Noss The Brimstone Battles Discussion Forum
Poison in Paradise
Residents says operators of geothermal power plant are committing
sulfuric sacrilege in goddess' garden
PUNA DISTRICT, Hawaii-This is the
realm of Pele, fitful goddess of Hawaii's
volcanoes. '. .
.A. ' •
'•',,. _
psi+ a sit*'�,'h r ..' �i'.r ..., .. �d raw 2,
Those who have lived on the Big Island - � - , ; i
for some time M `� 3 '"'� w`
ime cannot help but feel the a ,:
presence of the impulsive deity, xs �*
dy, who, s k,. °� r x
legend has it, does not take kindly _ s...` 9"
to ti a•'L s . ,,r.•.3,`.,,' im `•• dam•_ in
man-made intrusions. Believers go to .. tr * ..14i 'Ar 1
the rim of the �•'. �
gaping Kilauea crater to • ,, , ` {`> r , n
make offerings to her and give thanks. • •, R ;
inst this mystical backdrop
)1.2....11"-'71 ,,,....1..."-,".. .- .. .
It was aim bac �� t -�
Lava flows from the Pu'u O'vo vent on the southern slope of
that an enterprise known as Pima Kilauea volcano on the island of Hawaii.Kilauea is one of the
Geothermal Venture (PGV) began most active volcanoes in the world,emitting tens of thousands of
punching holes in Hawaii's black tons of sulfur dioxide each year.
volcanic rock in 1990.
Disciples of Pele warned that such drilling was blasphemous and invited ruin. PGV nonetheless went
forward, having committed to a$130 million, 25-megawatt geothermal power plant that would
produce electricity from subsurface heat, hastening development in one of the few relatively
undisturbed pockets of the island.
Whether Pele exacted her revenge remains a matter of dispute. This, much, however, can be said:
Some residents of the lush and eclectic Puna District are convinced that hydrogen sulfide escaping
from the PGV well field and power plant is making them ill.
And when a prominent Texas researcher came 4,000 miles to document the residents' symptoms in
hopes of advancing knowledge about an insidious chemical, he caused an upheaval worthy of
Hawai's headstrong goddess.
"I've never encountered anything quite like it,"sail Dr. Marvin Legator, director of the Division of
Environmental Toxicology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
Legator, 71, was accustomed to conflict, having often skied with community groups that had accused
powerful corporations of environmental misdeeds and government agencies of ineptitude.
chron.com/content/.../hawaii.html
1/g
?/1L/L.V4.J., I-IVU3LUI 1..I II VI II.LIC.W1II - I I IC DIIITIJIUne...
Even by his standards, however, the otfc dal reception in Hawaii was chilly. It seemed that the only
ones who wanted him here were the people ofLetlanii Estates, a rustic subdivision just south of the
geothermal plant.
Most government and business leaders were less than convivial; PGV was a pet project, blessed by
luminaries such as U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye, and Legator was in a position to spoil it. At one point,
there was talk of undersea cables that would carry 500 megawatts of electricity to tourist-saturated
Oahu and Maui. Inouye even sought federal funds for the project, but it went nowhere.
By the time Legator entered the picture in 1996, some of the Leilani Estates residents already had
organized into a group called Puna Malarna Pono (rough translation:Protect the Goodness of Puna).
They had complained for years about lethargy, dizziness, insomnia, vomiting, diarrhea-the very
symptoms that are associated with chronic hydrogen sulfide exposures in the medical literature and
that Legator himself had observed near a synthetic-ribber plant in the West Texas city of Odessa.
1-7#4:".7,!,..,,,.. : Legator is among a handful of researchers intrigued with
,c ,. S�jtnttiOtri NorveY t tuna , :,
the effects ofminu�scule-and purportedly safe-levels of
- -: - . .-~--f..----- ---~- ' hydrogen sulfide on the human body over a period of
.-7 "`°"° - months or years.
f..,.. "Ws so ubiquitous, and we've had so much misleading
:`;: information out there about it,"he said "If you survive•' ----7,,,,i (an exposure),xp ), no thing's going to happen to you-that's
the dominant theory held today.
Researcher Marvin Legator explains a health
survey of residents near the Puna Geothemnal "I the regulatory agencies still hold to that same crap.
Venture during the Big Island Science
Conference at the University of Hawaii The whole house of cards collapses on them when you
start talking about chronic, low-level exposures,
because that's where the problems are."
For Legator, Hawaii represented an unusual investigative opportunity: Here was an isolated
population exposed over a period ofyeara to generally small but quantifiable amounts of hydrogen
sulfide from a known source.
En a 1981 report, three scientists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California concluded
that "atmospheric releases of hydrogen sulfide constitute the most significant public health issue of
geothermal energy production,"and that carcinogenic and neurotoxic compounds such as benzene,
arsenic, mercury and radon also could be released at levels of concern.
Two of Legator's research associates went on a scouting expedition to the Puna District in March
1996, conducting interviews with 69 people. Legator made his first visit at the beginning of this year
and announced his preliminary findings-symptoms consistent with hydrogen sulfide exposure-at a
Jan. 9 news conference at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.
Legator thought he had made it clear that more work needed to be done. He realized that something
chron.corn/content/.../hawaii.html 2/3