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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026-09-01 Frank Pouliot Support Testimony From: Fpouliot To: Planning WPC Testimony Subject: Bill 170 Date: Tuesday, September 1, 2026 12:53:37 PM My name is Frank Pouliot and I am a current resident of Keaau, living in Hawaii Paradise Park. Having worked in the water and utility industry for more than 25 years, including 10 years here in the Islands. As a consultant for the Environmental Protection Agency, I worked closely with the Hawaii Department of Health and water utilities across the state to provide training, education, and technical assistance. I also created and wrote the current curriculum for the Water Utility Apprenticeship Program. Through this work, I developed a deep understanding of the Big Island’s precious freshwater resources and the challenges involved in pumping water from wells and distributing it to towns and communities. There are numerous documented cases where water demand has exceeded the capacity of local utilities. The Department of Water Supply, the island’s largest freshwater provider, currently has wells out of service for critical repairs or pump replacement. These repairs can take six months to a year, often requiring conservation measures and causing service disruptions or limitations for customers. Adding significant new demand to infrastructure that is already strained and more than 65 years old would be highly detrimental and predicably catastrophic to its residents and the precious environment of the Big Island of Hawaii. I am writing in strong support of Bill 170 and asking the Windward Planning Commission to recommend one additional strengthening change before sending it back to the County Council. The original Bill 170 language uses subjective phrases like “Industrial- Scale Operations” and “beyond that typically accessory or incidental to office, commercial, or public institutional uses” that a well-resourced developer’s attorney can argue around. The definition below replaces that subjectivity with objective physical criteria and a clear 20 megawatt threshold that cannot be disputed. The specific language I am asking the commission to recommend: Hyperscale data center means any facility or campus of facilities whose primary purpose is housing, operation, or co-location of computer serves, networking equipment, and associated cooling, power, and support infrastructure, including but not limited to serves, network equipment and appliances, telecommunications equipment, data storage systems, systems for monitoring and managing infrastructure performance, environmental controls, fire protection systems, security systems, electrical substations, generators, and redundant power supplies; and which requires or is designed to require 20 megawatts or more of electrical capacity at full build out. This definition includes a single facility and any campus of multiple facilities on contiguous or adjacent parcels under common ownership or control whose combined electrical demand meets or exceeds 20 megawatts. This term includes facilities commonly described as large-scale, hyperscale, neocloud, and artificial intelligence data centers and colocation campuses. This term does not include telecommunications facilities regulated under Section 25-4-12, hospitals or government data systems, university educational and research facilities, or business offices in which servers are incidental to the primary use.” Our Island’s closed water system, fossil-fuel dependent grid, and alady strained infrastrure cannot support hyperscale data centers. Please recommend the strongest possible version of this bill to the County Council. Mahalo Frank Pouliot, Keaau, Hi.