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Draft Hamakua CDP Comments Submitted Online or by Email During the March 15 — June 15 2o16 Review of the Draft Hamakua CDP The green, open areas shown on pg 40 for Paukaa indicte all residences on makai side of Paukaa Dr is an open area ... same for the adjacent residences on Kuikahi St. The gree areas shoud be redrawn to shown the existing residential lots. Appears this situation may also exist elsewhere along the coast. Lower Hamakua Ditch I see no mention of one of the most significant resources of Northwest Hamakua, the Hamakua Ditch system. It is absolutely vital to my agriculture operations and for many of my neighbors livelihoods. A clean,safe and reliable source of irrigation water is paramount. It upsets me that some people want to leave the ditch open for "aesthetic"/"historical" purposes, but the true historical intent of the ditch is to support agriculture. In fact, only a handful of people actually get to see the flowing ditch except where it traverses a persons private property. We could greatly expand ag opportunities because of this ditch water resource. However, I worry constantly of the possibility of contaminated water applied to crops or consumed by livestock. My educational background is in Aquatic Ecology. It is well known that the leading source of e -coli contaminated crops comes from irrigation water. One incidence of illness or death from this could devastated the reputation of all Hamakua ag products for years. The State has or had funds to contain this water in pipes within the ditch. A compromise could be to contain the ag water in pipes submerged in the ditch while water flows over it for aesthetic purposes. Please move forward with securing safe and reliable lower hamakua ditch irrigation water. I appreciate all the hard work of all those representatives and stake holders who are coming together to improve the Hamakua community and region. Perhaps I have missed it but, in my review of the community development plan on the web site I do not see the plan for the Hamakua Ditch. I live in a community of small farmers downstream of Honoka'a town and am a rate payer for ditch water together with some of my neighbors. As far as I know we have never been consulted regarding what the agricultural community in my area would advise regarding the ditch. You may recall that some time after 2006 millions of dollars in federal funds were granted to enclose the ditch water flow in an high density polyethylene (HDPE) pipe primarily for flood mitigation. Despite winning a successful competition for a $3,000,000 federal grant bolstered by 130 letters of support from local farmers and supporters a small group of community members along with their attorneys successfully hijacked efforts to enclose the flow on their property due to its "historical significance" (read property value asset). Federal funding was lost for the ENTIRE project! The agricultural community which is admittedly not politically powerful suffered from this loss. The current open ditch configuration causes excessive siltation that fouls irrigation equipment, increases evaporative losses and leads to significance losses through open ditch leakage into the ground water. The open ditch configuration also increases contaminated water run off into the ditch from upstream animals including feral pigs, rats and live stock. The Hamakua region is a known reservoir of leptospirosis, a rare but severe disease which is likely under diagnosed. Our own late P. Quentin Tomich Draft Hamakua CDP hamakua@hawaiicounty.gov www.hamakuacdp.info