UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

PUBLIC HEARING

RE: STATE OF HAWAII 

REGIONAL HAZE 

PROPOSED FEDERAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS

Friday, June 1, 2012

5:30 p.m.

Waiakea High School

155 W. Kawili Street

Hilo, Hawai'i 96720
A P P E A R A N C E S

HEARING OFFICER: WENDY WILTSE

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Region 9

PRESENT:

GREG NUDD

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Region 9 Planning Division

KERRY DRAKE

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Region 9 Air Division

ASIA YEARY

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Region 9 Hawaii Sustainability 

Coordinator

DEAN HIGUCHI

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Pacific Press Officer and Congressional

Liaison

PRISCILLA LIGH

KEITH MCFALL

State of Hawaii Department of Health

Clean Air Branch

REPORTED BY: KIRSTEN REHANEK, RPR, CRR, CSR No. 481

Court Reporter, State of Hawai'i

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INDEX OF PUBLIC SPEAKERS

SPEAKER PAGE

John Ota 16, 32, 36

Ruth Vanderford 18

Ethan Castillo 23

Jesse Law 24, 34

Cory Harden 28, 35 

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FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 2012; HILO, HAWAII

5:30 p.m.

--oOo--

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Welcome. Aloha kakou 

and good evening. The public hearing is now in session. 

My name is Wendy Wiltse, and I am acting public 

hearing officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection 

Agency, Region 9 in San Francisco, California, although I 

actually work in Honolulu. I am the presiding officer for 

today's hearing. 

With me today are individuals from EPA Region 9 

based in San Francisco. To my right is Kerry Drake, the 

associate director of the EPA Region 9 Air Division, and to 

his right is Greg Nudd from Region 9 Planning Office. 

Asia Yeary -- Asia, are you here? Oh, with her 

hand up in the back of the room. Asia is the Region 9 

Hawaii Sustainability Coordinator, and Dean Higuchi is -- 

MS. YEARY: Downstairs.

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: -- downstairs. Dean is 

EPA's Pacific press officer and congressional liaison. 

I want to mention these people because you may 

want to take the opportunity at a break or after the 

hearing to speak with them individually. 

Also we have from the Department of Health in 

Honolulu, from the Clean Air Branch, Priscilla Ligh -- hand 

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up at the side table over there -- and next to her, Keith 

McFall, both from Department of Health, Clean Air Branch. 

Tonight Kirsten is our court reporter, and she 

is sitting in the middle front table.

The purpose of today's hearing is to accept 

public comment on the Environmental Protection Agency's 

proposed Federal Implementation Plan for the Regional Haze 

Program in Hawaii. You can find details about EPA's 

proposed actions on posters in the back of the room and on 

EPA's website. 

Also at the back table, there are some handouts 

available. There is a fact sheet about the Regional Haze 

Program. There's a sheet on "How Do I Comment on the 

Proposal?" If you choose to submit written comments, 

you'll need these instructions. There's a copy of the 

agenda for tonight's meeting, and please take the 

opportunity to sign in on the sign-in sheet on the back 

table. 

So my role as the presiding officer is to ensure 

that the EPA receives your oral public comments in an 

orderly fashion. I will not be personally involved in 

responding -- in assessing or responding to your comments. 

Likewise I will not be involved in EPA's final 

decision-making process for the Federal Implementation 

Plan. Instead I am solely responsible for facilitating 

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this public hearing and making sure that all community 

members have an equal opportunity to submit oral comment on 

this issue as part of the official administrative record. 

Before we begin accepting your comments, I'd 

like to describe some of the logistics and ground rules for 

tonight's hearing. 

First of all, the important things: the 

restrooms, the girls' room and the boys' room. If you go 

out the door in that corner and turn left, you'll see a 

bridge, and just before the bridge are some stairs. You go 

down those stairs and turn left, and the girls' and boys' 

rooms will be open. There are snacks and water at the 

table in the back of the room, in the middle, and I'd like 

to also ask if you would please turn the ringers off on 

your cell phones. 

So I'm going to be reading instructions about 

the proceedings for the public hearing and would appreciate 

it if you would listen carefully.

This hearing is a formal legal proceeding, and 

the testimony offered will become part of the 

administrative record on which EPA will base its decision. 

Public notice of this hearing was published in the Federal 

Register on May 11th and by publication in local newspapers 

and posting on EPA's website. 

The hearing is being recorded by a court 

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reporter, who will be preparing a verbatim record of the 

hearing. If you present oral comments at today's hearing, 

please speak clearly and slowly so that the court reporter 

can understand you and record your comments accurately. I 

also ask that you state your name and organization you are 

representing at the beginning of your commentary. Please 

refrain from interrupting other speakers, shouting, or 

asking questions during the presentations. This courtesy 

will help the court reporter to record your comments 

accurately. 

Please note that you will have the opportunity 

to make comments shortly, once we begin our public comments 

session of the hearing. 

I've mentioned the registration table in the 

back of the room. If you want to make public comment, 

please be sure to fill in one of these comment cards. 

We'll be taking speakers tonight in the order in which they 

sign up. You do not need to register at the registration 

table to attend the hearing. However, if you are not 

already on our mailing list for this project and would like 

to receive direct notification of EPA's final rule-making 

decision, please sign in on one of the sign-in sheets 

located at the registration table and check the box on the 

sign-in sheet to be added to the mailing list. 

For those who are providing oral comments, the 

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speaker request forms include a space for you to provide 

your contact information and a box to check to be included 

on our mailing list. If you don't wish to speak today, you 

can also submit written comments for the official record. 

Written comments submitted through the postal service must 

be postmarked on or before July 2nd, 2012. Written 

comments submitted by email must be received by 11:59 p.m. 

on July 2nd, 2012. You may also submit written comments to 

us tonight on a comment card or any other paper. There is 

a comment box at the registration table in the back of the 

room where you can leave your written comments. 

Written comments and oral comments will all 

receive equal consideration by EPA in making the final 

decision. If you submit written comments, it is not 

necessary for you to give the same oral comments as well 

though you may do so if you wish by submitting a speaker 

request form. 

The oral comments received at this hearing and 

all written comments will be reviewed and considered by EPA 

in preparing its final rule-making decision. It is 

important for you to know that we are here only to take 

comments on EPA's proposed Regional Haze Federal 

Implementation Plan for Hawaii. EPA will only consider 

comments related to EPA's proposed action in making its 

final decision, and so I ask that you refrain from making 

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comments that are not related to this specific action. 

EPA decisions on Clear Act rules -- sorry -- on 

Clean Air Act rules are made with the participation of a 

number of people within the organization after full 

consideration of all public comment. Therefore, EPA staff 

cannot comment to any specific decision related to the 

proposed Federal Implementation Plan tonight. 

The purpose of this hearing is for EPA to listen 

to your comments. Therefore, we will not be providing 

responses during the hearing although there will be a brief 

presentation about the Regional Haze Program for Hawaii and 

an opportunity to ask questions for clarification. 

EPA will prepare a written summary of the 

comments it receives and EPA's responses. The response to 

comments will be available at the time EPA issues the 

Regional Haze decision. EPA will not make a final decision 

on the Hawaii Regional Haze Plan until all comments 

submitted during the public comment period have been 

considered. 

EPA's notice of final decision on the Hawaii 

Regional Haze FIP, Federal Implementation Plan, along with 

a response to comments will be sent to each person 

currently on EPA's mailing list for this action as well as 

to each person who has submitted written or oral comments 

and provided contact information or who has signed up at 

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the registration table to receive notice and provided an 

email or postal mailing address. This information will 

also be made available on EPA's website. A copy of the 

transcript of today's hearing will be available for 

inspection on EPA Region 9's website. If you wish to 

purchase an official copy of the transcript, please make 

arrangements directly with the court reporter following the 

hearing. 

Before we begin the public comment period, Kerry 

Drake will present a brief summary of EPA's proposed 

Federal Implementation Plan for the Regional Haze Program 

in Hawaii. Afterwards we'll take a few brief questions for 

Kerry. 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: So I just wanted to thank 

everybody for coming tonight. It's Friday night. I don't 

know how many of you have more exciting things you could be 

doing tonight, but I just wanted to thank you because 

participating in your government is a duty, and I just want 

to thank you for what you're doing tonight. 

You know, when EPA proposes a regulation that 

affects somebody, in this case the residents of the island 

of Hawaii, you know, it's our duty to come before you and 

bring our proposal before you and ask for your comments for 

it, and so that is -- you know, it's spelled out in law. 

This is the way our government works, and that's why we're 

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here. So again thank you for doing that. 

So the very specific piece of law that we're 

implementing tonight isn't -- it is all about regional haze 

in the national parks, and Hawaii has two national parks. 

But essentially Congress laid out a goal that the 

visibility at every national park should be at natural 

levels by the year 2064. So that's really the goal that 

we're trying to reach. 

So there are two national parks in Hawaii: 

Hawaii Volcanoes, as you know, right down the road, and 

Haleakala just over in Maui. And so when we have the 

Regional Haze Program, we have to do three things. We have 

to look at certain facilities to see if they've got what we 

call BART, the Best Available Retrofit Technology, or if 

BART applies to them. We have to make sure that the area 

is achieving reasonable progress toward the goal of 

visibility by 2064, natural visibility by 2064, meaning not 

influenced by manmade sources. And then third is just make 

sure that there's a long-term strategy in place. 

The proposal that you have before you tonight is 

really just a first down payment. It's just between now 

and 2018. So first off let me go to this slide. What EPA 

knows and is very fully aware of is that there's a volcano. 

There's a volcano in Volcanoes National Park that obviously 

impacts visibility not only in Volcanoes National Park, but 

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it also impacts visibility at Haleakala sometimes depending 

on the winds. If the trade winds aren't blowing and the 

Kona winds are blowing, you know, it can affect visibility 

there. So we know that. 

Nonetheless, there are days -- oops, going the 

wrong way. There are days when the volcano doesn't impact 

visibility at either park. And so our job is to make sure 

that manmade sources are not impacting the visibility at 

the parks by the year 2064, and so the proposal -- as you 

can see, there are good days. This is 4 deciviews by the 

way because when we're working on regional haze, we work in 

deciviews. We go from a baseline deciview of what's 

average now on the best and worst days, and we end up at 

another point which I'll illustrate right now. This is 19 

deciviews, so you can see the difference between 19 and 4. 

Obviously this is a day that the volcano is actually 

impacting visibility. 

So again there's a baseline visibility of around 

19 as it occurs today, and by 2064 we would expect that 

natural visibility would be around 7 deciviews for the most 

part at Volcanoes National Park. And that's the goal we're 

shooting for between now and the year 2064, again from 

manmade sources. We obviously cannot control the volcano, 

nor do we ever pretend that that's even possible. 

So what do we have to do? So we have a Best 

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Available Retrofit Technology, so sources that were built 

between 1964 and 1977, we have to look at them and we have 

to look at several factors to see if they have to put on 

retrofit technology. And so one of those things that we do 

is we go through a computer-modeling exercise. If a source 

impacts visibility by 0.5 deciviews or more -- or less, 

excuse me -- less than 0.5 deciviews, we automatically take 

that out of the equation. 

So we looked at ten sources in the whole state 

of Hawaii that could be eligible for BART, in other words, 

built between 1962 and 1977 and of a certain size, and 

there's the list. Obviously some of them were easy to 

model out. It was easy to run computer models and, for 

example, see that the Kahe Power Plant on Oahu was not 

affecting visibility at either Haleakala or Volcanoes 

National Park. That would make sense to everybody, but 

basically we did do a computer model run to make sure that 

the computer agreed with that, but also to make sure that 

we have the accurate computer modeling that would reflect 

the closer in sources like the power plants on this island. 

There was one facility on this island that we 

did do a full BART determination for because it could 

potentially affect visibility at Volcanoes National Park by 

more than 0.5, and that was the Kanoelehua Hill Generating 

Station. What you see here is 0.808 is what we model 

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deciviews impact on Volcanoes National Park. 

So when we went through the other factors, 

including cost, it was determined that we would not require 

BART to be done at Hill Generating Station, and so we moved 

on to the next part of our analysis, and that was making 

sure that reasonable progress is being made towards 

visibility, natural state of visibility by 2064, and again 

this is for a planning period from now until 2018. 

And so those are the factors you see there that 

we would consider. I'll go by those one by one. But if 

you'll look here on the Big Island here in Hawaii, there is 

an emission inventory that we took of two pollutants that 

come from things like power plants that could affect 

visibility. That's nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide. 

And so if you'll see, the projected inventory in 2018 of 

nitrogen oxides is decreasing, but if you'll also see, the 

projected inventory of sulfur dioxide in 2018 is 

increasing. And so we felt like in order to ensure that 

there was reasonable progress toward natural visibility 

from manmade sources by the year 2018, that we needed to do 

something about sulfur dioxide here on the Big Island. 

So I think this slide sort of just says what I 

just said, but we identified, as we were going through that 

analysis, that there were three power plants here in Hawaii 

that could impact Volcanoes National Park because they are 

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upwind of it, and that's Hill, Shipman and Puna. And I 

think most of you probably know where those power plants 

are. 

So the proposal that we're making tonight to 

ensure that reasonable progress is made between now and 

2018 toward no impact from manmade sources on the national 

park by the year 2064 is that we capped -- or we're 

proposing to cap total emissions of sulfur dioxide at Hill, 

Shipman, and Puna at 3,550 tons per year of SO2, and that 

would have to be done by January 1st of 2018. And that 

would effectively decrease projected SO2 emissions by 17 

percent by the year 2018, therefore making reasonable 

progress toward no impact from manmade sources by 2064, so 

the first step along the way if you will. 

The other thing that I would like to point out 

about it is that when we were coming -- when we developed 

the control program for these three facilities, we were 

very cognizant that the State of Hawaii has renewable 

energy and energy efficiency goals that are very aggressive 

by national standards, in fact, maybe the most aggressive. 

And we wanted to make sure that we put a cap with enough 

flexibility that if HELCO in this case chose to meet the 

requirements that we put into the rule through their own 

measures of meeting Hawaii's renewable energy and energy 

efficiency goals, all the better for the island of Hawaii. 

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So the comments that you're making tonight 

really would help us if you could comment and tell us what 

you think about our strategy for how we did BART, how we 

talked about the causes of haze at Class I areas such as we 

think sulfur dioxide and not nitrogen oxide in this case in 

addition to the volcano, which is obvious, reasonable 

progress goals, and our proposed controls. Those are all 

things that would be helpful for us, but that's 

certainly -- you don't have to limit your comments to those 

things, but those are things that would be very helpful to 

us.

So as Wendy said, we can take a few questions 

right now, but then once we start taking public comments, 

then neither Greg nor I can respond to any questions at 

that point.

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: So excuse me. Let's 

set aside about ten minutes for questions. If you have a 

question for Kerry, please make it brief. If you would 

come to the microphone at this table over here and state 

your question, then Kerry can respond. 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: Or Greg. By the way, Greg is 

our technical expert. 

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Sir, would you state 

your name too, please. 

MR. JOHN OTA: My name is John Ota, and my 

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question is what about the power plant in Kona? It was not 

listed on any of your charts up there on the board.

MR. KERRY DRAKE: So that's a very good 

question, and thank you for asking it. I will let Greg 

address on whether that plant was built between 1962 and 

1977 and was eligible for BART based on its either date 

that it was built or the size. But the main reason that it 

would not be in this equation is that it -- we don't feel 

that it is upwind of the national park. We feel like it's 

downwind of the national park. 

MR. JOHN OTA: I believe you made mention 

something about vog being over in the Kona area as well, 

and with that power plant operating in Kona, it will 

produce as much pollutant down there as any of the other 

pollutant-creating factories.

MR. KERRY DRAKE: That's a very good point. 

Greg, did you have anything to add? 

MR. GREG NUDD: No. I think that's an excellent 

point, and I think that the mechanism for addressing that 

will be through the implementation of the new sulfur 

dioxide air quality standard, which is designed to protect 

public health. This particular rule that we're proposing 

today is about visibility in the national parks, and that's 

why the power plant at Kona wasn't addressed. But I think 

you have a very valid point. With the vog impacting that 

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part of the island, the incremental sulfur from those power 

plants is a concern. 

MR. JOHN OTA: I understand you addressed the 

national park, but isn't the health of the human beings 

more important than just saying national park? 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: Absolutely, and EPA is 

committed to public health, and that's why the 

administrator recently tightened the sulfur dioxide 

standard. And so what Greg was saying is in future 

deliberations in front of EPA, we will be looking at all 

areas of the country and how they comply with the sulfur 

dioxide standard, including the Kona power plant. It's 

just not the subject of this very narrow rule-making 

tonight. But thank you. That's a very valid comment, and 

one on which we agree. Thank you. 

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Yeah, John. Thank you 

for your question. 

Does anybody else have questions for Kerry or 

Greg? 

If you would come up to the microphone in the 

front, I would appreciate it. Thank you. 

MS. RUTH VANDERFORD: My name is Ruth 

Vanderford. Number one, why does it address only fossil 

fuel-burning sources between '62 and '77? I'm not quite 

clear on that. 

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MR. GREG NUDD: That's the way that the statute 

was written. That's right out of the Clean Air Act 

Amendments of 1990. 

MS. RUTH VANDERFORD: Do we assume that those 

facilities built before or after that date range are 

complying already? 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: I think the theory that 

Congress might have used -- I can't speak to what Congress 

was thinking when they amended the Clean Air Act, but I 

think you're right. I think the theory that they were 

using was that sources built after that date would have 

been subject to what we call a Best Available Control 

Technology review that's required under the permitting 

statutes, and so therefore applying a Best Available 

Retrofit Technology was something that you would do to 

sources that were older. 

MS. RUTH VANDERFORD: All right. The other 

question I have is you are talking about certain sources 

that are upwind of the national park. If Hill moved their 

facilities to Kona, we would not be here tonight; is that 

correct? 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: I'm sorry? 

MS. RUTH VANDERFORD: If the Hill facility moved 

to Kona, then we would not be here tonight; is that 

correct? 

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MR. KERRY DRAKE: Um -- 

MS. RUTH VANDERFORD: In other words, they're 

the only source -- 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: So sort of to follow up on 

your previous -- it's actually kind of a good example to 

follow up on your previous question. Any new facilities 

that are built -- 

MS. RUTH VANDERFORD: Uh-huh.

MR. KERRY DRAKE: -- would have to meet Best 

Available Control Technology --

MS. RUTH VANDERFORD: Right. 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: -- which is generally more 

stringent than Best Available Retrofit Technology. So if 

they moved it, it would have to meet more stringent 

controls than it currently has. 

MS. RUTH VANDERFORD: And so that I understand 

correctly, the retrofit -- the BART application is going to 

just restrict them to your projected levels for 2018 and 

then 20-whatever and then 2064? Is that -- 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: So the next phase of the 

regional haze planning process has to be the same process 

again in five years -- 

MS. RUTH VANDERFORD: Okay. 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: -- to make sure that there's 

additional reasonable progress at that point. It's hard to 

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predict what additional controls will be required at that 

time, but it's easy to imagine that more might be required.

MS. RUTH VANDERFORD: Okay. Thank you. 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: Thank you. 

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Thank you for your 

question. Time for one more question. 

MR. KERRY DRAKE: Thank you, Ruth. 

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Okay. Thank you, 

Kerry. I appreciate your summarizing the Regional Haze 

Program in Hawaii. 

In a few minutes I will begin calling on 

speakers who have filled out and submitted a speaker 

request form. Let me just ask are there any other forms 

that people have filled out that I have not received? If 

you have a form, you could give it to Asia in the blue 

shirt. 

So speakers will be called in groups of two in 

the order in which the forms were received. There's a 

microphone over here to my left, and when you hear your 

name, please come forward and wait on the side of the room 

until it's your turn to speak. When I announce that it's 

your turn to speak, please come up to the microphone, state 

your name, and if you are appearing on behalf of someone or 

an organization, please tell us who you are representing. 

Remember to speak clearly to allow the court recorder to 

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capture your comments. You may want to spell your name or 

organization to ensure that it is accurately recorded. 

If you are not in the room when I announce your 

turn to speak, I will recall you after all the speakers 

have made their comments. 

We want to make sure that everyone has an 

opportunity to speak here tonight, and the hearing ends at 

7:30. To that end, I'm going to ask everyone who speaks to 

please make your oral comments brief. To assist in this 

effort, I'm asking speakers to limit their comments to five 

minutes. If you have lengthier comments, you may submit 

them in writing. Each speaker will be given a one-minute 

warning and then notified when their time is up. And if 

you -- next to Greg is a little box that has some flashing 

lights on it. You might need to aim that more at the 

speaker. And at first you'll see green lights, and then 

when you have one minute remaining, the light will turn 

yellow, and then when your time is up after five minutes, 

the light will turn red. 

I want to also say that -- just repeat again 

that if you don't want to make oral comments tonight, you 

can submit comments in writing. EPA appreciates you taking 

the time to participate in this hearing and providing your 

comments to aid with our proposed decision on regional 

haze. 

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So now let's begin the public comment period. 

The first speakers are Ethan Castillo and Jesse Law. 

So, Ethan, if you would come forward to the 

microphone. And, Jesse, if you would get ready. 

MR. ETHAN CASTILLO: May I take a seat? 

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Have a seat. 

MR. ETHAN CASTILLO: Hi. I'm Ethan Castillo 

with -- I'm an independent representative for Xtreme Fuel 

Treatment, Syntek Global. Our company is registered with 

the EPA. We're with the SmartWay Transport Partner, also a 

branch from the EPA, and I work directly with the engineers 

of the company and the owners. We've won the winner of the 

2011 EcoVisionary award for green products. In 2002 Winter 

Olympics, the stationary generators used over there at 875 

gallons per day went down to 650. Of course everybody 

knows with more fuel consumption, the more emissions will 

come out. That's already cutting at least a third percent 

of whatever fuel they've been using. 

It's also been used for the past 20 years with 

PT Pama, the largest mining company, to save on their 

emissions and their fuel consumption, their breakdown. 

It's been designed by a NASA space shuttle program. It's 

been invented for a burn rate modifier. So what that does 

is it brings down the burn rate of the fuel, so it burns it 

more efficiently so less fuel is burned. It also won a 

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Nobel Prize for this product. 

If everyone -- my reason being here is you folks 

are with the EPA. You folks have the state and the county, 

I guess, what you would say interest, best interest. You 

folks have more control of that, of those venues. For our 

part, you guys are looking at just the power plants, but 

looking at the numbers, a lot of the problems are with also 

the cars and State of Hawaii stuff, you know, the emissions 

on that part, not just the power plants. 

But I propose that, you know, the State of 

Hawaii -- the state and county would use a test subject, 

and if it would be -- you know, whether it be a generator 

or one of the state or county transport systems to see, you 

know, what that would save on the emissions-wise because we 

can cut up to -- it's a guaranteed. The company guarantees 

our product at a 33 percent less emissions. 

I know you guys said you guys want to go to all 

natural and everything else to -- what is it, zero percent 

on the emissions part? So that's our proposal. I'll leave 

the information with you folks for any questions and my 

card. That's it. 

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Thank you, Ethan. 

Jesse? 

MR. JESSE LAW: I feel like I'm back in 

school. 

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HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Just a second. The 

next speaker will be Cory Harden, followed by John Ota. 

MR. JESSE LAW: I'm Jesse Law. I'm just a 

concerned citizen. I saw this in the newspaper, and it's 

been an area of interest for me for a couple of years. I 

understand that the scale or the focus of this meeting is a 

little narrower than I had hoped and what I wanted to 

contribute, so I'll kind of keep it on topic. 

But I lived in Wainaku. I've been there six 

years, and up in Wainaku you have a really good view of the 

Hilo basin. And I wake up very early in the morning and 

often was outside watching the sunrise, and I noticed that 

there's a blanket that covers Hilo every night for the most 

part that sweeps up the mountain when the sun rises, heats 

up the mountain and pulls the wind out of Hilo. And that 

blanket is emissions, you know, from the power plants is my 

best guess or any other industrial activities that are 

happening at night. So I was eyewitness to that 

phenomenon, if it were, and really concerned with it for a 

while, and that was in the back of my head.

Since then I have noticed and documented on film 

the emissions of the power plants, all three of these power 

plants here that we have on the Hilo side, where I guess I 

determined tonight it's a start-up phase when they get to 

spew massive quantities of black soot, smoke into the air. 

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And I was documenting those really kind of, you know, 

wondering, well, how is this possible, and why is this 

happening, and is that the blanket that we're seeing? 

And I understand that at night when no one's 

awake to what the air looks like and then seeing that in 

the morning, what were the emissions -- how were these 

emissions being registered by either the state or the feds 

from the stack itself? So I learned this evening that you 

have monitoring stations around Hilo. 

My question and concern and request is that you 

investigate the possibility of doing some kind of BART -- 

BART? -- retrofit on these three facilities so that you 

have a live data monitoring system so that you can actually 

see whether or not they're in compliance with their 

permits, which I think I discovered were possibly once 

every other year where they have to do a stack test, stack 

emissions test, to see what they're monitoring at. So the 

permits are issued based on what they're putting out, but 

those -- as I learned or may be ignorant to the total 

picture there, but those tests are only done once in a 

while. So I think with the capability of wireless 

computing technology and the fact that you already have 

monitoring stations all over town anyway, it would be 

really interesting for me to see how much is coming out of 

those stacks. 

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And then three other things that came into focus 

here: Today I saw that the Ho Honua plant was excluded 

because of its conversion to biofuels. And I'm privy to a 

kind of a legal case that's taking place right now about 

the claims of that plant, saying what their emissions will 

be and where those will blow, so that's in process right 

now in a legal context. 

But I live in Honomu, which is right above 

Pepeekeo Point, and that Pepeekeo Point is kind of the 

split point where the wind patterns change, you know. So 

sometimes you get the wind that blows up and around to 

Hamakua. Most of the time it circulates back in and goes 

up Pohakuloa and into the Hilo basin. 

Biofuel that they're looking at there is not 

necessarily a clean biofuel. They're talking about 

different types of wood that are going to be burned in 

those facilities, and those claims that were made, I think, 

need to be investigated, and if they end up getting permits 

and start using that facility, I really think that it would 

be wise for the EPA to register and monitor what actually 

comes out of those facilities because that may be a wild 

card that gets thrown into your -- into your mix. 

The other question that I had is there's been a 

lot of talk about waste management here in Hawaii, and 

Wheelabrator was proposing a waste-to-energy plant here in 

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Hilo. And I want to know if that plant comes into play in 

Hilo, whether or not that's going to be something that you 

guys would be able to notice as well and if that would be a 

factor in this project to keep the parks' air clean, which 

is what the focus of the ruling is. 

And the third thing that I'd like to contribute 

as a possibility is an anti-idle rule like I think they 

passed in California for all of the county vehicles, which 

I see pretty much always idling on the side of the truck -- 

side of the road with, you know, how many trucks and 

bulldozers and pickup trucks and everything else just 

sitting there running idle. So that would be, I think, 

from the transportation side something that would be very 

easy to implement and would save all the taxpayers money 

and would also reduce the emissions from the vehicular 

transport on the island. So that would be a 

recommendation. Time is up.

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Thank you, Jesse. 

Cory, followed by John Ota. 

MS. CORY HARDEN: Good evening. I'm Cory 

Harden. I appreciate your holding this event tonight. 

There's four emission sources I hope you'll 

evaluate more fully: military actions, ship emissions, 

biofuel plants, and geothermal plants. 

As far as military actions, increased military 

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actions are underway, and more are planned for Pohakuloa as 

the U.S. shifts forces to the Pacific. These activities 

will generate dust from construction, vehicles and troop 

movements, erosion, and possible fires that consume 

vegetation. Pohakuloa has no air-monitoring stations in 

the south and southwest, the most likely place to pick up 

any problems since the prevailing winds blow out of the 

northeast. So they may not detect air quality problems. 

One major action that's going to be happening 

there is some training once done at Makua Valley moving 

over there. When that training was done at Makua, fires 

consumed thousands of acres starting 14 years ago, 2,000 

acres at one shot once, and inadequate fire prevention has 

been an ongoing problem with that training. Plans were not 

implemented, crucial personnel were not in place, and 

project funding was not secure. And also fire history 

files for Makua and Pohakuloa were destroyed, which makes 

it very difficult to plan. 

A second major action is the Stryker training 

which is already taking place. The EIS expected 

significant disturbance to soils and vegetation due to 

intensified on- and off-road maneuver training, leading to 

increased soil erosion that could not be mitigated to less 

than significant. And PM10 dust emissions generated from 

wind erosion at the 23,000-acre Keamuku Parcel were 

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expected to be a significant impact. And the Strykers may 

cause fire risk. The EIS says though mitigation will 

reduce the risk, it will not be to less than significant. 

On ship emissions, I have two concerns. Your 

reports talked about this North American Emission Control 

Area regulations, which would reduce emissions by requiring 

fuel of less than 1 percent sulfur content when ships are 

200 miles offshore, but the industry is trying to delay the 

August 1 implementation date. They don't want to do it. 

The second concern is ships running their 

engines while they're in port instead of plugging into 

shore power, which is a less polluting source. When the 

cruise ships are in port in Hilo, you can see the smoke 

coming out of their stacks all day. And I don't know of 

any port in Hawaii that offers this plug-in called AMP, 

Alternative Maritime Power, but naval vessels and Baltic 

ferries have used it for years, and several North American 

ports are planning or already have it in Canada and the 

United States. Princess Cruises, almost 90 percent of 

their ships can plug in, and Disney and Norwegian have at 

least one ship. There's another alternative, an e-power 

barge that uses liquefied natural gas, and they're 

proposing that in Hamburg, Germany. So there's 

alternatives. 

On biofuel plants, I want to back up what Jesse 

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said. I've heard presentations by the very knowledgeable 

neighbors there, and some of the claims they are making for 

their emissions -- air, water, so forth -- just seem very 

unfounded. Also we need to look at emissions not just 

what's generated by burning biofuel but all the actions 

that are required to get the biofuel plant going. You have 

to clear land. You have to transport seed and fertilizer. 

You have to plant trees or whatever you're going to burn, 

cultivate it, harvest it, transport it to the plant, get it 

ready for burning. Maybe you have to chop it up or 

something. Then you burn it, and then you have waste you 

have to dispose of. And also Aina Koa Pono, it may get 

revived and have some actions. There may be more than 

Ho Honua.

Geothermal is being pushed heavily, maybe more 

geothermal, and there's extensive documentation of possible 

leaks that are not being detected. Residents have reported 

unusual odors, corrosion of roofs, gutters and catchment 

tanks that has caused high levels of lead in drinking water 

and health problems. There's been blowouts and unplanned 

releases. One well blew out. Another would have blown out 

if they hadn't parked two 50-ton bulldozers on top of it 

when the casing starting coming out of the ground. One 

family evacuated for six months to get away from gas leaks. 

There was a lightning strike, I think, and some releases. 

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You know, there's extensive documentation. And my time is 

up, so thank you.

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Thank you, Cory. 

John Ota? 

MR. JOHN OTA: My name is John Ota. I speak for 

myself. I was born and raised on this island, and I'm a 

retired citizen today. I have experienced the so-called 

progressive pollution on this island in my years. No 

governmental agency, be it federal, state or county, have 

done anything to prevent pollution from increasing through 

the years. 

Why is pollution such a large issue today? A 

news article on May 22, 2012, states to improve visibility 

at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Is Kilauea Volcanoes 

the only important factor on the Big Island? Is the EPA 

aware that people exist on this island? Federal government 

offensive remarks are nothing new to the people on this 

island. Many other federal agencies have appeared before 

on other issues and made outrageous statements that cause a 

rebuttal from the populace.

Why is the EPA stating that HELCO would not have 

problems in complying with EPA requirements? Is this 

meeting a show for the public? How is the EPA calculating 

the pollution created by HELCO? Is the pollution 

calculated based on yearly basis only without considering 

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how many days or hours the plants were in operation, or is 

the calculations based on how much power plant pollutants 

enter the atmosphere in one hour of operation? 

Increased green energy-produced electricity will 

reduce HELCO power plants' operation. HELCO turbine 

generators uses foreign import oil to produce electricity 

and produce the high amount of pollution the residents 

encounter today. The electricity rate per hour charged to 

consumers is based on foreign import oil, but any oil price 

reductions are not passed on to the consumers. All HELCO 

costs, good and bad, are passed on to the customers with 

the approval of the PUC with no input from the public. 

One primary objective of the PUC is to ensure 

private enterprises gain a profit, meaning HELCO. This 

dictatorial condition exists for electricity consumers 

approved by the state legislature, PUC, and now endorsed by 

the EPA. I do not support your established dictatorial 

procedures presented by the state -- federal, state, PUC, 

HELCO. 

Thank you.

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Thank you, John. 

So we have heard from everyone who submitted a 

speaker card today. We still have time to hear additional 

comments. The hearing is scheduled to continue until 7:30. 

Is there anyone who would like to provide 

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oral -- additional oral comments? If so, you can come up 

to the microphone. 

Yeah. Jesse, would you like another minute? 

MR. JESSE LAW: Give me five. 

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Five. It's a deal. 

MR. JESSE LAW: Thank you. 

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: State your name again, 

please. 

MR. JESSE LAW: Jesse Law. Just one other 

thing. I imagine that these emissions are being read 24 

hours, but as I was communicating to you in my direct 

observation, it seemed that most of the pollutant that was 

visible was happening at night when it doesn't affect the 

view or visibility in the park. So I'm curious. I got 

that this is about visibility in the parks. Okay? So I 

got that piece of it. 

But my concern is also people and our health and 

stuff, so the -- yeah, I think one of the things I'm going 

to just infer about my previous presenters' sharing was 

that understanding how you're arriving at the metric of 

emissions is important. And I think as a, you know, right 

to know for the people who are living here with three 

plants within five miles of us and 40,000 people plus 

growing rapidly, it would be great to know what -- you 

know, is that a 24-hour cycle, or is that a 12-hour cycle? 

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Is that a, you know, aggravated emission indicator? Is 

that including nighttime emissions and stuff like that? So 

I just wanted to add that one little piece.

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Thank you. 

Would anybody else care to make oral comments? 

Yes, Cory. 

MS. CORY HARDEN: So I just would, like, hope 

that you folks can check into the emissions from the Puna 

Geothermal Venture plant because they keep saying it's a 

closed system; there are no leaks. One of my friends says, 

"Hey, they use pentane there." I guess that's a heat 

exchanger, and apparently they have to keep replacing the 

pentane. He's saying, "Well, you know, where is it going? 

There must be leaks." And residents are reporting health 

problems and, you know, PGV and the authorities are saying, 

"Oh, no, there's no leaks. You're imagining all your 

health problems."

So I hope as part of this, you can look into 

what the emissions actually are from PGV. They have air 

monitors, I believe, for hydrogen sulfide. And hydrogen 

sulfide, I believe, travels -- is heavier than air and 

travels, you know, down on the ground. The air monitors 

are six feet high, so I don't know how they're detecting 

anything. So I hope you can look into that as part of 

this. Thank you.

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HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Cory, would you state 

your name again for the record. 

MS. CORY HARDEN: Cory Harden.

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Thank you. 

Would anybody else care to make oral comments? 

MR. JOHN OTA: I have. 

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: John? Please state 

your name again. 

MR. JOHN OTA: John Ota. I have worked with jet 

engines all my life. I've worked with aviation and all 

that. Turbine engines that HELCO uses is jet engines. 

They have what they call a cleaning system installed on 

those engines, and what they do is they use the power of 

the engine to blow back and clean the filters that's in the 

system. And the filters usually are used to clean all the 

instrumentation and the gauges and so forth that they have, 

anything that needs to be measured and sensors, those 

areas, they clean the -- use the blow-back system to clean 

it out. And what one of the previous speakers was talking 

about, that smoke at night, that's the cause of it. It's 

the blow-back from the turbine engines coming out from that 

HELCO plant on Railroad Avenue. 

The other thing is -- that's okay. That's it. 

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Okay. Thank you, John. 

Any additional oral comments? 

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Okay. If there are no further comments, I will 

conclude the public hearing. As a reminder, the period for 

the written public comments remains open. 

Right. Okay. So Kerry reminds me that we will 

be here until 7:30, and the hearing will officially be 

open, but we can recess at this point. If there are no 

public comments, we will be available to answer questions 

or speak with you. 

So at this point I will call a recess. We'll 

take a five-minute break, and then the EPA folks will be 

back and available to talk with you. 

(At 6:26 p.m., a recess was taken

until 7:00 p.m.)

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Folks, it's 7:00, and I 

would like to reconvene the formal public hearing. 

Is there anybody who would like to offer oral 

comment on the EPA Regional Haze Program for Hawaii? 

Anybody new to the hearing or somebody who's been here who 

has more to say? 

If there is no additional comment, then I will 

again suspend the hearing, but EPA will be here until 7:30. 

We're available in the room to discuss with you the 

Regional Haze Program. I will reconvene again before 7:30 

to check to see whether anybody new has arrived or there 

are other people who would like to give public comments.

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Okay. So we are now on break. 

(At 7:02 p.m., a recess was taken

until 7:24 p.m.)

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Folks, before we 

conclude the public hearing at 7:30, I just want to make 

one more call. If there's anybody in the room who would 

like to make an oral comment about EPA's Regional Haze 

Program for Hawaii, you can do so now. Is there anybody 

who would like to submit a public comment? 

Then at 7:30, I will close the hearing. At this 

point the hearing is still open. 

(At 7:25 p.m., a recess was taken

until 7:30 p.m.)

HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: It's 7:30. If there 

are no further comments, I will conclude the public 

hearing. 

As a reminder, the period for written public 

comment remains open until July 2nd, 2012. Thank you for 

coming and participating in the public hearing. EPA 

appreciates you taking the time on a Friday night 

especially to participate in the public hearing process. 

This public hearing is now closed. 

(The hearing concluded at 7:30 p.m.)

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C E R T I F I C A T E

STATE OF HAWAII )

) ss.

COUNTY OF HAWAII )

I, KIRSTEN REHANEK, Court Reporter, State of 

Hawaii, do hereby certify:

That on June 1, 2012, at 5:30 p.m., this public 

hearing was taken down by me in machine shorthand and was 

thereafter reduced to typewriting under my supervision.

That this 39-page transcript represents, to the 

best of my ability, a true and correct transcript of the 

proceedings had in the foregoing matter.

I further certify that I am not an attorney for 

any of the parties hereto, nor in any way concerned with 

the cause.

DATED this 21st day of June, 2012, in 

Kailua-Kona, Hawaii.

___________________________________

KIRSTEN REHANEK, CSR NO. 481

RALPH ROSENBERG COURT REPORTERS, INC.

Ofc: (808) 524-2090 Fax: (808) 524-2596

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