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 96720A 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25INDEX 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25FRIDAY, 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25up 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

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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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25this 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

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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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25reporter, 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25speaker 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25comments 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25the 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25here. 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25it 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25Available 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25deciviews 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25upwind 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 SO 2, and that would have to be done by January 1st of 2018. And that would effectively decrease projected SO 2 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25So 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25question 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25part of the island, the incremental sulfur from those power plants is a concern

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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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25MR. GREG NUDD: That's the way that the statute was written. That's right out of the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990

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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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25MR. 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25predict 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25capture 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25So 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25Nobel 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25HEARING 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25And 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25And 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25Hilo. 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

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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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25actions 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25expected 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25said. 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25You know, there's extensive documentation. And my time is up, so thank you

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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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25how 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25oral -- 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25Is 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

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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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25HEARING OFFICER WILTSE: Cory, would you state your name again for the record

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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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25Okay. 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25Okay. 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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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25C 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

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