0001

1 UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

2 REGION IX

3 75 Hawthorne Street

4 San Francisco, CA 94105

5

6

7

8 STATE OF HAWAII

9 REGIONAL HAZE

10 PROPOSED FEDERAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

11 PUBLIC HEARING

12 MAY 31, 2012

13 MAUI COLLEGE

14

15

16

17 Held at the University of Hawaii, Maui College,

18 Pilini Multipurpose Room, 310 W. Kaahumanu Avenue,

19 Kahului, Hawaii, commencing at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday,

20 May 31, 2012.

21

22

23

24

25 REPORTED BY: LYNANN NICELY, RPR/RMR/CRR/CSR #354

0002

1 WENDY WILTSE: Welcome and good evening.

2 This public hearing is now in session. My name

3 is Wendy Wiltse and I am an acting public hearing

4 officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection

5 Agency Region 9 in San Francisco, California.

6 I'm the presiding officer for tonight's

7 hearing. With me tonight are individuals from

8 EPA Region 9 based in San Francisco. Kerry Drake

9 is the Associate Director of EPA Region 9 Air

10 Division. To his left is Greg Nudd from Region 9

11 Planning Office. Asia Yeary -- could you stand

12 and wave when I say your name -- is out in the

13 hall. I'm going to skip Asia for the moment.

14 Dean Higuchi, standing in the back waving, is

15 Region 9's Hawaii Pacific press officer and

16 congressional liaison. Did Asia come back?

17 And these are -- I want to introduce the

18 government people who are here that you may want

19 to grab during the break and have a private

20 conversation with.

21 From the Department of Health we have three

22 people from the Clean Air Branch in Honolulu:

23 Nolan Hiraei, waving in the back; Priscilla Ligh

24 -- is Priscilla here? Waving? The dress in the

25 back? And Keith McFall, standing and waving in

0003

1 the back.

2 And then from the National Park Service we

3 have Pat Brewer, who is the Regional Haze

4 Coordinator here from Denver. And is Sarah here

5 yet? Great. I would also like to introduce our

6 court reporter, Lynann Nicely, who is at the end

7 of the table here; Lynann will be making a record

8 of tonight's hearing.

9 The purpose of today's hearing is to accept

10 public comment on the Environmental Protection

11 Agency's Proposed Federal Implementation Plan for

12 the Regional Haze program in Hawaii. You can

13 find details about EPA's proposed actions on
14 posters in the back and side of the room and on

15 EPA's website.

16 My role as the presiding officer tonight is

17 to ensure that the EPA receives your oral public

18 comments in an orderly fashion. I will not be

19 involved in assessing or responding to your

20 comments. Likewise, I will not be involved in

21 EPA's final decision-making process for the

22 Federal Implementation Plan. Instead, I am

23 solely facilitating this proceeding to make sure

24 all community members have an equal opportunity

25 to submit oral comment on this issue as part of

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1 the official administrative record.

2 Before we begin accepting your comments, I

3 would like to describe the logistics and ground

4 rules for tonight's hearing, so I'm going to be

5 reading through this. Please listen carefully.

6 The most important thing, restrooms are out the

7 door in that corner of the room, and there is

8 also a water fountain if you go out the door and

9 turn left. There is some water and some snacks

10 on the table in the center of the back of this

11 room.

12 So this hearing is a formal legal proceeding

13 and the testimony offered will become part of the

14 administrative record on which EPA will base its

15 decision. Public notice of this hearing was

16 published in the Federal Register on May 11th and

17 by publication in local newspapers and also by

18 posting on EPA's website.

19 This hearing is being recorded by a court

20 reporter who will be preparing a verbatim record

21 of the hearing. If you present oral comments at

22 today's hearing, please speak clearly and slowly

23 so that the reporter can understand you and

24 record your comments accurately. I also ask that

25 you state your name and organization you are

0005

1 representing at the beginning of your commentary.

2 Please refrain from interrupting other

3 speakers, shouting or asking questions during any

4 presentations. This courtesy will also help the

5 court reporter to record your comments

6 accurately. Please note that you will have the

7 opportunity to make comments shortly once we

8 begin the public comment period of this hearing.

9 There is a registration table in the back

10 corner of the room over there by Dean. If you

11 would like to make oral comments, please fill out

12 a speaker request form which is located at the

13 registration table. We will receive oral public

14 comments in the order in which the speaker

15 request forms are received. Please write your

16 name legibly since the court reporter will be

17 relying on your card for the correct spelling of

18 your name.

19 You do not need to register at the

20 registration table to attend the hearing.

21 However, if you are not already on our mailing

22 list for this project and would like to receive

23 direct notification of EPA's final rulemaking

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

25 sheets located at the registration table and

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1 check the box on the sign-in sheet to be added to
2 our mailing list.

3 For those who are providing oral comments,

4 the speaker request forms include a space for you

5 to provide your contact information and a box to

6 check to be included on the mailing list.

7 If you don't wish to speak today or tonight,

8 you can also submit written comments for the

9 official record. Written comments submitted

10 through the postal service must be postmarked on

11 or before July 2, 2012. Written comments

12 submitted by e-mail must be received by 11:59

13 p.m. on July 2, 2012, Pacific time zone, so three

14 hours before midnight our time, 9 p.m. You may

15 also submit written comments to us tonight on a

16 comment card or other paper. There is a comment

17 box on the registration table where you can leave

18 written comments.

19 Written comments and oral comments will all

20 receive equal consideration by EPA in making the

21 final decision. If you submit written comments,

22 it is not necessary for you to give the same oral

23 comments as well, though you may do so if you

24 wish by submitting a speaker request form.

25 The oral comments received at this hearing

0007

1 and all written comments received today will be

2 reviewed and considered by EPA in preparing its

3 final rulemaking decision.

4 It is important for you to know that we are

5 here only to take comments on EPA's Proposed

6 Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plan for

7 Hawaii. EPA will only consider comments related

8 to EPA's proposed action in making its final

9 decision and so I ask that you refrain from

10 making comments that are not related to this

11 specific action.

12 EPA decisions on Clean Air Act rules are

13 made with the participation of a number of people

14 within the organization after full consideration

15 of all public comment. EPA staff cannot comment

16 to any specific decision related to the proposed

17 Federal Implementation Plan today. No decisions

18 have been made.

19 The purpose of this hearing is for EPA to

20 listen to your comments. Therefore, EPA will not

21 be providing responses during the hearing.

22 However, we're going to have a brief question

23 period after Kerry's presentation. Rather, EPA

24 will prepare a written summary of the comments it

25 receives and EPA's responses. The response to

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1 comments will be available at the time EPA issues

2 the regional haze decision.

3 EPA will not make a final decision on the

4 Hawaii Regional Haze Plan until all comments are

5 submitted during the public comment period and

6 have been considered.

7 EPA's notice of final decision on the Hawaii

8 Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plan, along

9 with a response to comments, will be sent to each

10 person currently on EPA's mail list for this

11 action as well as to each person who has

12 submitted written or oral comments and provided

13 contact information, or who has signed up at the

14 registration table to receive notice and provided

15 an e-mail or postal mailing address. This
16 information will also be available on EPA's

17 website.

18 A copy of the transcript of today's hearing

19 will be available for inspection on EPA Region

20 9's website. If you wish to purchase an official

21 copy of the hearing transcript, please make

22 arrangements directly with the court reporter

23 following the hearing.

24 Before we begin the public comment, Kerry

25 Drake will present a brief summary of EPA's

0009

1 Proposed Federal Implementation Plan for the

2 Regional Haze program in Hawaii. Following his

3 presentation, we'll take a few brief questions.

4 KERRY DRAKE: Hello, everybody. I just

5 wanted to thank you so much for coming and

6 participating in your government. So as the

7 administrative procedures that were lined out by

8 Congress or put out by Congress is that when any

9 of the federal agencies including EPA promulgated

10 regulation that affects people in this case we're

11 doing we're proposing a regulation that could

12 affect people that live in Maui and in Hawaii

13 County, it's our duty to come and talk to you

14 about what we're proposing to do and to listen to

15 your input. It is very vital you're

16 participating in your government in this way and

17 we greatly appreciate it. I just wanted to say

18 that upfront. It's a duty that obviously people

19 in Maui are taking very seriously and we

20 appreciate it.

21 So the particular statute that we're

22 implementing tonight via a proposed regulation is

23 a particular portion of the Federal Clean Air Act

24 that requires visibility in national parks by the

25 year 2064 to get back to a natural state, in

0010

1 other words, not affected by manmade pollution.

2 So that's a long time period to get visibility

3 back into the natural state. That's what the

4 Clean Air Act lined out. So the regulations that

5 EPA is proposing tonight in conjunction with help

6 from the Department of Health in the State of

7 Hawaii is just that, to start the progress or to

8 start the process that will ultimately end up in

9 2064 where visibility would be in a natural state

10 in the two national parks in Hawaii.

11 So the first phase -- I just outlined the

12 first sentence, so that's what we're taking

13 comment on tonight. The first phase of a

14 Regional Haze program has three key requirements;

15 that is, certain sources that were identified by

16 the Act to implement Best Available Retrofit

17 Technology; we have to set reasonable progress

18 goals for each of the two national parks in this

19 case; and we need to develop a long-term strategy

20 to meet those reasonable progress goals. And so

21 that was what our proposal lined out.

22 So just to talk about visibility for a

23 little bit, the technical measure for visibility

24 is deciviews. That's what we use to measure

25 visibility. This is Volcanoes National Park on a

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1 good visibility day; 4 deciviews is what this

2 reading is. To contrast that with Hawaii

3 Volcanoes National Park the same view on a poor
4 visibility day, that's 19 deciviews. So just to

5 let you know, those are the currency that we work

6 in when we're developing these regulations, we're

7 working in deciviews. Again, 4 deciviews, just

8 to look again, and then 19.

9 Just to continue the conversation using

10 Hawaii Volcanoes National Park as an example --

11 by the way, the Maui numbers, Greg held an

12 information poster session back over against the

13 windows, the Maui numbers are back there, you can

14 see these same sort of charts that I'm showing

15 here for Maui, this next chart.

16 So essentially this is just to try to tell

17 you we're starting at a place in Hawaii Volcanoes

18 National Park with a baseline of 18.86 deciviews

19 and in 2064 we've determined that it needs to get

20 down to 7 deciviews. So that's pretty much what

21 it would be for that and then the Maui numbers

22 again are posted back there.

23 So one of the first -- one of the three

24 factors we talked about that we have to look at

25 is Best Available Retrofit Technology required

0012

1 and it could be required on sources that were

2 constructed between 1962 and 1977. That's the

3 way the Act read. And the BART determinations --

4 we call it BART, we love our acronyms in

5 government -- the BART determinations are made on

6 a case-by-case basis considering five factors.

7 And basically after we use those -- we look at

8 those five factors to see if those sources are

9 exempted from doing BART if they don't contribute

10 to visibility impairment in any of the national

11 parks.

12 So basically the measure that we've used,

13 going back to deciviews again, is that any source

14 that has a computer modeled impact of 0.5

15 deciviews on visibility in one of the national

16 parks is a source that we would look at for BART

17 and then look at the other four factors. If

18 you're below that, that's the first factor, we

19 would just screen you out.

20 So we looked at BART in this state and so we

21 looked statewide at the sources that might impact

22 visibility in the national parks and obviously

23 modeling -- computer modeling is going to kick

24 out the Oahu sources even though they're very

25 big. They're eventually going to kicked out by

0013

1 computer modeling because it wouldn't surprise

2 anybody that sources on Oahu are not going to

3 affect visibility in Hawaii or Maui.

4 But if you look down the list, there were

5 basically two sources that did not get modeled

6 out and those two sources were the Hu Honua

7 Bioenergy facility on the Big Island and then the

8 Hill Generating Station, HELCO's generating

9 station again on the Big Island. So computer

10 modeling didn't determine that those were the two

11 sources that we needed to do further BART

12 analysis on.

13 So at the end of the day we did go through

14 the other five factors and the one source that

15 had to have Best Available Retrofit Technology

16 according to our analysis and that we proposed

17 was the Hill Generating Station on the Big
18 Island. Hu Honua burns now completely biomass

19 and then was screened out of the analysis.

20 So that's BART. So that's only one of the

21 three things that we have to look at. The other

22 is -- and this is really what we're trying to

23 guarantee happens at the national parks -- is,

24 "Is there reasonable progress?" to insure that

25 reasonable progress is being made on the best and

0014

1 the worst days. And so again, when we're

2 determining what is reasonable progress, we have

3 to consider what sources' impact is, the cost of

4 the compliance, the time necessary for compliance

5 -- you can read the list, it's right there on the

6 slide.

7 So Maui emissions -- there is a table like

8 this on the posters at the back that you can look

9 at throughout the session and during the break.

10 But essentially because of primarily -- a number

11 of factors, but not the least of which is the

12 emission control area that by treaty the United

13 States entered into regarding shipping, emissions

14 in Maui are going to be showing -- are not going

15 to be increasing between now and the first

16 planning period which is 2018. Emissions of

17 nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide are expected

18 to be decreasing in Maui, which is starting the

19 progress towards attaining visible natural

20 attainment.

21 However, on the Big Island there is one

22 category of sources or one category of emissions

23 that's expected to increase even despite the

24 better controls on ships and the fuels that they

25 use and that is sulfur dioxide.

0015

1 So just to kind of lay this out, the human

2 emissions on the Big Island of SO2 are expected

3 to increase by 4 percent between 2005 and 2018,

4 which is the first planning period that we're

5 looking at in this proposal.

6 So there are three power plants on the Big

7 Island that are upwind of Volcanoes National Park

8 that are high emitters of sulfur dioxide. Those

9 are Hill, Shipman, and Puna. So what we've

10 proposed essentially to ensure that man-made

11 emissions that could impact Volcanoes National

12 Park show reasonable progress is that we put a

13 cap on sulfur dioxide emissions from those three

14 facilities, or we're proposing to do that,

15 beginning in the year January 1, 2018. And so we

16 expect that those controls would result in about

17 17 percent reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions

18 from those three facilities by the year 2018.

19 When we were developing that strategy, we

20 did take into account that there is a volcano on

21 the Big Island that is the non-man-made source

22 and the primary source of visibility impairment,

23 not only in Volcanoes National Park but also in

24 Haleakala on certain days. But we also took into

25 account the fact that Hawaii itself has

0016

1 aggressive legislative requirements for renewable

2 energy and energy efficiency and we wanted to

3 make sure that the controls that we put in place

4 on the Big Island would be flexible enough that

5 if HELCO chooses to not buy lower sulfur fuel,
6 which tends to be more expensive, but chooses to

7 increase their energy efficiency or renewable

8 energy in line with Hawaii's goals, then that's

9 another option by which they could meet those

10 standards.

11 So again, I can take a few brief questions

12 right now. But once these few brief questions

13 are done, we have to get back to the hearing and

14 at that point EPA will not respond at all to any

15 comments that are made. So I can respond right

16 now to a few brief questions.

17 WENDY WILTSE: So if you have a question

18 that's something that you need answered in order

19 to clarify Kerry's presentation and understand

20 the EPA action, please come to the microphone at

21 the table to the right of the screen.

22 KERRY DRAKE: Again, this is not the public

23 hearing; this is just a preliminary information

24 session.

25 WENDY WILTSE: And if you could make your

0017

1 questions brief.

2 ROB PARSONS: Thank you. My name is Rob

3 Parsons. Kerry, can you help the audience

4 understand why on your list there the high sulfur

5 fuel oil facility at Kahului that MECO runs and

6 the HC&S Puunene mill burning coal and bagasse

7 are exempt from the BART?

8 KERRY DRAKE: My understanding -- and I'll

9 also defer to Greg Nudd, who's the person that

10 did the analysis for EPA primarily, as well as we

11 have a modeling person in -- that did not come

12 with us -- in San Francisco. But my

13 understanding is that they were not modeled to

14 have a 0.5 deciview impact on Haleakala. Is that

15 it?

16 GREG NUDD: That's correct. What EPA is

17 proposing in this proposed rule is that any

18 source that is modeled to have a less than half a

19 deciview impact on the Class 1 area will be

20 considered to not be causing or contributing to

21 visibility impairment. And that half a deciview

22 cut-off is fairly standard, it's consistent with

23 the other regional haze plans that have been

24 approved. The computer modeling assumes worst

25 case 24-hour emissions and compares the impact of

0018

1 those emissions with natural conditions. So it

2 assumes there is no impact on the volcano from

3 the volcano and it looks only at the impact of

4 that particular source. So it's a fairly

5 stringent standard.

6 ROB PARSONS: So is the modeling available

7 in the docket or a description of the modeling?

8 GREG NUDD: Yeah, a description of the

9 modeling is all available in the docket and you

10 can see all the assumptions that went into the

11 modeling, you can see EPA's analysis of how the

12 modeling was conducted, and there should be

13 enough information in the docket if you're a

14 computer modeler you could recreate it yourself.

15 STEVEN TRUEBLOOD: My name is Steven

16 Trueblood. I'm a little disappointed that the

17 figures and the presentation to Maui County are

18 figures from the Big Island. I was going to go

19 back and try to rifle through the document to
20 find the data. I would like to know the

21 agricultural burn data for Maui County without

22 having to go back through the document. Thank

23 you.

24 GREG NUDD: I'm going to do this from memory

25 so I may be off a little bit, but what we're

0019

1 showing from the emissions inventory that

2 Environ, a consulting firm, conducted for the

3 Hawaii Department of Health is that the nitrogen

4 oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions from ag

5 burning on Maui were I think about 233 tons of

6 SO2 per year and you compare that with about --

7 that's about one-tenth of the emissions from big

8 industrial sources on the island. But if you go

9 back to the posters on the wall right there, it's

10 all laid out for you.

11 KERRY DRAKE: Is there a table that we can

12 send him if he gives you his e-mail address?

13 GREG NUDD: Yeah, absolutely. It's also

14 available from the website. But if you want that

15 particular table, I'll give you my card and you

16 can send me an email and I can send that to you.

17 KERRY DRAKE: Thank you.

18 KEITH KESSLER: My question relates to

19 what's actually being regulated. My

20 understanding is that what needs to be regulated

21 is visibility, but that what's being measured is

22 a surrogate standard of various substances that

23 are in the air; is that correct?

24 GREG NUDD: Yes.

25 KEITH KESSLER: My second question is is it

0020

1 visibility from points to points within the park

2 only, or from points within the park to points

3 external to the park? In other words, my view of

4 the ocean from the summit of Haleakala, is that

5 regulated?

6 KERRY DRAKE: There is a monitor that most

7 of the analysis that was based on the baseline

8 monitor was outside the park and there is also a

9 monitor inside the park.

10 KEITH KESSLER: That doesn't address my

11 question. My question is what's actually

12 regulated as opposed to what you're measuring is

13 the view, my view of the ocean protected by

14 this --

15 KERRY DRAKE: I see what you mean. So the

16 reasonable progress -- when we used emissions

17 from Maui to determine that reasonable progress

18 was being made between 2005 and 2018, the

19 surrogate that we used to make sure that

20 visibility was increasing Maui-wide were

21 emissions Maui-wide.

22 KEITH KESSLER: That still didn't answer my

23 question. My question is is my right to see the

24 ocean from the summit of Haleakala protected by

25 this law?

0021

1 GREG NUDD: As we discussed in the poster

2 session, the rule is designed to protect

3 visibility as viewed by a viewer in the park.

4 KEITH KESSLER: So that would be yes.

5 GREG NUDD: Yes.

6 KEITH KESSLER: Thank you very much.

7 BRUCE DOUGLAS: Bruce Douglas, my name.
8 What I notice, what is not taken up in this

9 report in any way, shape, or form is actually the

10 largest source of haze being created in Hawaii

11 and in fact worldwide which is from the ongoing

12 stratospheric aerosol geoengineering programs

13 that are going on, also known as chemtrails. For

14 instance, the last two days we've had moderate

15 chemtrail spraying which is point source,

16 hundreds of miles away from here and floats over

17 the island, and today I can hardly see the West

18 Maui mountains. These programs I believe is the

19 real source of the haze because, for instance,

20 today why can't I see West Maui mountains from

21 here? Very hazy. We have tradewinds. The

22 tradewinds are blowing off the ocean. There is

23 nothing out there causing the pollution except

24 maybe something blowing from China.

25 So the real source, which I'm probably sure

0022

1 you're aware of, is the aerosol programs that are

2 ongoing, yet this has not been addressed. I

3 notice on the numbers there is no mention of

4 aluminum, barium, or strontium that are the

5 elements commonly found in NOAA's aerosol

6 programs, but I don't see this addressed. Are

7 you guys interested in addressing the real

8 source?

9 KERRY DRAKE: I'm just going to thank you

10 for your question. I don't have an answer to it.

11 So thank you for your question.

12 KIMBER CARHART: Kimber Carhart, and I have

13 a quick question. Are there systems in place, is

14 it online where we can challenge how the modeling

15 and measuring assumptions were made? Is there a

16 place to challenge that?

17 GREG NUDD: If you -- the short answer to

18 your question is yes, that will be something that

19 we'll consider in our evaluation and development

20 of the final rule and it was something that we

21 addressed in our technical support documents. So

22 I would start with the technical support document

23 to get EPA's evaluation of how the modeling was

24 conducted and it will reference the assumptions

25 that went into that.

0023

1 And so we're open to any comments folks

2 might have about the assumptions that went into

3 the modeling, about how the model was conducted,

4 about what models were used, any of that is

5 certainly fair game for comments. And the How to

6 Comment document that we have at the registration

7 table is a good place to start. That will send

8 you to the docket and you can put it there.

9 CHRISTINE ANDREWS: Hi, my name is Christine

10 Andrews and I'm a local attorney and business

11 owner. My question for you is that you set the

12 threshold at 0.5 deciviews, which you said was a

13 pretty stringent threshold in your comments in

14 response to Rob. But that's actually the highest

15 level of threshold under the regulation and I

16 think it's disingenuous for the EPA to propose

17 this plan setting the threshold as high as

18 allowed, say that the targets are unachievable,

19 and push out -- Kerry said the target, the goal

20 is 2064, but the plan as you've written it pushes

21 it out 280 years.
22 So my question is did you consider, when you

23 came up with the plan, setting the deciview

24 threshold as high as you were allowed,

25 reconsidering your modeling, lowering the

0024

1 threshold, which is within your discretion to do,

2 and maybe doing the BART review of some of our

3 other polluting sources? You have exempted six

4 out of eight sources, and yet said the targets

5 are unachievable which seriously the goal which

6 is natural visibility by 2064. Did you guys do

7 any additional modeling?

8 KERRY DRAKE: Hi, Christine. So 0.5 was

9 consistent with what we did nationwide and

10 certainly that's where we started. The reason

11 that we have a hearing that's coming up is so

12 that people can make comments like that so that

13 we can consider them.

14 CHRISTINE ANDREWS: So you did not consider

15 when you looked at saying we're just not going to

16 meet the targets, we're not going to accomplish

17 our uniform rate of progress. Instead of

18 considering lowering the threshold, you just said

19 we'll throw out the goal --

20 KERRY DRAKE: My understanding is that the

21 280-year number you were looking at is completely

22 influenced by the fact that there is a volcano.

23 MS. ANDREWS: That was not my impression.

24 Thank you.

25 WENDY WILTSE: Let's take one final question

0025

1 before we move into the public comments.

2 PILIALOHA TEVES: Hi, my name is Pilialoha

3 Teves and I have a follow-up comment regarding

4 what Bruce was saying regarding the stratospheric

5 aerosol spraying and that you were able to

6 comment on it. I just got an iPhone recently.

7 I'm so happy. There is a website, it's called

8 aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov and Aeronet stands for

9 aerosol robotic network. And when you go on that

10 website, it shows you all over the globe where

11 this aerosol spraying is happening and it's

12 pretty bad. And I'm in agreement with what he

13 said, I mean that's the real issue. Haleakala or

14 Kilauea erupting now and again in vog is not the

15 issue. The issue is the aerosols that we've been

16 dealing with for the past -- in Hawaii at least

17 five years, but globally 30 years. And we're all

18 aware of it, as you are, and we look forward to

19 the truth coming out and the real issue being

20 identified and taken care of. Thank you.

21 KERRY DRAKE: I just wanted to just

22 encourage if there's -- thank you for your

23 question. I wasn't trying to be rude to the

24 gentleman earlier, I just don't have an answer

25 for your question because I don't know the answer

0026

1 to your question. But if it's something that you

2 feel like is something that should be considered

3 in the regional haze plan when the hearing starts

4 here in just a moment, please make that comment.

5 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you. Let's move into

6 the public comment period. In a few minutes I

7 will begin calling on speakers who have filled

8 out and submitted the Speaker Request Form.

9 Speakers will be called in groups of two or three
10 in the order in which the forms were received.

11 There are two microphones -- I'm sorry, there is

12 one microphone available and two chairs at that

13 table. So when you hear your name, please take a

14 chair at the table with the microphone and please

15 begin your comment in the order the names were

16 called. And I may call some extra names and ask

17 you to come sit in the front so that you'll be

18 ready when it's your turn to speak.

19 When I announce that it is your turn to

20 speak, please come up to the microphone, state

21 your name, and if you have a complicated name if

22 you would spell that for us, that would be great.

23 And if you're appearing on behalf of someone or

24 an organization, please tell us who you're

25 representing. Remember to speak clearly and

0027

1 allow the court reporter to capture your

2 comments. You may want to spell your name. I

3 already said that. If you are not in the room

4 when I announce your turn to speak, I will recall

5 you after all the speakers have made their oral

6 comments.

7 We want to make sure that everyone has an

8 opportunity to speak here tonight and the hearing

9 ends at 8:30. To that end, I'm going to ask

10 everyone who speaks to please make your oral

11 comments brief.

12 I am asking speakers to limit their comments

13 to four minutes. If you have lengthier comments,

14 you may submit them in writing. Each speaker

15 will be given a one-minute warning and then

16 notified when their time is up. And if you take

17 a look on our table, there is a gadget that has

18 red, yellow, and green lights and when you have

19 one minute left, the yellow light comes up. And

20 when your four minutes are up, the red light

21 comes on. So if you would please follow those

22 lights, it would be very helpful. Thank you.

23 So EPA appreciates you taking the time to

24 participate in this public hearing and providing

25 your comments to aid with our proposed decision

0028

1 on regional haze. So let's begin the comment

2 period. The first speakers are Tina Wildberger,

3 Irene Bowie, and then Christine Andrews.

4 TINA WILDBERGER: Good evening. My name is

5 Tina Wildberger. I would like to thank the EPA

6 officials for coming from San Francisco to

7 address our concerns.

8 I'm curious to know how many people in this

9 room are here because of sugar cane burning?

10 There are 35 hands in the air. I think the

11 majority of this group is here and concerned

12 about sugar cane burning.

13 I live in Kihei, I operate a business in

14 North Kihei, what I would call ground zero for

15 the recipient of cane smoke, particulate plastic

16 and wood smoke. I'm unable to offer my 14

17 employees a smoke-free workplace in accordance

18 with Hawaii state law.

19 I beseech the EPA to help our community stop

20 sugar cane burning to offer health improvement

21 for our community and the people that live here.

22 We don't have any hope of the state helping us

23 with that. The company that burns cane is very
24 influential, very powerful.

25 Is there anybody here from HC&S/A&B? Oh,

0029

1 very good. Aloha.

2 We need help from the EPA. Kihei residents

3 would like to be afforded the same health

4 considerations that Florida residents were

5 offered when sugar cane burning had to be stopped

6 in Florida because of its negative health

7 effects. Thank you very much.

8 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you. Irene Bowie,

9 followed by Christine Andrews.

10 IRENE BOWIE: Aloha. My name is Irene Bowie

11 and I'm the executive director of Maui Tomorrow

12 Foundation. We thank you for coming to Maui and

13 we welcome the opportunity to offer remarks on

14 EPA's proposed Hawaii Regional Haze Plan.

15 Maui Tomorrow wishes to reserve the option

16 to supplement and amplify our remarks by the

17 close of your comment deadline on July 2nd.

18 Most significantly, we question your

19 proposed determination that under the regional

20 haze program no further controls on agricultural

21 burning are reasonable at this time.

22 As your analysis states, agricultural fire

23 emissions come from crop waste combustion of over

24 roughly 30,000 acres of sugar cane cultivated on

25 Maui. Cane burning produces billowing clouds of

0030

1 smoke, laden with toxins and fine particulates.

2 The smoke blocks out the sky and the natural

3 vistas and causes or contributes to a range of

4 severe respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses.

5 We don't doubt that a major contributor to

6 visibility impairment at Haleakala is vog, laden

7 with sulfates and other pollutants brought by

8 Kona winds from Kilauea.

9 We also know that wind patterns have changed

10 over recent years, bringing us far less days of

11 tradewinds, winds that we used to depend on to

12 clean our air. But there is also no doubt that

13 as the National Park Service has clearly stated,

14 sugar cane processing facilities and field

15 burning can affect air quality and visibility in

16 Haleakala National Park.

17 Effective action can only be focused on

18 limiting anthropogenic sources of pollution.

19 Cane field burning is among the largest such

20 sources of sulfur dioxide, volatile organic

21 compound, and particulate matter pollution on

22 Maui. So it makes little sense to rule out the

23 practical and achievable limitations of air

24 pollution by demanding better mitigation measures

25 for large agriculture and phasing out the burning

0031

1 as a means of harvesting cane.

2 Work published by NOAA researchers cited in

3 your technical support documents indicates that

4 Haleakala National Park has greater impacts from

5 smoke as compared to Hawaii Volcanoes National

6 Park. That study notes that based on data from

7 the Haleakala monitoring station, about half of

8 worst case days are associated with factors other

9 than volcanic emissions, including smoke and the

10 recommendations for follow-up work include

11 examination of the smoke factor with respect to
12 burning events.

13 Residents of Maui also know that fugitive

14 dust contributes significantly to the haze and

15 poor air quality on our island, yet large

16 agriculture is exempted in this state from best

17 management practices. Surely this is something

18 that EPA should consider at this time.

19 And lastly, we ask you to also consider that

20 current permits allow over a hundred thousand

21 tons of coal to be fired at the Puunene mill each

22 year. We realize that vog is something we cannot

23 control or mitigate, but we urge you to take a

24 second look at utilizing your authority under the

25 Regional Haze Rule to clear the air of cane

0032

1 smoke, coal fire and fugitive dust. By doing

2 that, we can improve public health at the same

3 time that we enhance the vistas at Maui's

4 national park. And mahalo for your

5 consideration.

6 WENDY WILTSE: Christine Andrews, Kimber

7 Carhart, and Steven Trueblood.

8 CHRISTINE ANDREWS: Thank you again. My

9 name is Christine Andrews and I'm a local

10 attorney and a small business owner here on Maui.

11 I do want to also reserve the opportunity to

12 supplement my oral comments tonight with my

13 written comments that will be submitted by the

14 deadline.

15 First of all, I want to clarify, I know

16 somebody brought up the data that you're using,

17 saying that there is 30,000 acres of sugar cane

18 that's being burned. HC&S has 35,000 acres in

19 sugar cane production; that's a difference of

20 1/6th, so you might want to check your data.

21 Also, in the Puunene mill's most recent

22 application for their source permit they proposed

23 increasing the amount of used motor oil they're

24 burning from 1.5 to 2 million gallons, so when

25 you're doing your modeling, please consider that

0033

1 if the permit is renewed with the additional 0.5

2 million gallons of used motor oil, the impacts

3 that might have on your haze-causing pollutants.

4 First of all, I want to note that I object

5 to the proposed plan. I do thank the EPA for

6 stepping in where the state couldn't come

7 together with a plan in a reasonable timeline, so

8 thank you for filling in for the state. But the

9 proposed control measures are not sufficient to

10 ensure that reasonable progress is made during

11 the first planning period. Additional control

12 measures are necessary.

13 I also object to the plan's proposal to use

14 the contribution threshold of only 0.5 deciviews

15 for determining which sources are subject to BART

16 review. The EPA has gone with the highest

17 allowable figure in the plan. The threshold is

18 too high. The EPA must exercise its discretion

19 to lower the threshold and conduct full BART

20 review of all identified BART-eligible sources

21 until the amount of improvement needed to achieve

22 uniform rate of progress for 2018, which is 1.38

23 delta deciview, is achievable by federally

24 enforceable pollution control measures. Bringing

25 in the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative and making
0034

1 assumptions about productions in emissions from

2 cars is not federally enforceable for the

3 purposes of this plan.

4 I object to the plan's proposal to exempt

5 six of the eight identified BART sources from

6 further review under the BART requirements. This

7 is, I believe, an outright ban for the life of

8 the plan. That's not acceptable.

9 All remaining BART eligible sources must be

10 reviewed under BART requirements until the

11 resulting federally enforceable pollution control

12 measures ensure that the amount of improvement

13 needed to achieve uniform rate of progress for

14 2018 of 1.38 delta deciview is achieved.

15 I object to the EPA's conclusion that it is

16 unreasonable to require additional nitrogen oxide

17 controls for point sources during this planning

18 period. The monitor data indicates that nitrogen

19 oxides are a substantial contributing factor

20 towards visibility impairment, although the plan

21 seems to indicate that they're secondary and

22 minimize their impact. I believe you said -- the

23 table said it was 19 percent. I'm sorry,

24 9 percent. As such, nitrogen oxide controls are

25 necessary for point sources in this planning

0035

1 period to the extent that such controls will

2 achieve the necessary visibility improvements,

3 either alone or in conjunction with other

4 improvements.

5 I object to the statement under the Section

6 4 factor analysis for SO2 emissions on Maui that

7 "it is reasonable to assume that visibility at

8 Haleakala on the best days is not getting worse

9 and that it is reasonable to assume that the

10 visibility on the worst days will improve."

11 I own a small business, I take visitors up

12 to Haleakala crater every week and I have for the

13 last 16 years. I assure you that visibility is

14 not improving and that visibility on the worst

15 days is getting worse. Don't assume anything.

16 You have the monitors, review the data.

17 Since the Hale 1 monitor's data was used for

18 the baseline visibility assessment, that monitor

19 must remain in place and the most recent data

20 from that monitor must be used to make an

21 objective assessment. Thank you so much for your

22 time.

23 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you, Christine. Kimber

24 Carhart and Steven Trueblood.

25 KIMBER CARHART: I'd like to thank you as

0036

1 well for giving us this opportunity. We really

2 appreciate you alerting us to this opportunity.

3 As a lifetime resident of Hawaii and 23-year

4 resident of Maui, I want to assure you that

5 Haleakala is a treasure and we want to retain our

6 ability to recreate in Haleakala and it's not

7 just the visibility, it's our ability to enjoy

8 healthy recreation in that area and around it.

9 I respectfully ask the EPA to take the

10 necessary steps to reduce the pollution in that

11 area. I do also, as Christine said, I object to

12 the plans for reducing the current controls and

13 measurements in place. We need more, not less.
14 And it's quite infuriating when we read that some

15 of Maui's major air polluters are given

16 exemptions and exceptions. And I just don't

17 understand it.

18 So like I said, we'd like to challenge -- as

19 I said earlier in my question, we would like to

20 challenge the models that are in place and the

21 current assumptions and we're counting on you to

22 protect our environment and our health. So thank

23 you so much for the opportunity today. Mahalo.

24 WENDY WILTSE: Thanks, Kimber. Steven -- is

25 it Trueblood?

0037

1 STEVEN TRUEBLOOD: I'm director of America's

2 New Way Forward, the Solution Revolution. We

3 work at finding solutions outside of government

4 and encouraging them back on our politicians

5 through the voice of the people.

6 It seems to me like you came here for one

7 reason tonight and they came here for another

8 reason. And I think that it's important to

9 realize if you would take a photo with the

10 burning taking place, I think that you'd have

11 completely different reading than what you're

12 taking now.

13 When I moved here three months ago and I

14 found out that they actually burned sugar cane, I

15 couldn't believe it. Not in the United States,

16 not with the EPA, not with the advances that we

17 have made in stopping this kind of pollution. I

18 couldn't believe that they actually could get

19 away with burning it. And when I saw it burning,

20 I couldn't believe the effect of it and the smell

21 of it and the fact that they burn the plastic

22 irrigation pipes right along with everything else

23 and put that into the air as well.

24 I would like to call upon the EPA and the

25 Department of Health and Human Services to

0038

1 immediately suspend agricultural burning on Maui

2 immediately so that it can be further studied and

3 concluded both on environmental impact and a

4 health impact. Let's put this back on the

5 growers and make them prove that they're not

6 hurting our environment. Why do we have to come

7 here and beg for representation or beg for your

8 ears so that we can get help?

9 This is something that is drastic and for

10 the EPA to come and completely ignore it or to

11 minimize it obviously is against the will of the

12 people that are here at least tonight. And we're

13 doing -- part of what we're doing is to encourage

14 the County of Maui to become the first

15 municipality in the United States to legalize,

16 encourage and promote the production of

17 commercial hemp and replace the destruction sugar

18 cane with something that has been part of our

19 economy for 5,000 years, that provides medicine,

20 food, fiber, fabric, biofuel, ethanol, what else,

21 there is a thousand other things that it does for

22 us, and it's time -- I know it's part of the

23 heritage and I know that's important. I lived in

24 a town that their heritage was growing chewing

25 tobacco. Well, after analyzing several people,

0039

1 hundreds of people that had tongue cancer, throat
2 cancer, gum cancer, every kind of cancer of the

3 mouth that you can imagine, they changed their

4 heritage. Instead of calling it "Tobacco Days,"

5 they now celebrate "Heritage Days." We could do

6 the same thing here. We're not asking to put a

7 group of people out of business. We're just

8 asking for you to protect us. Thank you very

9 much.

10 WENDY WILTSE: Roger Sussman, then Marc

11 Drehsen.

12 ROGER SUSSMAN: Thanks for coming. And my

13 name is Roger Sussman, I live in Haiku, which is

14 in Upcountry Maui on Haleakala, on the slopes of

15 Haleakala. Lived here since '95. And like this

16 fellow here who just spoke, I was shocked when I

17 came here first and noticed what I noticed which

18 was the burning. I didn't know when I came here

19 tonight specifically that this was about

20 visibility issues for Haleakala, but I'll just

21 offer what I can now because it's true that I

22 agree with some of the other people here that

23 this cane burning issue is outrageous. And like

24 Steven says, I don't want to put anybody out of

25 work and that's a big issue here and I'm actually

0040

1 amazed that after all these years that the cane

2 company and A&B, the parent company, is willing

3 to divide the community to such a degree with

4 this obnoxious burning of plant matter which in

5 itself is very toxic, you know, but also all the

6 chemicals that are used and then also the piping,

7 the plastic piping. It's pretty outrageous and

8 it's something that's just phenomenal that the

9 government agency in charge of protecting the

10 environment apparently has turned away from this

11 because it's a tremendous assault environmentally

12 and on people's health.

13 And I just want to share this story of what

14 happened to me the second fall I was here, living

15 up on the mountain very close to Haleakala

16 National Park in the area called Keokea. We have

17 phenomenal views, world class views of --

18 sweeping views of the south coast all the way

19 across to the West Maui mountains and even on a

20 clear day we could see Oahu. On a clear day.

21 But there weren't too many of those days. There

22 was a difference because there were times when it

23 was very clear and we could see great distances

24 from up there, but then other days when it was

25 funky and it was mostly the burning. Just from

0041

1 the visibility, I can offer that testimony. But

2 I have an interesting story also. And I know

3 this isn't what this meeting was called, I didn't

4 know that ahead of time. But I just want to go

5 on record since this is going to be read by

6 people in the Environmental Protection Agency,

7 that I developed the worst respiratory infection

8 of my life when I was living in a place in the

9 middle of the Pacific Ocean where I thought it

10 was going to have this tremendously clean air.

11 And I had a hacking cough that was going on for

12 weeks that would not go away. And the one time I

13 left the island in the first years I was here, my

14 brother was getting married back in Upstate New

15 York so I left to go back for that. And nothing
16 was relieving this cough at all and it was a

17 horrible, horrible cough. I got to the Bay Area,

18 San Francisco, and I was staying for five days

19 with old friends. And the wife of my good old

20 friend was a nurse, an RN. And when she heard my

21 coughing, she said man, you could literally hack

22 out a chunk of your lung with that cough. And

23 she said you better be careful. So I said yeah,

24 it's pretty bad.

25 Well, by the time I left the Bay Area five

0042

1 days later, it was considerably improved, my

2 health, by going to a major metropolitan area,

3 full of all kinds of industry, my health

4 improved. And then by the time I spent about

5 five days in New York, I was healed -- in the New

6 York area.

7 So it was an interesting phenomenon to be on

8 this island in the middle of the ocean. There is

9 all kinds of things, like Steven said, there's

10 all kinds of things we replace it with, but

11 really I've lived here 17 years now, it's by far

12 the worst environmental factor of all is this

13 cane burning, along with whatever else is there.

14 That's all, as far as I can tell, secondary.

15 So thanks for hearing about that and please

16 do all kinds of good work on our behalf. We

17 really, really do need your help. Thanks for

18 coming and listening. Aloha.

19 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you, Roger. Marc

20 Drehsen -- and Marc, will you spell your last

21 name for us -- followed by Courtney Bruch.

22 MARC DREHSEN: Marc Drehsen, spelled

23 D-R-E-H-S-E-N. I would like to comment about the

24 panorama view, you said that you're considering

25 the view from Haleakala throughout the island.

0043

1 Now, cane burning obscures the view from the

2 top of Haleakala, especially overlooking the

3 valley. HC&S designs their burn to burn as hot

4 as possible so the smoke will rise as high as

5 possible to try to keep it from fumigating the

6 people at the ground level, which is good for us

7 down here when we're trying to breathe. But the

8 smoke lingers at the higher elevations and

9 obscures the view from Haleakala. It can be for

10 hours.

11 Now, I notice you only considered, at least

12 on your graphs there, the NOx and SO2, but

13 particulate also obscures the view and needs to

14 be considered in your evaluation.

15 Now, there is a study by the University of

16 Hawaii meteorology Professor Andrews Daniels. He

17 estimates an average cane burning event is

18 approximately 200 to 600 tons of particulate.

19 That's from one burn. By comparison, two average

20 cane fires emit about as much particulates as are

21 generated in the entire LA basin in a day.

22 That's a lot of particulate matter.

23 According to the South Coast Air Quality

24 Management District where I used to work, they

25 estimate that 700 tons of particulate are

0044

1 generated in a day in the basin. So I feel that

2 you really need to consider the particulate issue

3 when you're considering the view from Haleakala.
4 Thank you very much for your time.

5 WENDY WILTSE: Courtney Bruch. Is Courtney

6 here?

7 KEOKI MEDEIROS: Hello, my name is Keoki

8 Medeiros, I'm switching with Courtney.

9 WENDY WILTSE: So you're Keoki Medeiros?

10 Great. So Keoki, after your testimony, we're

11 going to take a five-minute break.

12 KEOKI MEDEIROS: So my name is Keoki

13 Medeiros. I'm a registered nurse. I come to

14 talk about this, I was just told about this last

15 night and I was able to get a chance to come

16 here. I'm on my lunch break right now, so I'll

17 try to make this quick.

18 As someone growing up in Hawaii, as a child

19 I lived on Leeward Oahu and growing up on Oahu as

20 I'd come out with my family and it would be

21 raining Hawaiian snow. And that's what we called

22 it in our neighborhood, Hawaiian snow. And it

23 was crazy because as a child I would come out

24 with my parents and everybody in the neighborhood

25 was amazed, everybody was amazed at this Hawaiian

0045

1 snow, ashes falling through the air. And as a

2 child it was amazing.

3 But as an adult, now that I'm older and I

4 learned more and I realized that this burning of

5 the sugar cane is for a private company at the

6 expense of everybody -- of all the communities

7 living around the sugar cane that's breathing

8 this in.

9 I just read in I think it was the Maui News

10 where an article actually explained the reasons

11 for burning the sugar cane and it was completely,

12 completely for this private company to save money

13 at the cost of our health. Every single one of

14 us.

15 So to me as a child I was blind. As an

16 adult I'm sickened at the thought of the sugar

17 barons pissing on the public and it's ignorance

18 that is bliss. And that when I talk to people --

19 and I'm from Oahu, so I moved to Maui just

20 recently.

21 And just the other day I was talking to a

22 gentleman in Paia and he actually felt that the

23 sugar cane burning around his neighborhood was

24 okay. And he had a little girl and I told him,

25 your little girl is breathing in this smoke that

0046

1 burns. How the hell are you going to tell me

2 that this sugar cane burning is okay, that it's

3 fine, that our lungs are not being affected?

4 That's a bunch of bullshit.

5 And I hate to use that language, but it

6 pisses me off because as a child my parents and

7 their parents believed that that was okay. And

8 as an adult now and as a registered nurse, I

9 don't need a scientist to tell me that the

10 burning of the sugar cane is affecting the

11 people's lungs, their respiratory systems. I

12 don't need that.

13 So I just came here today to voice that

14 opinion and I honestly, I honestly point my

15 finger at my government that allowed this to

16 happen. And I'm hoping whatever this -- I'm not

17 even sure exactly what will happen of me coming
18 here and telling this today, but I really wanted

19 to come and say that because it's just blinded

20 that we have to go through this mess to actually

21 have something that's affecting our health

22 stopped.

23 So hopefully whatever power you guys have or

24 whoever all of you that are here, I hope we

25 realize that this is what's happening to us and

0047

1 that it's not something that we have to accept

2 and this whole, you know, plantation mentality is

3 BS. As a child that lived through it -- I lived

4 on the Leeward side and Kapolei and Ewa beach,

5 and years we'd come out and this Hawaiian snow

6 was falling on our heads and we were all amazed.

7 And so now today that I'm here, you know, I

8 represent Occupy Wall Street Maui. If you want

9 change, come and join us on Wednesdays, we meet

10 every Wednesday at 5 p.m. to help hopefully

11 change this.

12 Right now the only island that still burns

13 sugar cane is our community on Maui. Why? Ask

14 yourselves why. With that said, thank you.

15 WENDY WILTSE: Okay. Let's take a

16 five-minute break and after the break we'll hear

17 from Bruce Douglas, then Sean O'Keefe.

18 [Brief recess.]

19 WENDY WILTSE: Bruce Douglas, will you come

20 to the microphone, followed by Sean O'Keefe. So

21 the public hearing is scheduled to end at 8:30

22 and we have a lot of people who still want to

23 testify. We want to make sure we still have time

24 for everybody.

25 BRUCE DOUGLAS: Aloha. My name is Bruce

0048

1 Douglas. I'm a scientist. Electrical

2 engineering is my undergraduate. I look at data,

3 I look at facts, I observe and draw conclusions

4 from what I can see. And on days when we have

5 tradewinds, which is 95 percent of the time we

6 have tradewinds, therefore the source of our haze

7 is not coming from the volcano on the Big Island,

8 it's not coming from cane burning, it's not

9 coming from the power plants because the

10 tradewinds are blowing that other direction away

11 from Haleakala. Those excuses can only be used

12 for that 5 percent of the time when we have Kona

13 winds. So on a day like today when we have

14 severe haze, where is that haze coming from? So

15 let's get real where it's really coming from

16 because we know it's not coming from those other

17 sources. Scientifically we know that.

18 So this stratospheric aerosol geoengineering

19 programs, as they're called, have been ongoing

20 for many years, they have been most severe over

21 in Hawaii for the past five years. I've been

22 following over the last three years. For

23 instance, the last two days when we had severe --

24 moderate chemtrails flowing over Hawaii -- and I

25 watched the point source where that comes from,

0049

1 it's coming from near the Marshall Islands, and I

2 watched these aerosol explosions expanding out in

3 all directions. I watch it rise up into the

4 stratospheric, I watch from the satellite, it

5 flowing over us. When it comes over I look at
6 it, it's that stringy, gooey, cotton candy

7 stratospheric clouds that are not natural clouds,

8 that are the chemtrail which you can tell what it

9 is.

10 We did measurements of our rain water over a

11 two-month period of time on the North Shore. We

12 got anywhere from 30 to 200 parts per billion of

13 aluminum in our rain water and lesser amounts of

14 barium and strontium. These are the fingerprints

15 of the chemtrail activity. And we have an

16 average of 50 parts per billion in our rain

17 catchment tanks on the North Shore, we measured

18 50 parts per billion, which is the average, of

19 aluminum, and lesser amounts of barium and

20 strontium, except for the scum at the bottom of

21 the tank and there we had 2,000 to 3,000 parts

22 per billion of aluminum in that catchment tank.

23 So this is real, it's not some conspiracy

24 theory thing. It's reality. Scientifically

25 observable. We know it is. It's not a question

0050

1 of if they are spraying, it's more of a question

2 why they are spraying and what's the real agenda.

3 Now, if somebody calls up the EPA and said

4 hey, what's down with these chemtrails, I see

5 these planes, I see the clouds expanding, what is

6 polluting our air, what is it, EPA will respond

7 back saying oh, those are normal contrails,

8 you're hallucinating, it's really nothing, we

9 don't know anything about that.

10 So I know, Greg, I talked with you and

11 you're aware of geoengineering, you're aware of

12 those programs. So I challenge you guys if

13 you're really interested in the science and you

14 really want to get the source of where the air --

15 where the haze is coming from, we know what it

16 is. It's from the geoengineering programs. It's

17 from the chemtrails. It's from these clouds that

18 are floating over.

19 If you want to work with me, give me

20 $10,000, I'll fly up in those clouds, I'll get

21 samples of those clouds and we'll find out what

22 they're made of and we'll see that they're high

23 levels of aluminnum, barium and strontium in

24 those stratospheric clouds. That's real science,

25 just takes a little bit of money, you guys got

0051

1 the money. If you really care. I notice you

2 don't measure aluminum, barium and strontium.

3 Let's measure those items as well. Let's add it

4 to it. If you really care, if you're really here

5 to find the source of the haze, aluminum, barium

6 and strontium need to be added to that. I hear

7 titanium as well.

8 I challenge the other officials here from

9 the health department and the EPA that are

10 standing around to talk to me after this, I would

11 love to share with you my science and what I

12 observe through looking at the satellite images

13 of what the source is.

14 So now that you know what it is, I challenge

15 you to look into it, look on the internet, look

16 at chemtrails. There is so much out there, we

17 can't be ignored. We cannot keep going around

18 saying oh, I don't know anything about that.

19 It's time to learn about it and understand. It
20 is the real cause of this haze that we're seeing

21 here in Hawaii and I can correlate it when I see

22 it flying over and I see haze happening.

23 Like we had a couple days of clear skies, I

24 see two days of chemtrails floating over us, and

25 today it's hazy. Why is it hazy? Where did it

0052

1 come from? We know what it is now.

2 WENDY WILTSE: Bruce, your time is up.

3 BRUCE DOUGLAS: I'm sorry, his sign is

4 upside down so I couldn't read it.

5 WENDY WILTSE: We've got many more people to

6 testify. Sean O'Keefe, followed by Isaac

7 Castillo.

8 SEAN O'KEEFE: I'm Sean O'Keefe representing

9 Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company and Alexander

10 & Baldwin, its parent company. I would like to

11 thank you folks for coming and for the

12 opportunity to comment on the Proposed Regional

13 Haze Federal Implementation Plan, or FIP, for the

14 State of Hawaii.

15 Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company has

16 reviewed the proposed FIP and many of the

17 detailed background documents, all good reading.

18 We commend the Department of Health and U.S. EPA

19 for the thorough review and analysis of the

20 available data and the immense amount of work

21 that obviously went into development of this

22 proposal.

23 HC&S generally concurs with the conclusions

24 and recommendations presented in the proposal.

25 We'd like to take this opportunity to comment on

0053

1 some of these conclusions and to make some

2 recommendations for possible improvements to the

3 plan, and of course we'll focus our comments on

4 issues related to visibility at Haleakala

5 National Park.

6 As is clear from the proposal, the major

7 source of visibility impairment at both Haleakala

8 National Park and at Hawaii Volcanoes National

9 Park is sulfur dioxide or SO2 emissions from the

10 Kilauea volcano. In estimating a uniform rate of

11 progress necessary to achieve natural visibility

12 conditions in Hawaii's Class I areas by 2064,

13 however, EPA chose to exclude emissions from the

14 volcano when estimating natural visibility

15 conditions while including emissions from the

16 volcano in the estimate of baseline visibility

17 conditions.

18 We understand EPA's rationale for this

19 decision. However, the result of this assumption

20 is that the uniform rate of progress is skewed

21 high. That is, to reduce baseline visibility

22 impairment that includes the effect of volcano

23 emissions to natural visibility conditions that

24 do not account for volcano emissions, the uniform

25 rate of progress must include reductions in

0054

1 visibility impairment from anthropogenic sources

2 that are sufficient to offset the baseline

3 impairment caused by the volcano. Ultimately

4 this results in the plan calling for reductions

5 in emissions from anthropogenic sources that may

6 exceed those needed to achieve true natural

7 visibility conditions.
8 The Haleakala National Park visibility

9 assessment prepared by the Department of Health

10 Clean Air Branch proposes a method by which the

11 baseline visibility impairment can be

12 conservatively adjusted to account for the

13 impacts of volcano emissions as well as Asian

14 dust. According to the DOH analysis, this

15 adjustment results in a significant nearly

16 80 percent reduction in the deciview change that

17 would be necessary to achieve the target

18 visibility for 2018. This means that the uniform

19 rate of progress target for 2018 can essentially

20 be achieved through the emissions reductions

21 projected to occur by 2018 under the proposed

22 FIP. By contrast, the same amount of visibility

23 improvement projected to occur by 2018 would fall

24 well short of the target that was estimated using

25 the skewed approach.

0055

1 HC&S recommends that EPA consider adopting

2 the adjustment methodology proposed by DOH so

3 that the uniform rate of progress required by the

4 FIP more accurately represents what is necessary

5 to progress from the true baseline visibility

6 conditions to natural visibility conditions. I

7 can see I'm running out of time already.

8 I would just like to also comment on the

9 BART modeling conducted on the Puunene Mill which

10 concluded that the facility may not reasonably be

11 anticipated to cause or contribute to visibility

12 impairment in Class I areas and that the facility

13 is therefore not subject to BART. We note that

14 the modeling analysis was based on the highest

15 emitting day between 2003 and 2007, both during

16 coal firing and bagasse firing. We do concur

17 that it's reasonable to utilize this emission

18 rate as the basis for the modeling, but we note

19 that typical visibility impacts from the facility

20 are likely to be somewhat lower than the modeled

21 results. That said --

22 WENDY WILTSE: Sean, if you could wind up in

23 about 30 seconds, it would be great.

24 SEAN O'KEEFE: Okay. That said, the modeled

25 deciview impacts on visibility in Haleakala

0056

1 National Park from the facility during coal and

2 bagasse firing are actually no more than

3 20 percent of the selected threshold for subject

4 to BART determination and reasonable progress

5 prioritization. We therefore strongly concur

6 with the determination that additional emission

7 controls on the Puunene mill are not warranted.

8 I'll submit additional comments in written

9 form. Thank you very much.

10 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you. Isaac Castillo,

11 followed by Henry Arroyo. Just as a reminder,

12 you can also submit comment in writing.

13 ISAAC CASTILLO: Good evening. My name is

14 Isaac Castillo. Since 2004 I've lived here on

15 the island and in that time I've served as a

16 volunteer tour guide for the Banana Bungalow

17 Hostel. As a tour guide I've taken a total of

18 over a thousand visitors on a hike through

19 Haleakala National Park's crater over 130

20 different times.

21 Based upon my experience with visitors, I
22 would like to object to the following. One, I

23 object to the proposal to decommission the

24 monitor Hale 1 as that monitor was used for the

25 baseline visibility data and it will be

0057

1 impossible to determine movement towards

2 visibility goals without comparable data from

3 that monitor. The Hale 1 monitor must be kept in

4 place or new monitors placed at the Hale 1

5 location so that long term visibility data

6 comparable to baseline may be captured.

7 Secondly, I would like to object to the

8 assumption in that plan that visibility for

9 Haleakala National Park has improved since that

10 baseline period. In my experience in the crater

11 at Haleakala National Park since 2004, I've

12 noticed that the visibility has degraded, not

13 improved over this time. Visibility has

14 noticeably worsened since 2004.

15 I would also like to object to the

16 conclusion in the plan that organic carbon from

17 agricultural burning is not a contributing factor

18 to visual impairment. It is obvious to myself

19 and visitors that I escort through the park that

20 agricultural burning is a substantial

21 contributing factor to visibility impairment

22 during the sugar cane burning season.

23 I object to the finding of no integral vista

24 at Haleakala National Park. The panoramic view

25 from within the park of areas outside of the park

0058

1 including Volcanoes National Park on the Big

2 Island, the view of Central Maui and the

3 surrounding oceans, is an integral vista within

4 the meaning of the federal regulations.

5 My experience with visitors at the national

6 park illustrates the importance of the panoramic

7 view from within the park to areas outside the

8 park to the overall visitors' experience at

9 Haleakala National Park. As such, the integral

10 vista is worthy of protection and such protection

11 should be included in this plan. Thank you.

12 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you, Isaac. Henry

13 Arroyo followed by Keith Kessler.

14 HENRY ARROYO: Good evening. My name is

15 Henry Arroyo and I'm here to make my public

16 comment in opposition to the Proposed Hawaii

17 Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plan.

18 Since 2004 I've served as a volunteer, like

19 Isaac, for the Banana Bungalow Maui Hostel and as

20 a tour guide I have taken hostel guests into

21 Haleakala National Park over 35 times and with a

22 total of over 350 visitors from 2004 until today.

23 Based on my experience I object as follows. I

24 object to the plan's contribution threshold of

25 only 0.5 deciviews. That threshold is too low.

0059

1 I also object to the plans's BART analysis and

2 believe that all BART eligible sources should be

3 subjected to full BART review and pollution

4 control should be required until the amount of

5 improvement needed to achieve uniform rate of

6 progress for 2018, or 1.3 delta deciview, is

7 achieved.

8 I object to the proposal to determine that

9 the rate of progress for the implementation plan
10 to attain natural conditions is not reasonable.

11 I also object to the proposed action. The

12 proposed control measures are not sufficient to

13 ensure that reasonable progress is made during

14 the first planning period. Thank you very much

15 for your time.

16 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you, Henry. Keith

17 Kessler, followed by Mahealani Ventura.

18 KEITH KESSLER: My name is Keith Kessler, I

19 live in Kihei and I missed the last bus so if

20 anybody is going back there, I could use a ride.

21 Thank you for allowing me this opportunity

22 to testify. I really don't -- I haven't studied

23 the proposal in detail, but I do object to it for

24 a number of reasons, and the main reason is that

25 the model is inadequate. Let me explain. I'm a

0060

1 retired engineer and I was lucky enough to have

2 been educated by the great physicist Richard

3 Feynman. And you may recall that during the

4 shuttle investigations there was this question

5 about whether the O rings were brittle or not,

6 and he solved it by taking it and putting it in

7 some ice water and taking it out and shattering

8 it on the table. Not a lot of analysis was done,

9 a simple observation proved that the O rings were

10 brittle.

11 Professor Feynman would say that if your

12 model does not agree with observation, then your

13 model is wrong and must be discarded. And my

14 observation is that when I'm in Haleakala Park

15 and sugar cane is burning, I cannot see Kihei.

16 When I'm in Kihei and sugar cane is burning, I do

17 not see the park. So if your models are not

18 picking up that haze, your instrumentation is not

19 correct and your model is not correct.

20 I also suggest that the surrogate model that

21 you're using of measuring different substances in

22 the air does not really address what you're

23 supposed to regulate which is visibility of the

24 vista and that there are instruments, I think one

25 is called a nephelometer that does that, it

0061

1 directly measures what can be seen and what can't

2 be seen in the attenuation of the atmosphere.

3 It's been pointed out to me that you can't

4 distinguish between smoke and water using a

5 nephelometer, but using two different frequencies

6 then you should be able to make that

7 determination what's smoke and what's water.

8 Your instrumentation is inadequate. If you set

9 up two nephelometers from Kihei, you would know

10 any day they're burning cane that you cannot see

11 Kihei from Haleakala and you cannot see Haleakala

12 from Kihei. And anybody here can tell you that.

13 Thank you. Your model is no good.

14 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you. Mahealani Ventura

15 followed by Pilialoha Teves.

16 MAHEALANI VENTURA: Aloha. I'm here on

17 behalf of a certain group of people, the Kanaka

18 Maoli people, and we'd like to let you know that

19 we object to the plan in its entirety from the

20 point of supposition of jurisdiction to what you

21 are proposing to do to 2018 to achieve reasonable

22 progress towards achieving visibility goals. I

23 think that -- and you've heard this from many of
24 our wonderful speakers, these people all have

25 heart and they love, love this place. This is

0062

1 our home, we live here together, we're vested

2 here.

3 What it comes down to is what you're trying

4 to achieve here is unreasonable because you're

5 going to have great opportunity to increase your

6 reach over interests into sacred burial sites to

7 sacred places [Hawaiian words] to the Kanaka

8 Maoli people. And so far I have not seen anyone

9 come here to address that and I do not see any

10 respect given to the Kanaka Maoli in any portion

11 of your plan.

12 We appreciate it, the offering that you're

13 making here. However, we'd like to have the full

14 disclosure on what your basis is to make the

15 proposal. And in particular, we object to you

16 making these exemptions. The plantations have a

17 horrible history here. They have time and time

18 again for generations and generations contributed

19 directly to the asthma problem here. Of all

20 places in an archipelagic state, we have the

21 highest instance of asthma. That is unreasonable

22 and your exemptions are therefore unreasonable.

23 There is nothing that this administration

24 has done to benefit or to encourage the life and

25 the health and the productivity of Kanaka Maoli

0063

1 and that includes our environment which we know

2 we are a part of in our genealogy, it is a part

3 of our family. [Hawaiian words] these are places

4 that are sacred to us, and that includes all of

5 the [Hawaiian words]. Everyone here knows that

6 as well.

7 So you will have our objection in writing

8 before July 2nd and also grounds and reasons for

9 such objections. You have my information.

10 Mahalo.

11 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you, Mahealani.

12 Pilialoha Teves, followed by Mark Sheehan.

13 PILIALOHA TEVES: Aloha. My name is

14 Pilialoha Teves and I am here as a commissioner

15 with the Ad Hoc Conciliation Commission of Ko

16 Hawaiipae Aina. We are a civil society

17 organization registered with the United Nations

18 Department of Economic and Social Affairs. We

19 were at the UN in early May at the Permanent

20 Forum on Indigenous Issues. And at that time

21 many peoples, native peoples, first nation

22 peoples, and indigenous peoples from all over the

23 planet were there and everybody was talking about

24 the same thing and the care and the respect that

25 is due to what is important is the land, is the

0064

1 water, is the air that we breathe.

2 And my comments tonight regarding the scope

3 of what you're looking at really need to be

4 brought in because it's -- you're looking at one

5 specific thing and it really needs to be

6 broadened to include the aerosols, the

7 stratospheric aerosol spraying.

8 I am not a scientist. I am born and raised

9 here and I was raised to be an observer, to be an

10 observer of the plants, to be an observer of the

11 water, to be an observer of what's going on in
12 the ocean. I can tell you without a fact,

13 factually, that the waters of South Maui are

14 dead. There are no fish there. The ocean, the

15 reefs are dead throughout all of South Maui.

16 There is turtles with tumors. The health issues

17 of the people. The water quality is suffering.

18 The plants -- it's raining in Hana and Kipahulu,

19 but everything is dry and it looks like it's dead

20 and it's because of the chemicals that are in the

21 soil, the plants are dying. And this planet

22 belongs to all of us.

23 So all the people on the planet know about

24 chemtrails and stratospheric aerosol spraying.

25 It got brought up before the world -- the global

0065

1 caucus which was brought before the permanent

2 forum on the conclusion of the conference at the

3 second week of May.

4 So I will also be giving you my testimony in

5 writing and thank you very much and really,

6 please, really look at what the real issue is and

7 it's not just here in Hawaii, it's global. Thank

8 you.

9 WENDY WILTSE: Thanks, Pilialoha. Mark

10 Sheehan, followed by Courtney Bruch.

11 MARK SHEEHAN: Just want you all to take a

12 close look at this photograph that I'm going to

13 share with --

14 WENDY WILTSE: Mark, would you go to the

15 microphone, please, so that we can get a record

16 of your statement.

17 MARK SHEEHAN: Good evening and thank you

18 for coming. My name is Mark Sheehan and I want

19 to thank you for coming to Maui.

20 It was a clear day today and one of the

21 reasons why it was a clear day is because the

22 sugar mill was not burning. So I wonder if you

23 would stick around for a few more years to see if

24 the mill would kind of extend that courtesy for a

25 greater period of time.

0066

1 I've been active in environmental issues for

2 35 years and I've been also involved in selling

3 real estate. Many people who work with me come

4 here because they're interested in health. And I

5 have to say that I've noticed over the last three

6 decades how the same issues that contribute to

7 poor visibility in the park contribute to serious

8 health concerns among the people. And they

9 include more than just burning sugar cane, they

10 include the fugitive dust from the agricultural

11 operations, they include the emissions from the

12 smoke stack where the companies are allowed to

13 burn high sulfur coal, also emissions from bunker

14 fuel. But it's very convenient that we don't

15 really monitor those emissions, nor the health

16 impacts on the people, which are extreme in terms

17 of asthma but also heart conditions and other

18 ones, but we just don't have the -- I was on the

19 Department of Health Advisory Committee years ago

20 and raised the issue about monitoring and I want

21 to raise that issue with you.

22 It is unacceptable in your proposal that you

23 do not have adequate monitoring equipment here.

24 Because if there is no monitoring, you don't have

25 the hard data and it's very hard for us to
0067

1 testify without that. So I want to just tell you

2 that I object to the plan's proposed actions.

3 The proposed control measures are not sufficient

4 to ensure reasonable progress is made during the

5 first planning period.

6 I also object to the proposal to determine

7 that no further controls on agricultural burning

8 are reasonable at this time. It's not

9 reasonable. By the time you add in the

10 additional factor of chemtrails and so on, here

11 we are on one of the most sacred and potentially

12 healthy places on the planet and it turns out to

13 be really a highly dangerous place to be walking

14 around outdoors.

15 I object to the plan's proposal to exempt

16 six of the eight identified BART eligible sources

17 from further review under BART requirements.

18 Please. Let's be serious here. We can't give

19 these blanket exceptions. The corporations that

20 benefit from those things for years have really

21 been responsible for a great deal of harm to the

22 health of the people on the islands.

23 I object to the plan's monitoring strategy

24 and the object of decommissioning of the monitor

25 called Hale 1. The data from Hale 1 was used for

0068

1 the baseline visibility determinations and the

2 monitor must continue to collect data so that

3 long-term improvements or degradation of

4 visibility may be appropriately monitored and

5 measured against baseline. You know all this.

6 I object to the statement under the Section

7 4, Factors Analysis, that it is reasonable to

8 assume that the visibility at Haleakala on the

9 best days is not getting worse. Wrong. It's

10 getting worse.

11 And I object to the assumption that it is

12 reasonable to assume that the visibility on the

13 worst days will improve. Another false

14 assumption.

15 So please listen carefully to these people.

16 We're very glad to have you here and have an

17 opportunity to voice our concerns. This is a

18 precious place on the planet, the health of the

19 people is of great concern and we are suffering

20 from years of criminal neglect on the part of

21 corporations who have been allowed to not be

22 monitored properly. Thank you for coming, thank

23 you for listening.

24 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you, Mark. Courtney

25 Bruch -- and Courtney, will you spell your name

0069

1 -- followed by Jacob Liberman.

2 COURTNEY BRUCH: Aloha. My name is Courtney

3 Bruch, last name is B-R-U-C-H, first name is

4 C-O-U-R-T-N-E-Y. Thank you for coming here

5 today.

6 I brought a mask here. I carry these in my

7 car because I often, even when I'm driving with

8 the windows up, I have a hard time breathing

9 because of the toxic smoke coming in my car.

10 I'm the founder of Maui Clean Air. I

11 encourage everyone to join our organization on

12 Facebook. We have over 800 members.

13 I'm very concerned about visibility
14 impairment caused by agricultural toxic haze and

15 geoengineering. I am concerned about physical

16 visibility and visibility for a healthy future

17 for our island. We need this to happen now.

18 2064 is too late to wait. When you wake up to a

19 child who can't breathe, you'll agree.

20 I have personally been seriously poisoned by

21 toxic cane smoke haze, sourced from Hawaii Cane &

22 Sugar open air cane burning. Spring of last year

23 I woke up to a cane burning. I could not see

24 clearly outside of my window because of the haze

25 and felt so ill I could not leave my house. I

0070

1 can't imagine what people with disabilities,

2 physical disabilities and elders, what it must be

3 like for them when this happens nine months out

4 of the year.

5 As a substitute teacher and health care

6 provider, I have witnessed children severely

7 impacted by agricultural ash particulates that

8 you call haze. This is and has been a serious

9 detriment to the overall health of Maui residents

10 and visitors for decades. It is common sense

11 that agricultural burning is contributing to

12 haze. All one needs to do is watch the atomic

13 smoke bomb cloud spread across the sky on a burn

14 day, again which happens approximately

15 nine months out of the year.

16 I object to the plan's proposed actions.

17 The proposed control measures are not sufficient

18 to ensure that reasonable progress is made during

19 the first planning period. Additional control

20 measures are necessary.

21 It appears from your plan and the technical

22 support document that the Department of Health

23 and the EPA are being disingenuous. They are

24 choosing data from different monitors to conclude

25 that organic carbon agricultural burning do not

0071

1 contribute to visibility degradation, although

2 Table 11 clearly indicates that it does.

3 The Department of Health and EPA should not

4 be moving and placing monitors selectively.

5 Based upon the data, it is not acceptable to find

6 that there is no evidence of agricultural burning

7 contributing to haze.

8 I object to the proposal to determine that

9 no further controls on agricultural burning are

10 reasonable at this time. The evidence indicates

11 otherwise. I request that the EPA explore

12 pollution controls to mitigate the impact of

13 organic carbon from agricultural burning on

14 visibility at Haleakala National Park.

15 I object to the proposal to determine that

16 the uniform rate of progress for the

17 implementation plan to attain natural conditions

18 is not reasonable. The uniform rate of the

19 progress is reasonable.

20 Additional pollution control measures or

21 measures to control fugitive toxic dust in

22 agricultural burning should be implemented as

23 necessary to achieve the uniform rate of

24 progress.

25 Please help Maui stop open air cane burning

0072

1 and place a moratorium on geoengineering
2 immediately. This will quickly reach EPA goals

3 for acceptable visibility and honor the health of

4 our people and island. Mahalo.

5 We really do hope that you will help us

6 here. We've been waiting a long time for this

7 opportunity. So please, when you go home, think

8 about our island here and all the people that are

9 impacted and affected by this outdated toxic

10 agricultural process. Thank you.

11 WENDY WILTSE: Jacob Liberman, followed by

12 Greg Godwin, followed by Airielle Pearson.

13 JACOB LIBERMAN: Hi, I'm Jacob Liberman, I'm

14 a physician and scientist. But I think what we

15 need to speak about is the science we rarely use

16 which is called common sense. The word "aloha"

17 has to do with the sacredness of the breath.

18 It's just interesting that so much of the

19 conversation tonight has been about something

20 that is violating the most sacred word in Hawaii,

21 "aloha," the sacredness of one's ability to

22 breathe.

23 If you've ever had a panic attack or god

24 forbid drowned or seen someone that is having

25 difficulty breathing, you know it is the most

0073

1 frightening thing a human being can experience.

2 I don't object to anything that you're

3 doing. I'm grateful for everything that you're

4 doing. And I also realize you don't live here,

5 you don't get to experience that when you awaken

6 in the middle of the night and you can't breathe.

7 I'm a person that's never had allergies, but

8 I wake up hacking up green mucus every day

9 because of that smoke and it only goes away when

10 I leave this, the most beautiful place on the

11 planet. What's wrong with this picture?

12 It is incredibly important that we ensure

13 the visibility of all the beauty that surrounds

14 us here, but you cannot separate anything that

15 obscures visibility from your health. If it

16 obscures your visibility, it's not good for your

17 health, you're breathing it in all the time. And

18 I believe that even though I realize you have

19 separate departments for health and what you're

20 doing, they have to be put together because

21 they're not two separable items.

22 If you spend some time here, you will see

23 exactly what the causes are, what are the major

24 impacting causes that are both obstructing the

25 view and interfering with your ability to

0074

1 breathe. Aloha and mahalo.

2 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you, Jacob. Greg

3 Godwin, followed by Airielle Pearson.

4 GREG GODWIN: Good evening and aloha, ma'am

5 and gentlemen. I think it's very loud back

6 there, I hope I'm being heard okay.

7 We really appreciate your time and visit.

8 It's long, long, long overdue. At two years of

9 age I was diagnosed with asthma. As a medic in

10 the Air Force I was in Wiesbaden, Germany

11 hospital as a medic in the dermatology and

12 allergy clinic, and we service all of Europe for

13 sources, the armed services, as well as the

14 Mid-East, so I have some background when I was

15 working as in North Carolina.
16 I would like to second 99.9 percent of the

17 objections you've heard rather than taking the

18 time I don't have for going through that. And

19 the air is contaminated not just by the things

20 that have been described like coal and geo and

21 cane burns. There is also a drop of fertilizer

22 or whatever does it, pesticides, et cetera. For

23 instance, I have seen over 32 years these white

24 deposits from air drops on cars. It's not bird.

25 I haven't been lucky enough to diagnose it,

0075

1 except somebody take the time it would be

2 wonderful. And it's damaging to paint, not to

3 mention whatever it may be particulate or spray

4 in the air. We have numerous sprays.

5 Contaminants that come to this island and

6 especially the dry areas. We don't just get them

7 the first time. Any time that dust is stirred

8 up, you're recirculating, recontaminating, so

9 that's constant.

10 We appreciate you folks' effort, but what

11 we're hearing so far we need to hear about four

12 to five times stronger in our defense that I'm

13 hearing, so just bring that to your attention

14 please.

15 Last year over the past 8 months, for

16 instance there was a spray by HC&S, air spray in

17 Paia. It drifted into a public beach with

18 children and that's unforgivable, that type of

19 thing. This is not supposed to happen. So we

20 hold HC&S responsible. A&B, you know, parent,

21 whatever. And we'd like to see things like that

22 controlled and penalties, stiff penalties.

23 Before I started coming to Hawaii, I

24 reviewed the University of Hawaii atlas, they

25 have excellent information on contamination,

0076

1 smog, all the factors in the air as well as the

2 water. And water is a huge thing here. For

3 instance, you may have heard of some of the

4 pesticides. Can you help us improve our

5 standards? I want to give you an example. A

6 couple years ago there was a four-foot pipeline

7 put in from old Maui High area, whatever the old

8 community name, and that's coming in but it's not

9 being taken to the quality that Hawaii or Oahu is

10 given to demand. We need to demand that, all of

11 us.

12 And I'm also seeking signatures tonight

13 because I need to be more effective in these

14 efforts and others by seeking a seat on the Maui

15 County Council. So I have signatures now. In

16 any case, tourism suffers from these things.

17 When people come here and they, you know,

18 pollens, you can move to a less dense

19 concentration, that's doable. But the other junk

20 we have in the air is -- it's unbelievable.

21 As I said, you've had enough objections that

22 I second. Dust. I had something else on dust

23 here. That tenacious whitish deposit I mentioned

24 on vehicles, my car, other cars, that's been

25 going for 32 years, I emphasize 32 years. And I

0077

1 can verify it isn't a bird.

2 WENDY WILTSE: Greg, would you wrap it up?

3 THE WITNESS: Thank you. Wonderful. Yes.
4 I think we are lucky to get you folks here. We

5 just wish you'd come sooner because we need all

6 the help you can give us. Mahalo and thank you

7 for coming.

8 WENDY WILTSE: Airielle Pearson.

9 AIRIELLE PEARSON: Can you hear me okay? I

10 did not come prepared. I do not have any papers

11 here. My name is Airielle Pearson. I come

12 representing the human race. And I think that

13 that's what's important here on this island. We

14 have had -- you've heard everybody testify. I

15 have lived on this island for 30 years. I can

16 tell you the air is not getting better. It

17 doesn't look better. The oceans are not getting

18 better. Almost everybody that's lived here for

19 any amount of time has respiratory challenges.

20 I've lived all over this island and I've

21 experienced all the different places that are

22 affected by what happens here. So welcome to

23 paradise. You know, this is what people think

24 they're getting when they come here, they think

25 they're getting paradise. They come for

0078

1 paradise. And they end up on beach with black

2 ash, poop in the water, and haze in the sky,

3 chemtrails in the air. It's a very strange

4 paradise.

5 So I stand here today saying to you that

6 thank you so much for coming. We really are so

7 grateful that you're here. And now please take

8 all the things that these people have said to you

9 and remember them. Don't go off and forget about

10 us.

11 I live in senior housing in Maui right now.

12 I want to give you a little picture. It's in

13 Kihei. When they burn, that burn comes across

14 the mountain and forms this beautiful huge black

15 cloud on top of senior housing. Now, last year I

16 said is this how we're getting rid of our seniors

17 on Maui now? We're giving them a little poison.

18 You know, we are being poisoned on this island

19 from so many different angles. And I realize

20 that you're here about Haleakala and the haze,

21 but I want to say to you how can you possibly

22 think that the haze is getting better when we are

23 surrounded with chemical poisoning everywhere we

24 look. It's just not happening. We've had the

25 chemtrails. We've got Monsanto. We've got so

0079

1 many different things here poisoning this

2 beautiful island that we all love that is our

3 heart.

4 So please, see what you can do with us or

5 for us when you go home. Think about us, see how

6 you can help us. And find -- we can't wait all

7 those years. We need something to help the

8 people now.

9 I've done healing on this island for

10 30 years and I'm going to say, I think this is

11 still correct, but the island of Maui has more

12 children on inhalers than any place else in the

13 United States. If you're concerned about clean

14 air -- thank you so much.

15 WENDY WILTSE: Thank you. We're just about

16 at the end of the hearing. We probably have time

17 for one more person to comment if you haven't
18 commented or you need another couple minutes. Is

19 there anybody who would like to comment who has

20 not done so so far?

21 GREG GODWIN: I represent the second

22 district which is Makawao, Haiku, Paia.

23 WENDY WILTSE: Just as a reminder, you can

24 submit comments in writing and they will be

25 considered equally with the oral comments given

0080

1 tonight.

2 So if there are no further comments, I will

3 conclude the public hearing. The comment period

4 remains open until July 2, 2012. We thank you

5 all for coming tonight and participating in the

6 public hearing. We really appreciate you taking

7 the time to share your thoughts and information

8 with us. Thank you.

9 [Concluded at 8:30 p.m.]

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0081

1 C E R T I F I C A T E

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5 I, LYNANN NICELY, Hawaii Certified Shorthand

6 Reporter No. 354, do hereby certify:

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8 That on Thursday, May 31, 2012, the proceedings

9 were taken in computerized machine shorthand by me

10 and thereafter reduced to transcript; that the

11 foregoing represents, to my best ability, a correct

12 transcript of the proceedings had in the foregoing

13 matter;

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17 Dated: June 15, 2012

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21 _________________________________

22 LYNANN NICELY, HAWAII CSR 354

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