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1 UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY

2 REGION IX

3 75 Hawthorne Street 4 San Francisco, CA 94105

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8 STATE OF HAWAII

9 REGIONAL HAZE

10 PROPOSED FEDERAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN

11 PUBLIC HEARING
12 MAY 31, 2012

13 MAUI COLLEGE

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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.

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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

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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 on14 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

0006 1 check the box on the sign-in sheet to be added to2 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. This16 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

0011 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 poor4 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 Big18 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

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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 to20 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 three10 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 very24 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 to12 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 making0034 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, throat2 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 nothing16 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 coming18 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 at6 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. It20 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, I22 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 plan10 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 of24 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 in12 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 to0067 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 visibility14 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 geoengineering2 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't18 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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1 C E R T I F I C A T E

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4 5 I, LYNANN NICELY, Hawaii Certified Shorthand 6 Reporter No. 354, do hereby certify:

7 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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16 17 Dated: June 15, 2012

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22 LYNANN NICELY, HAWAII CSR 354

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