Document ID: EPA-R09-OAR-2012-0345-0022
Agency: epa
Document Type: Supporting & Related Material
Title: 
Posted Date: 2012-09-05T04:00Z

0001
 1       UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
 2                         REGION IX
 3                    75 Hawthorne Street
 4                  San Francisco, CA  94105
 5   
 6   
 7   
 8                      STATE OF HAWAII
 9                       REGIONAL HAZE
10            PROPOSED FEDERAL IMPLEMENTATION PLAN
11                       PUBLIC HEARING
12                        MAY 31, 2012
13                        MAUI COLLEGE
14   
15   
16   
17   Held at the University of Hawaii, Maui College,
18   Pilini Multipurpose Room, 310 W. Kaahumanu Avenue,
19   Kahului, Hawaii, commencing at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday,
20   May 31, 2012.
21   
22   
23   
24   
25    REPORTED BY:   LYNANN NICELY, RPR/RMR/CRR/CSR #354
0002
 1            WENDY WILTSE:  Welcome and good evening.
 2       This public hearing is now in session.  My name
 3       is Wendy Wiltse and I am an acting public hearing
 4       officer for the U.S. Environmental Protection
 5       Agency Region 9 in San Francisco, California.
 6            I'm the presiding officer for tonight's
 7       hearing.  With me tonight are individuals from
 8       EPA Region 9 based in San Francisco.  Kerry Drake
 9       is the Associate Director of EPA Region 9 Air
10       Division.  To his left is Greg Nudd from Region 9
11       Planning Office.  Asia Yeary -- could you stand
12       and wave when I say your name -- is out in the
13       hall.  I'm going to skip Asia for the moment.
14       Dean Higuchi, standing in the back waving, is
15       Region 9's Hawaii Pacific press officer and
16       congressional liaison.  Did Asia come back?
17            And these are -- I want to introduce the
18       government people who are here that you may want
19       to grab during the break and have a private
20       conversation with.
21            From the Department of Health we have three
22       people from the Clean Air Branch in Honolulu:
23       Nolan Hiraei, waving in the back; Priscilla Ligh
24       -- is Priscilla here?  Waving?  The dress in the
25       back?  And Keith McFall, standing and waving in
0003
 1       the back.
 2            And then from the National Park Service we
 3       have Pat Brewer, who is the Regional Haze
 4       Coordinator here from Denver.  And is Sarah here
 5       yet?  Great.  I would also like to introduce our
 6       court reporter, Lynann Nicely, who is at the end
 7       of the table here; Lynann will be making a record
 8       of tonight's hearing.
 9            The purpose of today's hearing is to accept
10       public comment on the Environmental Protection
11       Agency's Proposed Federal Implementation Plan for
12       the Regional Haze program in Hawaii.  You can
13       find details about EPA's proposed actions on
14       posters in the back and side of the room and on
15       EPA's website.
16            My role as the presiding officer tonight is
17       to ensure that the EPA receives your oral public
18       comments in an orderly fashion.  I will not be
19       involved in assessing or responding to your
20       comments.  Likewise, I will not be involved in
21       EPA's final decision-making process for the
22       Federal Implementation Plan.  Instead, I am
23       solely facilitating this proceeding to make sure
24       all community members have an equal opportunity
25       to submit oral comment on this issue as part of
0004
 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 to
 2       our mailing list.
 3            For those who are providing oral comments,
 4       the speaker request forms include a space for you
 5       to provide your contact information and a box to
 6       check to be included on the mailing list.
 7            If you don't wish to speak today or tonight,
 8       you can also submit written comments for the
 9       official record.  Written comments submitted
10       through the postal service must be postmarked on
11       or before July 2, 2012.  Written comments
12       submitted by e-mail must be received by 11:59
13       p.m. on July 2, 2012, Pacific time zone, so three
14       hours before midnight our time, 9 p.m.  You may
15       also submit written comments to us tonight on a
16       comment card or other paper.  There is a comment
17       box on the registration table where you can leave
18       written comments.
19            Written comments and oral comments will all
20       receive equal consideration by EPA in making the
21       final decision.  If you submit written comments,
22       it is not necessary for you to give the same oral
23       comments as well, though you may do so if you
24       wish by submitting a speaker request form.
25            The oral comments received at this hearing
0007
 1       and all written comments received today will be
 2       reviewed and considered by EPA in preparing its
 3       final rulemaking decision.
 4            It is important for you to know that we are
 5       here only to take comments on EPA's Proposed
 6       Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plan for
 7       Hawaii.  EPA will only consider comments related
 8       to EPA's proposed action in making its final
 9       decision and so I ask that you refrain from
10       making comments that are not related to this
11       specific action.
12            EPA decisions on Clean Air Act rules are
13       made with the participation of a number of people
14       within the organization after full consideration
15       of all public comment.  EPA staff cannot comment
16       to any specific decision related to the proposed
17       Federal Implementation Plan today.  No decisions
18       have been made.
19            The purpose of this hearing is for EPA to
20       listen to your comments.  Therefore, EPA will not
21       be providing responses during the hearing.
22       However, we're going to have a brief question
23       period after Kerry's presentation.  Rather, EPA
24       will prepare a written summary of the comments it
25       receives and EPA's responses.  The response to
0008
 1       comments will be available at the time EPA issues
 2       the regional haze decision.
 3            EPA will not make a final decision on the
 4       Hawaii Regional Haze Plan until all comments are
 5       submitted during the public comment period and
 6       have been considered.
 7            EPA's notice of final decision on the Hawaii
 8       Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plan, along
 9       with a response to comments, will be sent to each
10       person currently on EPA's mail list for this
11       action as well as to each person who has
12       submitted written or oral comments and provided
13       contact information, or who has signed up at the
14       registration table to receive notice and provided
15       an e-mail or postal mailing address.  This
16       information will also be available on EPA's
17       website.
18            A copy of the transcript of today's hearing
19       will be available for inspection on EPA Region
20       9's website.  If you wish to purchase an official
21       copy of the hearing transcript, please make
22       arrangements directly with the court reporter
23       following the hearing.
24            Before we begin the public comment, Kerry
25       Drake will present a brief summary of EPA's
0009
 1       Proposed Federal Implementation Plan for the
 2       Regional Haze program in Hawaii.  Following his
 3       presentation, we'll take a few brief questions.
 4            KERRY DRAKE:  Hello, everybody.  I just
 5       wanted to thank you so much for coming and
 6       participating in your government.  So as the
 7       administrative procedures that were lined out by
 8       Congress or put out by Congress is that when any
 9       of the federal agencies including EPA promulgated
10       regulation that affects people in this case we're
11       doing we're proposing a regulation that could
12       affect people that live in Maui and in Hawaii
13       County, it's our duty to come and talk to you
14       about what we're proposing to do and to listen to
15       your input.  It is very vital you're
16       participating in your government in this way and
17       we greatly appreciate it.  I just wanted to say
18       that upfront.  It's a duty that obviously people
19       in Maui are taking very seriously and we
20       appreciate it.
21            So the particular statute that we're
22       implementing tonight via a proposed regulation is
23       a particular portion of the Federal Clean Air Act
24       that requires visibility in national parks by the
25       year 2064 to get back to a natural state, in
0010
 1       other words, not affected by manmade pollution.
 2       So that's a long time period to get visibility
 3       back into the natural state.  That's what the
 4       Clean Air Act lined out.  So the regulations that
 5       EPA is proposing tonight in conjunction with help
 6       from the Department of Health in the State of
 7       Hawaii is just that, to start the progress or to
 8       start the process that will ultimately end up in
 9       2064 where visibility would be in a natural state
10       in the two national parks in Hawaii.
11            So the first phase -- I just outlined the
12       first sentence, so that's what we're taking
13       comment on tonight.  The first phase of a
14       Regional Haze program has three key requirements;
15       that is, certain sources that were identified by
16       the Act to implement Best Available Retrofit
17       Technology; we have to set reasonable progress
18       goals for each of the two national parks in this
19       case; and we need to develop a long-term strategy
20       to meet those reasonable progress goals.  And so
21       that was what our proposal lined out.
22            So just to talk about visibility for a
23       little bit, the technical measure for visibility
24       is deciviews.  That's what we use to measure
25       visibility.  This is Volcanoes National Park on a
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 poor
 4       visibility day, that's 19 deciviews.  So just to
 5       let you know, those are the currency that we work
 6       in when we're developing these regulations, we're
 7       working in deciviews.  Again, 4 deciviews, just
 8       to look again, and then 19.
 9            Just to continue the conversation using
10       Hawaii Volcanoes National Park as an example --
11       by the way, the Maui numbers, Greg held an
12       information poster session back over against the
13       windows, the Maui numbers are back there, you can
14       see these same sort of charts that I'm showing
15       here for Maui, this next chart.
16            So essentially this is just to try to tell
17       you we're starting at a place in Hawaii Volcanoes
18       National Park with a baseline of 18.86 deciviews
19       and in 2064 we've determined that it needs to get
20       down to 7 deciviews.  So that's pretty much what
21       it would be for that and then the Maui numbers
22       again are posted back there.
23            So one of the first -- one of the three
24       factors we talked about that we have to look at
25       is Best Available Retrofit Technology required
0012
 1       and it could be required on sources that were
 2       constructed between 1962 and 1977.  That's the
 3       way the Act read.  And the BART determinations --
 4       we call it BART, we love our acronyms in
 5       government -- the BART determinations are made on
 6       a case-by-case basis considering five factors.
 7       And basically after we use those -- we look at
 8       those five factors to see if those sources are
 9       exempted from doing BART if they don't contribute
10       to visibility impairment in any of the national
11       parks.
12            So basically the measure that we've used,
13       going back to deciviews again, is that any source
14       that has a computer modeled impact of 0.5
15       deciviews on visibility in one of the national
16       parks is a source that we would look at for BART
17       and then look at the other four factors.  If
18       you're below that, that's the first factor, we
19       would just screen you out.
20            So we looked at BART in this state and so we
21       looked statewide at the sources that might impact
22       visibility in the national parks and obviously
23       modeling -- computer modeling is going to kick
24       out the Oahu sources even though they're very
25       big.  They're eventually going to kicked out by
0013
 1       computer modeling because it wouldn't surprise
 2       anybody that sources on Oahu are not going to
 3       affect visibility in Hawaii or Maui.
 4            But if you look down the list, there were
 5       basically two sources that did not get modeled
 6       out and those two sources were the Hu Honua
 7       Bioenergy facility on the Big Island and then the
 8       Hill Generating Station, HELCO's generating
 9       station again on the Big Island.  So computer
10       modeling didn't determine that those were the two
11       sources that we needed to do further BART
12       analysis on.
13            So at the end of the day we did go through
14       the other five factors and the one source that
15       had to have Best Available Retrofit Technology
16       according to our analysis and that we proposed
17       was the Hill Generating Station on the Big
18       Island.  Hu Honua burns now completely biomass
19       and then was screened out of the analysis.
20            So that's BART.  So that's only one of the
21       three things that we have to look at.  The other
22       is -- and this is really what we're trying to
23       guarantee happens at the national parks -- is,
24       "Is there reasonable progress?" to insure that
25       reasonable progress is being made on the best and
0014
 1       the worst days.  And so again, when we're
 2       determining what is reasonable progress, we have
 3       to consider what sources' impact is, the cost of
 4       the compliance, the time necessary for compliance
 5       -- you can read the list, it's right there on the
 6       slide.
 7            So Maui emissions -- there is a table like
 8       this on the posters at the back that you can look
 9       at throughout the session and during the break.
10       But essentially because of primarily -- a number
11       of factors, but not the least of which is the
12       emission control area that by treaty the United
13       States entered into regarding shipping, emissions
14       in Maui are going to be showing -- are not going
15       to be increasing between now and the first
16       planning period which is 2018.  Emissions of
17       nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide are expected
18       to be decreasing in Maui, which is starting the
19       progress towards attaining visible natural
20       attainment.
21            However, on the Big Island there is one
22       category of sources or one category of emissions
23       that's expected to increase even despite the
24       better controls on ships and the fuels that they
25       use and that is sulfur dioxide.
0015
 1            So just to kind of lay this out, the human
 2       emissions on the Big Island of SO2 are expected
 3       to increase by 4 percent between 2005 and 2018,
 4       which is the first planning period that we're
 5       looking at in this proposal.
 6            So there are three power plants on the Big
 7       Island that are upwind of Volcanoes National Park
 8       that are high emitters of sulfur dioxide.  Those
 9       are Hill, Shipman, and Puna.  So what we've
10       proposed essentially to ensure that man-made
11       emissions that could impact Volcanoes National
12       Park show reasonable progress is that we put a
13       cap on sulfur dioxide emissions from those three
14       facilities, or we're proposing to do that,
15       beginning in the year January 1, 2018.  And so we
16       expect that those controls would result in about
17       17 percent reduction of sulfur dioxide emissions
18       from those three facilities by the year 2018.
19            When we were developing that strategy, we
20       did take into account that there is a volcano on
21       the Big Island that is the non-man-made source
22       and the primary source of visibility impairment,
23       not only in Volcanoes National Park but also in
24       Haleakala on certain days.  But we also took into
25       account the fact that Hawaii itself has
0016
 1       aggressive legislative requirements for renewable
 2       energy and energy efficiency and we wanted to
 3       make sure that the controls that we put in place
 4       on the Big Island would be flexible enough that
 5       if HELCO chooses to not buy lower sulfur fuel,
 6       which tends to be more expensive, but chooses to
 7       increase their energy efficiency or renewable
 8       energy in line with Hawaii's goals, then that's
 9       another option by which they could meet those
10       standards.
11            So again, I can take a few brief questions
12       right now.  But once these few brief questions
13       are done, we have to get back to the hearing and
14       at that point EPA will not respond at all to any
15       comments that are made.  So I can respond right
16       now to a few brief questions.
17            WENDY WILTSE:  So if you have a question
18       that's something that you need answered in order
19       to clarify Kerry's presentation and understand
20       the EPA action, please come to the microphone at
21       the table to the right of the screen.
22            KERRY DRAKE:  Again, this is not the public
23       hearing; this is just a preliminary information
24       session.
25            WENDY WILTSE:  And if you could make your
0017
 1       questions brief.
 2            ROB PARSONS:  Thank you.  My name is Rob
 3       Parsons.  Kerry, can you help the audience
 4       understand why on your list there the high sulfur
 5       fuel oil facility at Kahului that MECO runs and
 6       the HC&S Puunene mill burning coal and bagasse
 7       are exempt from the BART?
 8            KERRY DRAKE:  My understanding -- and I'll
 9       also defer to Greg Nudd, who's the person that
10       did the analysis for EPA primarily, as well as we
11       have a modeling person in -- that did not come
12       with us -- in San Francisco.  But my
13       understanding is that they were not modeled to
14       have a 0.5 deciview impact on Haleakala.  Is that
15       it?
16            GREG NUDD:  That's correct.  What EPA is
17       proposing in this proposed rule is that any
18       source that is modeled to have a less than half a
19       deciview impact on the Class 1 area will be
20       considered to not be causing or contributing to
21       visibility impairment.  And that half a deciview
22       cut-off is fairly standard, it's consistent with
23       the other regional haze plans that have been
24       approved.  The computer modeling assumes worst
25       case 24-hour emissions and compares the impact of
0018
 1       those emissions with natural conditions.  So it
 2       assumes there is no impact on the volcano from
 3       the volcano and it looks only at the impact of
 4       that particular source.  So it's a fairly
 5       stringent standard.
 6            ROB PARSONS:  So is the modeling available
 7       in the docket or a description of the modeling?
 8            GREG NUDD:  Yeah, a description of the
 9       modeling is all available in the docket and you
10       can see all the assumptions that went into the
11       modeling, you can see EPA's analysis of how the
12       modeling was conducted, and there should be
13       enough information in the docket if you're a
14       computer modeler you could recreate it yourself.
15            STEVEN TRUEBLOOD:  My name is Steven
16       Trueblood.  I'm a little disappointed that the
17       figures and the presentation to Maui County are
18       figures from the Big Island.  I was going to go
19       back and try to rifle through the document to
20       find the data.  I would like to know the
21       agricultural burn data for Maui County without
22       having to go back through the document.  Thank
23       you.
24            GREG NUDD:  I'm going to do this from memory
25       so I may be off a little bit, but what we're
0019
 1       showing from the emissions inventory that
 2       Environ, a consulting firm, conducted for the
 3       Hawaii Department of Health is that the nitrogen
 4       oxides and sulfur dioxide emissions from ag
 5       burning on Maui were I think about 233 tons of
 6       SO2 per year and you compare that with about --
 7       that's about one-tenth of the emissions from big
 8       industrial sources on the island.  But if you go
 9       back to the posters on the wall right there, it's
10       all laid out for you.
11            KERRY DRAKE:  Is there a table that we can
12       send him if he gives you his e-mail address?
13            GREG NUDD:  Yeah, absolutely.  It's also
14       available from the website.  But if you want that
15       particular table, I'll give you my card and you
16       can send me an email and I can send that to you.
17            KERRY DRAKE:  Thank you.
18            KEITH KESSLER:  My question relates to
19       what's actually being regulated.  My
20       understanding is that what needs to be regulated
21       is visibility, but that what's being measured is
22       a surrogate standard of various substances that
23       are in the air; is that correct?
24            GREG NUDD:  Yes.
25            KEITH KESSLER:  My second question is is it
0020
 1       visibility from points to points within the park
 2       only, or from points within the park to points
 3       external to the park?  In other words, my view of
 4       the ocean from the summit of Haleakala, is that
 5       regulated?
 6            KERRY DRAKE:  There is a monitor that most
 7       of the analysis that was based on the baseline
 8       monitor was outside the park and there is also a
 9       monitor inside the park.
10            KEITH KESSLER:  That doesn't address my
11       question.  My question is what's actually
12       regulated as opposed to what you're measuring is
13       the view, my view of the ocean protected by
14       this --
15            KERRY DRAKE:  I see what you mean.  So the
16       reasonable progress -- when we used emissions
17       from Maui to determine that reasonable progress
18       was being made between 2005 and 2018, the
19       surrogate that we used to make sure that
20       visibility was increasing Maui-wide were
21       emissions Maui-wide.
22            KEITH KESSLER:  That still didn't answer my
23       question.  My question is is my right to see the
24       ocean from the summit of Haleakala protected by
25       this law?
0021
 1            GREG NUDD:  As we discussed in the poster
 2       session, the rule is designed to protect
 3       visibility as viewed by a viewer in the park.
 4            KEITH KESSLER:  So that would be yes.
 5            GREG NUDD:  Yes.
 6            KEITH KESSLER:  Thank you very much.
 7            BRUCE DOUGLAS:  Bruce Douglas, my name.
 8       What I notice, what is not taken up in this
 9       report in any way, shape, or form is actually the
10       largest source of haze being created in Hawaii
11       and in fact worldwide which is from the ongoing
12       stratospheric aerosol geoengineering programs
13       that are going on, also known as chemtrails.  For
14       instance, the last two days we've had moderate
15       chemtrail spraying which is point source,
16       hundreds of miles away from here and floats over
17       the island, and today I can hardly see the West
18       Maui mountains.  These programs I believe is the
19       real source of the haze because, for instance,
20       today why can't I see West Maui mountains from
21       here?  Very hazy.  We have tradewinds.  The
22       tradewinds are blowing off the ocean.  There is
23       nothing out there causing the pollution except
24       maybe something blowing from China.
25            So the real source, which I'm probably sure
0022
 1       you're aware of, is the aerosol programs that are
 2       ongoing, yet this has not been addressed.  I
 3       notice on the numbers there is no mention of
 4       aluminum, barium, or strontium that are the
 5       elements commonly found in NOAA's aerosol
 6       programs, but I don't see this addressed.  Are
 7       you guys interested in addressing the real
 8       source?
 9            KERRY DRAKE:  I'm just going to thank you
10       for your question.  I don't have an answer to it.
11       So thank you for your question.
12            KIMBER CARHART:  Kimber Carhart, and I have
13       a quick question.  Are there systems in place, is
14       it online where we can challenge how the modeling
15       and measuring assumptions were made?  Is there a
16       place to challenge that?
17            GREG NUDD:  If you -- the short answer to
18       your question is yes, that will be something that
19       we'll consider in our evaluation and development
20       of the final rule and it was something that we
21       addressed in our technical support documents.  So
22       I would start with the technical support document
23       to get EPA's evaluation of how the modeling was
24       conducted and it will reference the assumptions
25       that went into that.
0023
 1            And so we're open to any comments folks
 2       might have about the assumptions that went into
 3       the modeling, about how the model was conducted,
 4       about what models were used, any of that is
 5       certainly fair game for comments.  And the How to
 6       Comment document that we have at the registration
 7       table is a good place to start.  That will send
 8       you to the docket and you can put it there.
 9            CHRISTINE ANDREWS:  Hi, my name is Christine
10       Andrews and I'm a local attorney and business
11       owner.  My question for you is that you set the
12       threshold at 0.5 deciviews, which you said was a
13       pretty stringent threshold in your comments in
14       response to Rob.  But that's actually the highest
15       level of threshold under the regulation and I
16       think it's disingenuous for the EPA to propose
17       this plan setting the threshold as high as
18       allowed, say that the targets are unachievable,
19       and push out -- Kerry said the target, the goal
20       is 2064, but the plan as you've written it pushes
21       it out 280 years.
22            So my question is did you consider, when you
23       came up with the plan, setting the deciview
24       threshold as high as you were allowed,
25       reconsidering your modeling, lowering the
0024
 1       threshold, which is within your discretion to do,
 2       and maybe doing the BART review of some of our
 3       other polluting sources?  You have exempted six
 4       out of eight sources, and yet said the targets
 5       are unachievable which seriously the goal which
 6       is natural visibility by 2064.  Did you guys do
 7       any additional modeling?
 8            KERRY DRAKE:  Hi, Christine.  So 0.5 was
 9       consistent with what we did nationwide and
10       certainly that's where we started.  The reason
11       that we have a hearing that's coming up is so
12       that people can make comments like that so that
13       we can consider them.
14            CHRISTINE ANDREWS:  So you did not consider
15       when you looked at saying we're just not going to
16       meet the targets, we're not going to accomplish
17       our uniform rate of progress.  Instead of
18       considering lowering the threshold, you just said
19       we'll throw out the goal --
20            KERRY DRAKE:  My understanding is that the
21       280-year number you were looking at is completely
22       influenced by the fact that there is a volcano.
23            MS. ANDREWS:  That was not my impression.
24       Thank you.
25            WENDY WILTSE:  Let's take one final question
0025
 1       before we move into the public comments.
 2            PILIALOHA TEVES:  Hi, my name is Pilialoha
 3       Teves and I have a follow-up comment regarding
 4       what Bruce was saying regarding the stratospheric
 5       aerosol spraying and that you were able to
 6       comment on it.  I just got an iPhone recently.
 7       I'm so happy.  There is a website, it's called
 8       aeronet.gsfc.nasa.gov and Aeronet stands for
 9       aerosol robotic network.  And when you go on that
10       website, it shows you all over the globe where
11       this aerosol spraying is happening and it's
12       pretty bad.  And I'm in agreement with what he
13       said, I mean that's the real issue.  Haleakala or
14       Kilauea erupting now and again in vog is not the
15       issue.  The issue is the aerosols that we've been
16       dealing with for the past -- in Hawaii at least
17       five years, but globally 30 years.  And we're all
18       aware of it, as you are, and we look forward to
19       the truth coming out and the real issue being
20       identified and taken care of.  Thank you.
21            KERRY DRAKE:  I just wanted to just
22       encourage if there's -- thank you for your
23       question.  I wasn't trying to be rude to the
24       gentleman earlier, I just don't have an answer
25       for your question because I don't know the answer
0026
 1       to your question.  But if it's something that you
 2       feel like is something that should be considered
 3       in the regional haze plan when the hearing starts
 4       here in just a moment, please make that comment.
 5            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you.  Let's move into
 6       the public comment period.  In a few minutes I
 7       will begin calling on speakers who have filled
 8       out and submitted the Speaker Request Form.
 9       Speakers will be called in groups of two or three
10       in the order in which the forms were received.
11       There are two microphones -- I'm sorry, there is
12       one microphone available and two chairs at that
13       table.  So when you hear your name, please take a
14       chair at the table with the microphone and please
15       begin your comment in the order the names were
16       called.  And I may call some extra names and ask
17       you to come sit in the front so that you'll be
18       ready when it's your turn to speak.
19            When I announce that it is your turn to
20       speak, please come up to the microphone, state
21       your name, and if you have a complicated name if
22       you would spell that for us, that would be great.
23       And if you're appearing on behalf of someone or
24       an organization, please tell us who you're
25       representing.  Remember to speak clearly and
0027
 1       allow the court reporter to capture your
 2       comments.  You may want to spell your name.  I
 3       already said that.  If you are not in the room
 4       when I announce your turn to speak, I will recall
 5       you after all the speakers have made their oral
 6       comments.
 7            We want to make sure that everyone has an
 8       opportunity to speak here tonight and the hearing
 9       ends at 8:30.  To that end, I'm going to ask
10       everyone who speaks to please make your oral
11       comments brief.
12            I am asking speakers to limit their comments
13       to four minutes.  If you have lengthier comments,
14       you may submit them in writing.  Each speaker
15       will be given a one-minute warning and then
16       notified when their time is up.  And if you take
17       a look on our table, there is a gadget that has
18       red, yellow, and green lights and when you have
19       one minute left, the yellow light comes up.  And
20       when your four minutes are up, the red light
21       comes on.  So if you would please follow those
22       lights, it would be very helpful.  Thank you.
23            So EPA appreciates you taking the time to
24       participate in this public hearing and providing
25       your comments to aid with our proposed decision
0028
 1       on regional haze.  So let's begin the comment
 2       period.  The first speakers are Tina Wildberger,
 3       Irene Bowie, and then Christine Andrews.
 4            TINA WILDBERGER:  Good evening.  My name is
 5       Tina Wildberger.  I would like to thank the EPA
 6       officials for coming from San Francisco to
 7       address our concerns.
 8            I'm curious to know how many people in this
 9       room are here because of sugar cane burning?
10       There are 35 hands in the air.  I think the
11       majority of this group is here and concerned
12       about sugar cane burning.
13            I live in Kihei, I operate a business in
14       North Kihei, what I would call ground zero for
15       the recipient of cane smoke, particulate plastic
16       and wood smoke.  I'm unable to offer my 14
17       employees a smoke-free workplace in accordance
18       with Hawaii state law.
19            I beseech the EPA to help our community stop
20       sugar cane burning to offer health improvement
21       for our community and the people that live here.
22       We don't have any hope of the state helping us
23       with that.  The company that burns cane is very
24       influential, very powerful.
25            Is there anybody here from HC&S/A&B?  Oh,
0029
 1       very good.  Aloha.
 2            We need help from the EPA.  Kihei residents
 3       would like to be afforded the same health
 4       considerations that Florida residents were
 5       offered when sugar cane burning had to be stopped
 6       in Florida because of its negative health
 7       effects.  Thank you very much.
 8            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you.  Irene Bowie,
 9       followed by Christine Andrews.
10            IRENE BOWIE:  Aloha.  My name is Irene Bowie
11       and I'm the executive director of Maui Tomorrow
12       Foundation.  We thank you for coming to Maui and
13       we welcome the opportunity to offer remarks on
14       EPA's proposed Hawaii Regional Haze Plan.
15            Maui Tomorrow wishes to reserve the option
16       to supplement and amplify our remarks by the
17       close of your comment deadline on July 2nd.
18            Most significantly, we question your
19       proposed determination that under the regional
20       haze program no further controls on agricultural
21       burning are reasonable at this time.
22            As your analysis states, agricultural fire
23       emissions come from crop waste combustion of over
24       roughly 30,000 acres of sugar cane cultivated on
25       Maui.  Cane burning produces billowing clouds of
0030
 1       smoke, laden with toxins and fine particulates.
 2       The smoke blocks out the sky and the natural
 3       vistas and causes or contributes to a range of
 4       severe respiratory and cardiovascular illnesses.
 5            We don't doubt that a major contributor to
 6       visibility impairment at Haleakala is vog, laden
 7       with sulfates and other pollutants brought by
 8       Kona winds from Kilauea.
 9            We also know that wind patterns have changed
10       over recent years, bringing us far less days of
11       tradewinds, winds that we used to depend on to
12       clean our air.  But there is also no doubt that
13       as the National Park Service has clearly stated,
14       sugar cane processing facilities and field
15       burning can affect air quality and visibility in
16       Haleakala National Park.
17            Effective action can only be focused on
18       limiting anthropogenic sources of pollution.
19       Cane field burning is among the largest such
20       sources of sulfur dioxide, volatile organic
21       compound, and particulate matter pollution on
22       Maui.  So it makes little sense to rule out the
23       practical and achievable limitations of air
24       pollution by demanding better mitigation measures
25       for large agriculture and phasing out the burning
0031
 1       as a means of harvesting cane.
 2            Work published by NOAA researchers cited in
 3       your technical support documents indicates that
 4       Haleakala National Park has greater impacts from
 5       smoke as compared to Hawaii Volcanoes National
 6       Park.  That study notes that based on data from
 7       the Haleakala monitoring station, about half of
 8       worst case days are associated with factors other
 9       than volcanic emissions, including smoke and the
10       recommendations for follow-up work include
11       examination of the smoke factor with respect to
12       burning events.
13            Residents of Maui also know that fugitive
14       dust contributes significantly to the haze and
15       poor air quality on our island, yet large
16       agriculture is exempted in this state from best
17       management practices.  Surely this is something
18       that EPA should consider at this time.
19            And lastly, we ask you to also consider that
20       current permits allow over a hundred thousand
21       tons of coal to be fired at the Puunene mill each
22       year.  We realize that vog is something we cannot
23       control or mitigate, but we urge you to take a
24       second look at utilizing your authority under the
25       Regional Haze Rule to clear the air of cane
0032
 1       smoke, coal fire and fugitive dust.  By doing
 2       that, we can improve public health at the same
 3       time that we enhance the vistas at Maui's
 4       national park.  And mahalo for your
 5       consideration.
 6            WENDY WILTSE:  Christine Andrews, Kimber
 7       Carhart, and Steven Trueblood.
 8            CHRISTINE ANDREWS:  Thank you again.  My
 9       name is Christine Andrews and I'm a local
10       attorney and a small business owner here on Maui.
11            I do want to also reserve the opportunity to
12       supplement my oral comments tonight with my
13       written comments that will be submitted by the
14       deadline.
15            First of all, I want to clarify, I know
16       somebody brought up the data that you're using,
17       saying that there is 30,000 acres of sugar cane
18       that's being burned.  HC&S has 35,000 acres in
19       sugar cane production; that's a difference of
20       1/6th, so you might want to check your data.
21            Also, in the Puunene mill's most recent
22       application for their source permit they proposed
23       increasing the amount of used motor oil they're
24       burning from 1.5 to 2 million gallons, so when
25       you're doing your modeling, please consider that
0033
 1       if the permit is renewed with the additional 0.5
 2       million gallons of used motor oil, the impacts
 3       that might have on your haze-causing pollutants.
 4            First of all, I want to note that I object
 5       to the proposed plan.  I do thank the EPA for
 6       stepping in where the state couldn't come
 7       together with a plan in a reasonable timeline, so
 8       thank you for filling in for the state.  But the
 9       proposed control measures are not sufficient to
10       ensure that reasonable progress is made during
11       the first planning period.  Additional control
12       measures are necessary.
13            I also object to the plan's proposal to use
14       the contribution threshold of only 0.5 deciviews
15       for determining which sources are subject to BART
16       review.  The EPA has gone with the highest
17       allowable figure in the plan.  The threshold is
18       too high.  The EPA must exercise its discretion
19       to lower the threshold and conduct full BART
20       review of all identified BART-eligible sources
21       until the amount of improvement needed to achieve
22       uniform rate of progress for 2018, which is 1.38
23       delta deciview, is achievable by federally
24       enforceable pollution control measures.  Bringing
25       in the Hawaii Clean Energy Initiative and making
0034
 1       assumptions about productions in emissions from
 2       cars is not federally enforceable for the
 3       purposes of this plan.
 4            I object to the plan's proposal to exempt
 5       six of the eight identified BART sources from
 6       further review under the BART requirements.  This
 7       is, I believe, an outright ban for the life of
 8       the plan.  That's not acceptable.
 9            All remaining BART eligible sources must be
10       reviewed under BART requirements until the
11       resulting federally enforceable pollution control
12       measures ensure that the amount of improvement
13       needed to achieve uniform rate of progress for
14       2018 of 1.38 delta deciview is achieved.
15            I object to the EPA's conclusion that it is
16       unreasonable to require additional nitrogen oxide
17       controls for point sources during this planning
18       period.  The monitor data indicates that nitrogen
19       oxides are a substantial contributing factor
20       towards visibility impairment, although the plan
21       seems to indicate that they're secondary and
22       minimize their impact.  I believe you said -- the
23       table said it was 19 percent.  I'm sorry,
24       9 percent.  As such, nitrogen oxide controls are
25       necessary for point sources in this planning
0035
 1       period to the extent that such controls will
 2       achieve the necessary visibility improvements,
 3       either alone or in conjunction with other
 4       improvements.
 5            I object to the statement under the Section
 6       4 factor analysis for SO2 emissions on Maui that
 7       "it is reasonable to assume that visibility at
 8       Haleakala on the best days is not getting worse
 9       and that it is reasonable to assume that the
10       visibility on the worst days will improve."
11            I own a small business, I take visitors up
12       to Haleakala crater every week and I have for the
13       last 16 years.  I assure you that visibility is
14       not improving and that visibility on the worst
15       days is getting worse.  Don't assume anything.
16       You have the monitors, review the data.
17            Since the Hale 1 monitor's data was used for
18       the baseline visibility assessment, that monitor
19       must remain in place and the most recent data
20       from that monitor must be used to make an
21       objective assessment.  Thank you so much for your
22       time.
23            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you, Christine.  Kimber
24       Carhart and Steven Trueblood.
25            KIMBER CARHART:  I'd like to thank you as
0036
 1       well for giving us this opportunity.  We really
 2       appreciate you alerting us to this opportunity.
 3            As a lifetime resident of Hawaii and 23-year
 4       resident of Maui, I want to assure you that
 5       Haleakala is a treasure and we want to retain our
 6       ability to recreate in Haleakala and it's not
 7       just the visibility, it's our ability to enjoy
 8       healthy recreation in that area and around it.
 9            I respectfully ask the EPA to take the
10       necessary steps to reduce the pollution in that
11       area.  I do also, as Christine said, I object to
12       the plans for reducing the current controls and
13       measurements in place.  We need more, not less.
14       And it's quite infuriating when we read that some
15       of Maui's major air polluters are given
16       exemptions and exceptions.  And I just don't
17       understand it.
18            So like I said, we'd like to challenge -- as
19       I said earlier in my question, we would like to
20       challenge the models that are in place and the
21       current assumptions and we're counting on you to
22       protect our environment and our health.  So thank
23       you so much for the opportunity today.  Mahalo.
24            WENDY WILTSE:  Thanks, Kimber.  Steven -- is
25       it Trueblood?
0037
 1            STEVEN TRUEBLOOD:  I'm director of America's
 2       New Way Forward, the Solution Revolution.  We
 3       work at finding solutions outside of government
 4       and encouraging them back on our politicians
 5       through the voice of the people.
 6            It seems to me like you came here for one
 7       reason tonight and they came here for another
 8       reason.  And I think that it's important to
 9       realize if you would take a photo with the
10       burning taking place, I think that you'd have
11       completely different reading than what you're
12       taking now.
13            When I moved here three months ago and I
14       found out that they actually burned sugar cane, I
15       couldn't believe it.  Not in the United States,
16       not with the EPA, not with the advances that we
17       have made in stopping this kind of pollution.  I
18       couldn't believe that they actually could get
19       away with burning it.  And when I saw it burning,
20       I couldn't believe the effect of it and the smell
21       of it and the fact that they burn the plastic
22       irrigation pipes right along with everything else
23       and put that into the air as well.
24            I would like to call upon the EPA and the
25       Department of Health and Human Services to
0038
 1       immediately suspend agricultural burning on Maui
 2       immediately so that it can be further studied and
 3       concluded both on environmental impact and a
 4       health impact.  Let's put this back on the
 5       growers and make them prove that they're not
 6       hurting our environment.  Why do we have to come
 7       here and beg for representation or beg for your
 8       ears so that we can get help?
 9            This is something that is drastic and for
10       the EPA to come and completely ignore it or to
11       minimize it obviously is against the will of the
12       people that are here at least tonight.  And we're
13       doing -- part of what we're doing is to encourage
14       the County of Maui to become the first
15       municipality in the United States to legalize,
16       encourage and promote the production of
17       commercial hemp and replace the destruction sugar
18       cane with something that has been part of our
19       economy for 5,000 years, that provides medicine,
20       food, fiber, fabric, biofuel, ethanol, what else,
21       there is a thousand other things that it does for
22       us, and it's time -- I know it's part of the
23       heritage and I know that's important.  I lived in
24       a town that their heritage was growing chewing
25       tobacco.  Well, after analyzing several people,
0039
 1       hundreds of people that had tongue cancer, throat
 2       cancer, gum cancer, every kind of cancer of the
 3       mouth that you can imagine, they changed their
 4       heritage.  Instead of calling it "Tobacco Days,"
 5       they now celebrate "Heritage Days."  We could do
 6       the same thing here.  We're not asking to put a
 7       group of people out of business.  We're just
 8       asking for you to protect us.  Thank you very
 9       much.
10            WENDY WILTSE:  Roger Sussman, then Marc
11       Drehsen.
12            ROGER SUSSMAN:  Thanks for coming.  And my
13       name is Roger Sussman, I live in Haiku, which is
14       in Upcountry Maui on Haleakala, on the slopes of
15       Haleakala.  Lived here since '95.  And like this
16       fellow here who just spoke, I was shocked when I
17       came here first and noticed what I noticed which
18       was the burning.  I didn't know when I came here
19       tonight specifically that this was about
20       visibility issues for Haleakala, but I'll just
21       offer what I can now because it's true that I
22       agree with some of the other people here that
23       this cane burning issue is outrageous.  And like
24       Steven says, I don't want to put anybody out of
25       work and that's a big issue here and I'm actually
0040
 1       amazed that after all these years that the cane
 2       company and A&B, the parent company, is willing
 3       to divide the community to such a degree with
 4       this obnoxious burning of plant matter which in
 5       itself is very toxic, you know, but also all the
 6       chemicals that are used and then also the piping,
 7       the plastic piping.  It's pretty outrageous and
 8       it's something that's just phenomenal that the
 9       government agency in charge of protecting the
10       environment apparently has turned away from this
11       because it's a tremendous assault environmentally
12       and on people's health.
13            And I just want to share this story of what
14       happened to me the second fall I was here, living
15       up on the mountain very close to Haleakala
16       National Park in the area called Keokea.  We have
17       phenomenal views, world class views of --
18       sweeping views of the south coast all the way
19       across to the West Maui mountains and even on a
20       clear day we could see Oahu.  On a clear day.
21       But there weren't too many of those days.  There
22       was a difference because there were times when it
23       was very clear and we could see great distances
24       from up there, but then other days when it was
25       funky and it was mostly the burning.  Just from
0041
 1       the visibility, I can offer that testimony.  But
 2       I have an interesting story also.  And I know
 3       this isn't what this meeting was called, I didn't
 4       know that ahead of time.  But I just want to go
 5       on record since this is going to be read by
 6       people in the Environmental Protection Agency,
 7       that I developed the worst respiratory infection
 8       of my life when I was living in a place in the
 9       middle of the Pacific Ocean where I thought it
10       was going to have this tremendously clean air.
11       And I had a hacking cough that was going on for
12       weeks that would not go away.  And the one time I
13       left the island in the first years I was here, my
14       brother was getting married back in Upstate New
15       York so I left to go back for that.  And nothing
16       was relieving this cough at all and it was a
17       horrible, horrible cough.  I got to the Bay Area,
18       San Francisco, and I was staying for five days
19       with old friends.  And the wife of my good old
20       friend was a nurse, an RN.  And when she heard my
21       coughing, she said man, you could literally hack
22       out a chunk of your lung with that cough.  And
23       she said you better be careful.  So I said yeah,
24       it's pretty bad.
25            Well, by the time I left the Bay Area five
0042
 1       days later, it was considerably improved, my
 2       health, by going to a major metropolitan area,
 3       full of all kinds of industry, my health
 4       improved.  And then by the time I spent about
 5       five days in New York, I was healed -- in the New
 6       York area.
 7            So it was an interesting phenomenon to be on
 8       this island in the middle of the ocean.  There is
 9       all kinds of things, like Steven said, there's
10       all kinds of things we replace it with, but
11       really I've lived here 17 years now, it's by far
12       the worst environmental factor of all is this
13       cane burning, along with whatever else is there.
14       That's all, as far as I can tell, secondary.
15            So thanks for hearing about that and please
16       do all kinds of good work on our behalf.  We
17       really, really do need your help.  Thanks for
18       coming and listening.  Aloha.
19            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you, Roger.  Marc
20       Drehsen -- and Marc, will you spell your last
21       name for us -- followed by Courtney Bruch.
22            MARC DREHSEN:  Marc Drehsen, spelled
23       D-R-E-H-S-E-N.  I would like to comment about the
24       panorama view, you said that you're considering
25       the view from Haleakala throughout the island.
0043
 1            Now, cane burning obscures the view from the
 2       top of Haleakala, especially overlooking the
 3       valley.  HC&S designs their burn to burn as hot
 4       as possible so the smoke will rise as high as
 5       possible to try to keep it from fumigating the
 6       people at the ground level, which is good for us
 7       down here when we're trying to breathe.  But the
 8       smoke lingers at the higher elevations and
 9       obscures the view from Haleakala.  It can be for
10       hours.
11            Now, I notice you only considered, at least
12       on your graphs there, the NOx and SO2, but
13       particulate also obscures the view and needs to
14       be considered in your evaluation.
15            Now, there is a study by the University of
16       Hawaii meteorology Professor Andrews Daniels.  He
17       estimates an average cane burning event is
18       approximately 200 to 600 tons of particulate.
19       That's from one burn.  By comparison, two average
20       cane fires emit about as much particulates as are
21       generated in the entire LA basin in a day.
22       That's a lot of particulate matter.
23            According to the South Coast Air Quality
24       Management District where I used to work, they
25       estimate that 700 tons of particulate are
0044
 1       generated in a day in the basin.  So I feel that
 2       you really need to consider the particulate issue
 3       when you're considering the view from Haleakala.
 4       Thank you very much for your time.
 5            WENDY WILTSE:  Courtney Bruch.  Is Courtney
 6       here?
 7            KEOKI MEDEIROS:  Hello, my name is Keoki
 8       Medeiros, I'm switching with Courtney.
 9            WENDY WILTSE:  So you're Keoki Medeiros?
10       Great.  So Keoki, after your testimony, we're
11       going to take a five-minute break.
12            KEOKI MEDEIROS:  So my name is Keoki
13       Medeiros.  I'm a registered nurse.  I come to
14       talk about this, I was just told about this last
15       night and I was able to get a chance to come
16       here.  I'm on my lunch break right now, so I'll
17       try to make this quick.
18            As someone growing up in Hawaii, as a child
19       I lived on Leeward Oahu and growing up on Oahu as
20       I'd come out with my family and it would be
21       raining Hawaiian snow.  And that's what we called
22       it in our neighborhood, Hawaiian snow.  And it
23       was crazy because as a child I would come out
24       with my parents and everybody in the neighborhood
25       was amazed, everybody was amazed at this Hawaiian
0045
 1       snow, ashes falling through the air.  And as a
 2       child it was amazing.
 3            But as an adult, now that I'm older and I
 4       learned more and I realized that this burning of
 5       the sugar cane is for a private company at the
 6       expense of everybody -- of all the communities
 7       living around the sugar cane that's breathing
 8       this in.
 9            I just read in I think it was the Maui News
10       where an article actually explained the reasons
11       for burning the sugar cane and it was completely,
12       completely for this private company to save money
13       at the cost of our health.  Every single one of
14       us.
15            So to me as a child I was blind.  As an
16       adult I'm sickened at the thought of the sugar
17       barons pissing on the public and it's ignorance
18       that is bliss.  And that when I talk to people --
19       and I'm from Oahu, so I moved to Maui just
20       recently.
21            And just the other day I was talking to a
22       gentleman in Paia and he actually felt that the
23       sugar cane burning around his neighborhood was
24       okay.  And he had a little girl and I told him,
25       your little girl is breathing in this smoke that
0046
 1       burns.  How the hell are you going to tell me
 2       that this sugar cane burning is okay, that it's
 3       fine, that our lungs are not being affected?
 4       That's a bunch of bullshit.
 5            And I hate to use that language, but it
 6       pisses me off because as a child my parents and
 7       their parents believed that that was okay.  And
 8       as an adult now and as a registered nurse, I
 9       don't need a scientist to tell me that the
10       burning of the sugar cane is affecting the
11       people's lungs, their respiratory systems.  I
12       don't need that.
13            So I just came here today to voice that
14       opinion and I honestly, I honestly point my
15       finger at my government that allowed this to
16       happen.  And I'm hoping whatever this -- I'm not
17       even sure exactly what will happen of me coming
18       here and telling this today, but I really wanted
19       to come and say that because it's just blinded
20       that we have to go through this mess to actually
21       have something that's affecting our health
22       stopped.
23            So hopefully whatever power you guys have or
24       whoever all of you that are here, I hope we
25       realize that this is what's happening to us and
0047
 1       that it's not something that we have to accept
 2       and this whole, you know, plantation mentality is
 3       BS.  As a child that lived through it -- I lived
 4       on the Leeward side and Kapolei and Ewa beach,
 5       and years we'd come out and this Hawaiian snow
 6       was falling on our heads and we were all amazed.
 7            And so now today that I'm here, you know, I
 8       represent Occupy Wall Street Maui.  If you want
 9       change, come and join us on Wednesdays, we meet
10       every Wednesday at 5 p.m. to help hopefully
11       change this.
12            Right now the only island that still burns
13       sugar cane is our community on Maui.  Why?  Ask
14       yourselves why.  With that said, thank you.
15            WENDY WILTSE:  Okay.  Let's take a
16       five-minute break and after the break we'll hear
17       from Bruce Douglas, then Sean O'Keefe.
18            [Brief recess.]
19            WENDY WILTSE:   Bruce Douglas, will you come
20       to the microphone, followed by Sean O'Keefe.  So
21       the public hearing is scheduled to end at 8:30
22       and we have a lot of people who still want to
23       testify.  We want to make sure we still have time
24       for everybody.
25            BRUCE DOUGLAS:  Aloha.  My name is Bruce
0048
 1       Douglas.  I'm a scientist.  Electrical
 2       engineering is my undergraduate.  I look at data,
 3       I look at facts, I observe and draw conclusions
 4       from what I can see.  And on days when we have
 5       tradewinds, which is 95 percent of the time we
 6       have tradewinds, therefore the source of our haze
 7       is not coming from the volcano on the Big Island,
 8       it's not coming from cane burning, it's not
 9       coming from the power plants because the
10       tradewinds are blowing that other direction away
11       from Haleakala.  Those excuses can only be used
12       for that 5 percent of the time when we have Kona
13       winds.  So on a day like today when we have
14       severe haze, where is that haze coming from?  So
15       let's get real where it's really coming from
16       because we know it's not coming from those other
17       sources.  Scientifically we know that.
18            So this stratospheric aerosol geoengineering
19       programs,  as they're called, have been ongoing
20       for many years, they have been most severe over
21       in Hawaii for the past five years.  I've been
22       following over the last three years.  For
23       instance, the last two days when we had severe --
24       moderate chemtrails flowing over Hawaii -- and I
25       watched the point source where that comes from,
0049
 1       it's coming from near the Marshall Islands, and I
 2       watched these aerosol explosions expanding out in
 3       all directions.  I watch it rise up into the
 4       stratospheric, I watch from the satellite, it
 5       flowing over us.  When it comes over I look at
 6       it, it's that stringy, gooey, cotton candy
 7       stratospheric clouds that are not natural clouds,
 8       that are the chemtrail which you can tell what it
 9       is.
10            We did measurements of our rain water over a
11       two-month period of time on the North Shore.  We
12       got anywhere from 30 to 200 parts per billion of
13       aluminum in our rain water and lesser amounts of
14       barium and strontium.  These are the fingerprints
15       of the chemtrail activity.  And we have an
16       average of 50 parts per billion in our rain
17       catchment tanks on the North Shore, we measured
18       50 parts per billion, which is the average, of
19       aluminum, and lesser amounts of barium and
20       strontium, except for the scum at the bottom of
21       the tank and there we had 2,000 to 3,000 parts
22       per billion of aluminum in that catchment tank.
23            So this is real, it's not some conspiracy
24       theory thing.  It's reality.  Scientifically
25       observable.  We know it is.  It's not a question
0050
 1       of if they are spraying, it's more of a question
 2       why they are spraying and what's the real agenda.
 3            Now, if somebody calls up the EPA and said
 4       hey, what's down with these chemtrails, I see
 5       these planes, I see the clouds expanding, what is
 6       polluting our air, what is it, EPA will respond
 7       back saying oh, those are normal contrails,
 8       you're hallucinating, it's really nothing, we
 9       don't know anything about that.
10            So I know, Greg, I talked with you and
11       you're aware of geoengineering, you're aware of
12       those programs.  So I challenge you guys if
13       you're really interested in the science and you
14       really want to get the source of where the air --
15       where the haze is coming from, we know what it
16       is.  It's from the geoengineering programs.  It's
17       from the chemtrails.  It's from these clouds that
18       are floating over.
19            If you want to work with me, give me
20       $10,000, I'll fly up in those clouds, I'll get
21       samples of those clouds and we'll find out what
22       they're made of and we'll see that they're high
23       levels of aluminnum, barium and strontium in
24       those stratospheric clouds.  That's real science,
25       just takes a little bit of money, you guys got
0051
 1       the money.  If you really care.  I notice you
 2       don't measure aluminum, barium and strontium.
 3       Let's measure those items as well.  Let's add it
 4       to it.  If you really care, if you're really here
 5       to find the source of the haze, aluminum, barium
 6       and strontium need to be added to that.  I hear
 7       titanium as well.
 8            I challenge the other officials here from
 9       the health department and the EPA that are
10       standing around to talk to me after this, I would
11       love to share with you my science and what I
12       observe through looking at the satellite images
13       of what the source is.
14            So now that you know what it is, I challenge
15       you to look into it, look on the internet, look
16       at chemtrails.  There is so much out there, we
17       can't be ignored.  We cannot keep going around
18       saying oh, I don't know anything about that.
19       It's time to learn about it and understand.  It
20       is the real cause of this haze that we're seeing
21       here in Hawaii and I can correlate it when I see
22       it flying over and I see haze happening.
23            Like we had a couple days of clear skies, I
24       see two days of chemtrails floating over us, and
25       today it's hazy.  Why is it hazy?  Where did it
0052
 1       come from?  We know what it is now.
 2            WENDY WILTSE:   Bruce, your time is up.
 3            BRUCE DOUGLAS:  I'm sorry, his sign is
 4       upside down so I couldn't read it.
 5            WENDY WILTSE:  We've got many more people to
 6       testify.  Sean O'Keefe, followed by Isaac
 7       Castillo.
 8            SEAN O'KEEFE:  I'm Sean O'Keefe representing
 9       Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company and Alexander
10       & Baldwin, its parent company.  I would like to
11       thank you folks for coming and for the
12       opportunity to comment on the Proposed Regional
13       Haze Federal Implementation Plan, or FIP, for the
14       State of Hawaii.
15            Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company has
16       reviewed the proposed FIP and many of the
17       detailed background documents, all good reading.
18       We commend the Department of Health and U.S. EPA
19       for the thorough review and analysis of the
20       available data and the immense amount of work
21       that obviously went into development of this
22       proposal.
23            HC&S generally concurs with the conclusions
24       and recommendations presented in the proposal.
25       We'd like to take this opportunity to comment on
0053
 1       some of these conclusions and to make some
 2       recommendations for possible improvements to the
 3       plan, and of course we'll focus our comments on
 4       issues related to visibility at Haleakala
 5       National Park.
 6            As is clear from the proposal, the major
 7       source of visibility impairment at both Haleakala
 8       National Park and at Hawaii Volcanoes National
 9       Park is sulfur dioxide or SO2 emissions from the
10       Kilauea volcano.  In estimating a uniform rate of
11       progress necessary to achieve natural visibility
12       conditions in Hawaii's Class I areas by 2064,
13       however, EPA chose to exclude emissions from the
14       volcano when estimating natural visibility
15       conditions while including emissions from the
16       volcano in the estimate of baseline visibility
17       conditions.
18            We understand EPA's rationale for this
19       decision.  However, the result of this assumption
20       is that the uniform rate of progress is skewed
21       high.  That is, to reduce baseline visibility
22       impairment that includes the effect of volcano
23       emissions to natural visibility conditions that
24       do not account for volcano emissions, the uniform
25       rate of progress must include reductions in
0054
 1       visibility impairment from anthropogenic sources
 2       that are sufficient to offset the baseline
 3       impairment caused by the volcano.  Ultimately
 4       this results in the plan calling for reductions
 5       in emissions from anthropogenic sources that may
 6       exceed those needed to achieve true natural
 7       visibility conditions.
 8            The Haleakala National Park visibility
 9       assessment prepared by the Department of Health
10       Clean Air Branch proposes a method by which the
11       baseline visibility impairment can be
12       conservatively adjusted to account for the
13       impacts of volcano emissions as well as Asian
14       dust.  According to the DOH analysis, this
15       adjustment results in a significant nearly
16       80 percent reduction in the deciview change that
17       would be necessary to achieve the target
18       visibility for 2018.  This means that the uniform
19       rate of progress target for 2018 can essentially
20       be achieved through the emissions reductions
21       projected to occur by 2018 under the proposed
22       FIP.  By contrast, the same amount of visibility
23       improvement projected to occur by 2018 would fall
24       well short of the target that was estimated using
25       the skewed approach.
0055
 1            HC&S recommends that EPA consider adopting
 2       the adjustment methodology proposed by DOH so
 3       that the uniform rate of progress required by the
 4       FIP more accurately represents what is necessary
 5       to progress from the true baseline visibility
 6       conditions to natural visibility conditions.  I
 7       can see I'm running out of time already.
 8            I would just like to also comment on the
 9       BART modeling conducted on the Puunene Mill which
10       concluded that the facility may not reasonably be
11       anticipated to cause or contribute to visibility
12       impairment in Class I areas and that the facility
13       is therefore not subject to BART.  We note that
14       the modeling analysis was based on the highest
15       emitting day between 2003 and 2007, both during
16       coal firing and bagasse firing.  We do concur
17       that it's reasonable to utilize this emission
18       rate as the basis for the modeling, but we note
19       that typical visibility impacts from the facility
20       are likely to be somewhat lower than the modeled
21       results.  That said --
22            WENDY WILTSE:  Sean, if you could wind up in
23       about 30 seconds, it would be great.
24            SEAN O'KEEFE:  Okay.  That said, the modeled
25       deciview impacts on visibility in Haleakala
0056
 1       National Park from the facility during coal and
 2       bagasse firing are actually no more than
 3       20 percent of the selected threshold for subject
 4       to BART determination and reasonable progress
 5       prioritization.  We therefore strongly concur
 6       with the determination that additional emission
 7       controls on the Puunene mill are not warranted.
 8            I'll submit additional comments in written
 9       form.  Thank you very much.
10            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you.  Isaac Castillo,
11       followed by Henry Arroyo.  Just as a reminder,
12       you can also submit comment in writing.
13            ISAAC CASTILLO:  Good evening.  My name is
14       Isaac Castillo.  Since 2004 I've lived here on
15       the island and in that time I've served as a
16       volunteer tour guide for the Banana Bungalow
17       Hostel.  As a tour guide I've taken a total of
18       over a thousand visitors on a hike through
19       Haleakala National Park's crater over 130
20       different times.
21            Based upon my experience with visitors, I
22       would like to object to the following.  One, I
23       object to the proposal to decommission the
24       monitor Hale 1 as that monitor was used for the
25       baseline visibility data and it will be
0057
 1       impossible to determine movement towards
 2       visibility goals without comparable data from
 3       that monitor.  The Hale 1 monitor must be kept in
 4       place or new monitors placed at the Hale 1
 5       location so that long term visibility data
 6       comparable to baseline may be captured.
 7            Secondly, I would like to object to the
 8       assumption in that plan that visibility for
 9       Haleakala National Park has improved since that
10       baseline period.  In my experience in the crater
11       at Haleakala National Park since 2004, I've
12       noticed that the visibility has degraded, not
13       improved over this time.  Visibility has
14       noticeably worsened since 2004.
15            I would also like to object to the
16       conclusion in the plan that organic carbon from
17       agricultural burning is not a contributing factor
18       to visual impairment.  It is obvious to myself
19       and visitors that I escort through the park that
20       agricultural burning is a substantial
21       contributing factor to visibility impairment
22       during the sugar cane burning season.
23            I object to the finding of no integral vista
24       at Haleakala National Park.  The panoramic view
25       from within the park of areas outside of the park
0058
 1       including Volcanoes National Park on the Big
 2       Island, the view of Central Maui and the
 3       surrounding oceans, is an integral vista within
 4       the meaning of the federal regulations.
 5            My experience with visitors at the national
 6       park illustrates the importance of the panoramic
 7       view from within the park to areas outside the
 8       park to the overall visitors' experience at
 9       Haleakala National Park.  As such, the integral
10       vista is worthy of protection and such protection
11       should be included in this plan.  Thank you.
12            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you, Isaac.  Henry
13       Arroyo followed by Keith Kessler.
14            HENRY ARROYO:  Good evening.  My name is
15       Henry Arroyo and I'm here to make my public
16       comment in opposition to the Proposed Hawaii
17       Regional Haze Federal Implementation Plan.
18            Since 2004 I've served as a volunteer, like
19       Isaac, for the Banana Bungalow Maui Hostel and as
20       a tour guide I have taken hostel guests into
21       Haleakala National Park over 35 times and with a
22       total of over 350 visitors from 2004 until today.
23       Based on my experience I object as follows.  I
24       object to the plan's contribution threshold of
25       only 0.5 deciviews.  That threshold is too low.
0059
 1       I also object to the plans's BART analysis and
 2       believe that all BART eligible sources should be
 3       subjected to full BART review and pollution
 4       control should be required until the amount of
 5       improvement needed to achieve uniform rate of
 6       progress for 2018, or 1.3 delta deciview, is
 7       achieved.
 8            I object to the proposal to determine that
 9       the rate of progress for the implementation plan
10       to attain natural conditions is not reasonable.
11       I also object to the proposed action.  The
12       proposed control measures are not sufficient to
13       ensure that reasonable progress is made during
14       the first planning period.  Thank you very much
15       for your time.
16            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you, Henry.  Keith
17       Kessler, followed by Mahealani Ventura.
18            KEITH KESSLER:  My name is Keith Kessler, I
19       live in Kihei and I missed the last bus so if
20       anybody is going back there, I could use a ride.
21            Thank you for allowing me this opportunity
22       to testify.  I really don't -- I haven't studied
23       the proposal in detail, but I do object to it for
24       a number of reasons, and the main reason is that
25       the model is inadequate.  Let me explain.  I'm a
0060
 1       retired engineer and I was lucky enough to have
 2       been educated by the great physicist Richard
 3       Feynman.  And you may recall that during the
 4       shuttle investigations there was this question
 5       about whether the O rings were brittle or not,
 6       and he solved it by taking it and putting it in
 7       some ice water and taking it out and shattering
 8       it on the table.  Not a lot of analysis was done,
 9       a simple observation proved that the O rings were
10       brittle.
11            Professor Feynman would say that if your
12       model does not agree with observation, then your
13       model is wrong and must be discarded.  And my
14       observation is that when I'm in Haleakala Park
15       and sugar cane is burning, I cannot see Kihei.
16       When I'm in Kihei and sugar cane is burning, I do
17       not see the park.  So if your models are not
18       picking up that haze, your instrumentation is not
19       correct and your model is not correct.
20            I also suggest that the surrogate model that
21       you're using of measuring different substances in
22       the air does not really address what you're
23       supposed to regulate which is visibility of the
24       vista and that there are instruments, I think one
25       is called a nephelometer that does that, it
0061
 1       directly measures what can be seen and what can't
 2       be seen in the attenuation of the atmosphere.
 3            It's been pointed out to me that you can't
 4       distinguish between smoke and water using a
 5       nephelometer, but using two different frequencies
 6       then you should be able to make that
 7       determination what's smoke and what's water.
 8       Your instrumentation is inadequate.  If you set
 9       up two nephelometers from Kihei, you would know
10       any day they're burning cane that you cannot see
11       Kihei from Haleakala and you cannot see Haleakala
12       from Kihei.  And anybody here can tell you that.
13       Thank you.  Your model is no good.
14            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you.  Mahealani Ventura
15       followed by Pilialoha Teves.
16            MAHEALANI VENTURA:  Aloha.  I'm here on
17       behalf of a certain group of people, the Kanaka
18       Maoli people, and we'd like to let you know that
19       we object to the plan in its entirety from the
20       point of supposition of jurisdiction to what you
21       are proposing to do to 2018 to achieve reasonable
22       progress towards achieving visibility goals.  I
23       think that -- and you've heard this from many of
24       our wonderful speakers, these people all have
25       heart and they love, love this place.  This is
0062
 1       our home, we live here together, we're vested
 2       here.
 3            What it comes down to is what you're trying
 4       to achieve here is unreasonable because you're
 5       going to have great opportunity to increase your
 6       reach over interests into sacred burial sites to
 7       sacred places [Hawaiian words] to the Kanaka
 8       Maoli people.  And so far I have not seen anyone
 9       come here to address that and I do not see any
10       respect given to the Kanaka Maoli in any portion
11       of your plan.
12            We appreciate it, the offering that you're
13       making here.  However, we'd like to have the full
14       disclosure on what your basis is to make the
15       proposal.  And in particular, we object to you
16       making these exemptions.  The plantations have a
17       horrible history here.  They have time and time
18       again for generations and generations contributed
19       directly to the asthma problem here.  Of all
20       places in an archipelagic state, we have the
21       highest instance of asthma.  That is unreasonable
22       and your exemptions are therefore unreasonable.
23            There is nothing that this administration
24       has done to benefit or to encourage the life and
25       the health and the productivity of Kanaka Maoli
0063
 1       and that includes our environment which we know
 2       we are a part of in our genealogy, it is a part
 3       of our family.  [Hawaiian words] these are places
 4       that are sacred to us, and that includes all of
 5       the [Hawaiian words].  Everyone here knows that
 6       as well.
 7            So you will have our objection in writing
 8       before July 2nd and also grounds and reasons for
 9       such objections.  You have my information.
10       Mahalo.
11            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you, Mahealani.
12       Pilialoha Teves, followed by Mark Sheehan.
13            PILIALOHA TEVES:  Aloha.  My name is
14       Pilialoha Teves and I am here as a commissioner
15       with the Ad Hoc Conciliation Commission of Ko
16       Hawaiipae Aina.  We are a civil society
17       organization registered with the United Nations
18       Department of Economic and Social Affairs.  We
19       were at the UN in early May at the Permanent
20       Forum on Indigenous Issues.  And at that time
21       many peoples, native peoples, first nation
22       peoples, and indigenous peoples from all over the
23       planet were there and everybody was talking about
24       the same thing and the care and the respect that
25       is due to what is important is the land, is the
0064
 1       water, is the air that we breathe.
 2            And my comments tonight regarding the scope
 3       of what you're looking at really need to be
 4       brought in because it's -- you're looking at one
 5       specific thing and it really needs to be
 6       broadened to include the aerosols, the
 7       stratospheric aerosol spraying.
 8            I am not a scientist.  I am born and raised
 9       here and I was raised to be an observer, to be an
10       observer of the plants, to be an observer of the
11       water, to be an observer of what's going on in
12       the ocean.  I can tell you without a fact,
13       factually, that the waters of South Maui are
14       dead.  There are no fish there.  The ocean, the
15       reefs are dead throughout all of South Maui.
16       There is turtles with tumors.  The health issues
17       of the people.  The water quality is suffering.
18       The plants -- it's raining in Hana and Kipahulu,
19       but everything is dry and it looks like it's dead
20       and it's because of the chemicals that are in the
21       soil, the plants are dying.  And this planet
22       belongs to all of us.
23            So all the people on the planet know about
24       chemtrails and stratospheric aerosol spraying.
25       It got brought up before the world -- the global
0065
 1       caucus which was brought before the permanent
 2       forum on the conclusion of the conference at the
 3       second week of May.
 4            So I will also be giving you my testimony in
 5       writing and thank you very much and really,
 6       please, really look at what the real issue is and
 7       it's not just here in Hawaii, it's global.  Thank
 8       you.
 9            WENDY WILTSE:  Thanks, Pilialoha.  Mark
10       Sheehan, followed by Courtney Bruch.
11            MARK SHEEHAN:  Just want you all to take a
12       close look at this photograph that I'm going to
13       share with --
14            WENDY WILTSE:  Mark, would you go to the
15       microphone, please, so that we can get a record
16       of your statement.
17            MARK SHEEHAN:  Good evening and thank you
18       for coming.  My name is Mark Sheehan and I want
19       to thank you for coming to Maui.
20            It was a clear day today and one of the
21       reasons why it was a clear day is because the
22       sugar mill was not burning.  So I wonder if you
23       would stick around for a few more years to see if
24       the mill would kind of extend that courtesy for a
25       greater period of time.
0066
 1            I've been active in environmental issues for
 2       35 years and I've been also involved in selling
 3       real estate.  Many people who work with me come
 4       here because they're interested in health.  And I
 5       have to say that I've noticed over the last three
 6       decades how the same issues that contribute to
 7       poor visibility in the park contribute to serious
 8       health concerns among the people.  And they
 9       include more than just burning sugar cane, they
10       include the fugitive dust from the agricultural
11       operations, they include the emissions from the
12       smoke stack where the companies are allowed to
13       burn high sulfur coal, also emissions from bunker
14       fuel.  But it's very convenient that we don't
15       really monitor those emissions, nor the health
16       impacts on the people, which are extreme in terms
17       of asthma but also heart conditions and other
18       ones, but we just don't have the -- I was on the
19       Department of Health Advisory Committee years ago
20       and raised the issue about monitoring and I want
21       to raise that issue with you.
22            It is unacceptable in your proposal that you
23       do not have adequate monitoring equipment here.
24       Because if there is no monitoring, you don't have
25       the hard data and it's very hard for us to
0067
 1       testify without that.  So I want to just tell you
 2       that I object to the plan's proposed actions.
 3       The proposed control measures are not sufficient
 4       to ensure reasonable progress is made during the
 5       first planning period.
 6            I also object to the proposal to determine
 7       that no further controls on agricultural burning
 8       are reasonable at this time.  It's not
 9       reasonable.  By the time you add in the
10       additional factor of chemtrails and so on, here
11       we are on one of the most sacred and potentially
12       healthy places on the planet and it turns out to
13       be really a highly dangerous place to be walking
14       around outdoors.
15            I object to the plan's proposal to exempt
16       six of the eight identified BART eligible sources
17       from further review under BART requirements.
18       Please.  Let's be serious here.  We can't give
19       these blanket exceptions.  The corporations that
20       benefit from those things for years have really
21       been responsible for a great deal of harm to the
22       health of the people on the islands.
23            I object to the plan's monitoring strategy
24       and the object of decommissioning of the monitor
25       called Hale 1.  The data from Hale 1 was used for
0068
 1       the baseline visibility determinations and the
 2       monitor must continue to collect data so that
 3       long-term improvements or degradation of
 4       visibility may be appropriately monitored and
 5       measured against baseline.  You know all this.
 6            I object to the statement under the Section
 7       4, Factors Analysis, that it is reasonable to
 8       assume that the visibility at Haleakala on the
 9       best days is not getting worse.  Wrong.  It's
10       getting worse.
11            And I object to the assumption that it is
12       reasonable to assume that the visibility on the
13       worst days will improve.  Another false
14       assumption.
15            So please listen carefully to these people.
16       We're very glad to have you here and have an
17       opportunity to voice our concerns.  This is a
18       precious place on the planet, the health of the
19       people is of great concern and we are suffering
20       from years of criminal neglect on the part of
21       corporations who have been allowed to not be
22       monitored properly.  Thank you for coming, thank
23       you for listening.
24            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you, Mark.  Courtney
25       Bruch -- and Courtney, will you spell your name
0069
 1       -- followed by Jacob Liberman.
 2            COURTNEY BRUCH:  Aloha.  My name is Courtney
 3       Bruch, last name is B-R-U-C-H, first name is
 4       C-O-U-R-T-N-E-Y.  Thank you for coming here
 5       today.
 6            I brought a mask here.  I carry these in my
 7       car because I often, even when I'm driving with
 8       the windows up, I have a hard time breathing
 9       because of the toxic smoke coming in my car.
10            I'm the founder of Maui Clean Air.  I
11       encourage everyone to join our organization on
12       Facebook.  We have over 800 members.
13            I'm very concerned about visibility
14       impairment caused by agricultural toxic haze and
15       geoengineering.  I am concerned about physical
16       visibility and visibility for a healthy future
17       for our island.  We need this to happen now.
18       2064 is too late to wait.  When you wake up to a
19       child who can't breathe, you'll agree.
20            I have personally been seriously poisoned by
21       toxic cane smoke haze, sourced from Hawaii Cane &
22       Sugar open air cane burning.  Spring of last year
23       I woke up to a cane burning.  I could not see
24       clearly outside of my window because of the haze
25       and felt so ill I could not leave my house.  I
0070
 1       can't imagine what people with disabilities,
 2       physical disabilities and elders, what it must be
 3       like for them when this happens nine months out
 4       of the year.
 5            As a substitute teacher and health care
 6       provider, I have witnessed children severely
 7       impacted by agricultural ash particulates that
 8       you call haze.  This is and has been a serious
 9       detriment to the overall health of Maui residents
10       and visitors for decades.  It is common sense
11       that agricultural burning is contributing to
12       haze.  All one needs to do is watch the atomic
13       smoke bomb cloud spread across the sky on a burn
14       day, again which happens approximately
15       nine months out of the year.
16            I object to the plan's proposed actions.
17       The proposed control measures are not sufficient
18       to ensure that reasonable progress is made during
19       the first planning period.  Additional control
20       measures are necessary.
21            It appears from your plan and the technical
22       support document that the Department of Health
23       and the EPA are being disingenuous.  They are
24       choosing data from different monitors to conclude
25       that organic carbon agricultural burning do not
0071
 1       contribute to visibility degradation, although
 2       Table 11 clearly indicates that it does.
 3            The Department of Health and EPA should not
 4       be moving and placing monitors selectively.
 5       Based upon the data, it is not acceptable to find
 6       that there is no evidence of agricultural burning
 7       contributing to haze.
 8            I object to the proposal to determine that
 9       no further controls on agricultural burning are
10       reasonable at this time.  The evidence indicates
11       otherwise.  I request that the EPA explore
12       pollution controls to mitigate the impact of
13       organic carbon from agricultural burning on
14       visibility at Haleakala National Park.
15            I object to the proposal to determine that
16       the uniform rate of progress for the
17       implementation plan to attain natural conditions
18       is not reasonable.  The uniform rate of the
19       progress is reasonable.
20            Additional pollution control measures or
21       measures to control fugitive toxic dust in
22       agricultural burning should be implemented as
23       necessary to achieve the uniform rate of
24       progress.
25            Please help Maui stop open air cane burning
0072
 1       and place a moratorium on geoengineering
 2       immediately.  This will quickly reach EPA goals
 3       for acceptable visibility and honor the health of
 4       our people and island.  Mahalo.
 5            We really do hope that you will help us
 6       here.  We've been waiting a long time for this
 7       opportunity.  So please, when you go home, think
 8       about our island here and all the people that are
 9       impacted and affected by this outdated toxic
10       agricultural process.  Thank you.
11            WENDY WILTSE:  Jacob Liberman, followed by
12       Greg Godwin, followed by Airielle Pearson.
13            JACOB LIBERMAN:  Hi, I'm Jacob Liberman, I'm
14       a physician and scientist.  But I think what we
15       need to speak about is the science we rarely use
16       which is called common sense.  The word "aloha"
17       has to do with the sacredness of the breath.
18       It's just interesting that so much of the
19       conversation tonight has been about something
20       that is violating the most sacred word in Hawaii,
21       "aloha," the sacredness of one's ability to
22       breathe.
23            If you've ever had a panic attack or god
24       forbid drowned or seen someone that is having
25       difficulty breathing, you know it is the most
0073
 1       frightening thing a human being can experience.
 2            I don't object to anything that you're
 3       doing.  I'm grateful for everything that you're
 4       doing.  And I also realize you don't live here,
 5       you don't get to experience that when you awaken
 6       in the middle of the night and you can't breathe.
 7            I'm a person that's never had allergies, but
 8       I wake up hacking up green mucus every day
 9       because of that smoke and it only goes away when
10       I leave this, the most beautiful place on the
11       planet.  What's wrong with this picture?
12            It is incredibly important that we ensure
13       the visibility of all the beauty that surrounds
14       us here, but you cannot separate anything that
15       obscures visibility from your health.  If it
16       obscures your visibility, it's not good for your
17       health, you're breathing it in all the time.  And
18       I believe that even though I realize you have
19       separate departments for health and what you're
20       doing, they have to be put together because
21       they're not two separable items.
22            If you spend some time here, you will see
23       exactly what the causes are, what are the major
24       impacting causes that are both obstructing the
25       view and interfering with your ability to
0074
 1       breathe.  Aloha and mahalo.
 2            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you, Jacob.  Greg
 3       Godwin, followed by Airielle Pearson.
 4            GREG GODWIN:  Good evening and aloha, ma'am
 5       and gentlemen.  I think it's very loud back
 6       there, I hope I'm being heard okay.
 7            We really appreciate your time and visit.
 8       It's long, long, long overdue.  At two years of
 9       age I was diagnosed with asthma.  As a medic in
10       the Air Force I was in Wiesbaden, Germany
11       hospital as a medic in the dermatology and
12       allergy clinic, and we service all of Europe for
13       sources, the armed services, as well as the
14       Mid-East, so I have some background when I was
15       working as in North Carolina.
16            I would like to second 99.9 percent of the
17       objections you've heard rather than taking the
18       time I don't have for going through that.  And
19       the air is contaminated not just by the things
20       that have been described like coal and geo and
21       cane burns.  There is also a drop of fertilizer
22       or whatever does it, pesticides, et cetera.  For
23       instance, I have seen over 32 years these white
24       deposits from air drops on cars.  It's not bird.
25       I haven't been lucky enough to diagnose it,
0075
 1       except somebody take the time it would be
 2       wonderful.  And it's damaging to paint, not to
 3       mention whatever it may be particulate or spray
 4       in the air.  We have numerous sprays.
 5       Contaminants that come to this island and
 6       especially the dry areas.  We don't just get them
 7       the first time.  Any time that dust is stirred
 8       up, you're recirculating, recontaminating, so
 9       that's constant.
10            We appreciate you folks' effort, but what
11       we're hearing so far we need to hear about four
12       to five times stronger in our defense that I'm
13       hearing, so just bring that to your attention
14       please.
15            Last year over the past 8 months, for
16       instance there was a spray by HC&S, air spray in
17       Paia.  It drifted into a public beach with
18       children and that's unforgivable, that type of
19       thing.  This is not supposed to happen.  So we
20       hold HC&S responsible.  A&B, you know, parent,
21       whatever.  And we'd like to see things like that
22       controlled and penalties, stiff penalties.
23            Before I started coming to Hawaii, I
24       reviewed the University of Hawaii atlas, they
25       have excellent information on contamination,
0076
 1       smog, all the factors in the air as well as the
 2       water.  And water is a huge thing here.  For
 3       instance, you may have heard of some of the
 4       pesticides.  Can you help us improve our
 5       standards?  I want to give you an example.  A
 6       couple years ago there was a four-foot pipeline
 7       put in from old Maui High area, whatever the old
 8       community name, and that's coming in but it's not
 9       being taken to the quality that Hawaii or Oahu is
10       given to demand.  We need to demand that, all of
11       us.
12            And I'm also seeking signatures tonight
13       because I need to be more effective in these
14       efforts and others by seeking a seat on the Maui
15       County Council.  So I have signatures now.  In
16       any case, tourism suffers from these things.
17       When people come here and they, you know,
18       pollens, you can move to a less dense
19       concentration, that's doable.  But the other junk
20       we have in the air is -- it's unbelievable.
21            As I said, you've had enough objections that
22       I second.  Dust.  I had something else on dust
23       here.  That tenacious whitish deposit I mentioned
24       on vehicles, my car, other cars, that's been
25       going for 32 years, I emphasize 32 years.  And I
0077
 1       can verify it isn't a bird.
 2            WENDY WILTSE:  Greg, would you wrap it up?
 3            THE WITNESS:  Thank you.  Wonderful.  Yes.
 4       I think we are lucky to get you folks here.  We
 5       just wish you'd come sooner because we need all
 6       the help you can give us.  Mahalo and thank you
 7       for coming.
 8            WENDY WILTSE:  Airielle Pearson.
 9            AIRIELLE PEARSON:  Can you hear me okay?  I
10       did not come prepared.  I do not have any papers
11       here.  My name is Airielle Pearson.  I come
12       representing the human race.  And I think that
13       that's what's important here on this island.  We
14       have had -- you've heard everybody testify.  I
15       have lived on this island for 30 years.  I can
16       tell you the air is not getting better.  It
17       doesn't look better.  The oceans are not getting
18       better.  Almost everybody that's lived here for
19       any amount of time has respiratory challenges.
20            I've lived all over this island and I've
21       experienced all the different places that are
22       affected by what happens here.  So welcome to
23       paradise.  You know, this is what people think
24       they're getting when they come here, they think
25       they're getting paradise.  They come for
0078
 1       paradise.  And they end up on beach with black
 2       ash, poop in the water, and haze in the sky,
 3       chemtrails in the air.  It's a very strange
 4       paradise.
 5            So I stand here today saying to you that
 6       thank you so much for coming.  We really are so
 7       grateful that you're here.  And now please take
 8       all the things that these people have said to you
 9       and remember them.  Don't go off and forget about
10       us.
11            I live in senior housing in Maui right now.
12       I want to give you a little picture.  It's in
13       Kihei.  When they burn, that burn comes across
14       the mountain and forms this beautiful huge black
15       cloud on top of senior housing.  Now, last year I
16       said is this how we're getting rid of our seniors
17       on Maui now?  We're giving them a little poison.
18       You know, we are being poisoned on this island
19       from so many different angles.  And I realize
20       that you're here about Haleakala and the haze,
21       but I want to say to you how can you possibly
22       think that the haze is getting better when we are
23       surrounded with chemical poisoning everywhere we
24       look.  It's just not happening.  We've had the
25       chemtrails.  We've got Monsanto.  We've got so
0079
 1       many different things here poisoning this
 2       beautiful island that we all love that is our
 3       heart.
 4            So please, see what you can do with us or
 5       for us when you go home.  Think about us, see how
 6       you can help us.  And find -- we can't wait all
 7       those years.  We need something to help the
 8       people now.
 9            I've done healing on this island for
10       30 years and I'm going to say, I think this is
11       still correct, but the island of Maui has more
12       children on inhalers than any place else in the
13       United States.  If you're concerned about clean
14       air -- thank you so much.
15            WENDY WILTSE:  Thank you.  We're just about
16       at the end of the hearing.  We probably have time
17       for one more person to comment if you haven't
18       commented or you need another couple minutes.  Is
19       there anybody who would like to comment who has
20       not done so so far?
21            GREG GODWIN:  I represent the second
22       district which is Makawao, Haiku, Paia.
23            WENDY WILTSE:  Just as a reminder, you can
24       submit comments in writing and they will be
25       considered equally with the oral comments given
0080
 1       tonight.
 2            So if there are no further comments, I will
 3       conclude the public hearing.  The comment period
 4       remains open until July 2, 2012.  We thank you
 5       all for coming tonight and participating in the
 6       public hearing.  We really appreciate you taking
 7       the time to share your thoughts and information
 8       with us.  Thank you.
 9                     [Concluded at 8:30 p.m.]
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0081
 1                   C E R T I F I C A T E
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 5        I, LYNANN NICELY, Hawaii Certified Shorthand
 6   Reporter No. 354, do hereby certify:
 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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17        Dated:  June 15, 2012
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21   _________________________________
22   LYNANN NICELY, HAWAII CSR 354
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