Ka`u News Briefs Jan. 14, 2011

`Aina Koa Pono's illustration of the process of  creating biofuel.

MAYOR BILLY KENOI IS APPEALING to the 2011 State Legislature for help in balancing the county budget. In his message to the lawmakers he said the county expects another budget shortfall that will once again force painful budget cuts. “The unavoidable truth is we now have a county government that we cannot afford. We will continue to reduce the size and to refocus our limited resources on core, critical services. Government must do more with less, and programs that are not essential to our core county mission must be set aside,” he said. 

     He pointed to declining property revenues and increasing costs forcing the county to cope with the largest budget shortfalls in county history in the last and current budget year.
     Kenoi said he hopes to help stimulate the economy with state and local government making investments into the communities. He said he wants to carry forward momentum from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which injected more than $115 million in federal money into this county’s economy. “Now it is time for local governments to step up to their responsibilities and do their part to help stimulate the economy. Our working families are counting on us,” he said.
     The mayor is proposing $56 million in capital improvement projects around the island and is hoping the legislature will help fund them.

THE `AINA KOA PONO HUI that plans to produce synthetic diesel oil with a processing plant in Pahala and from crops and trees grown on land around the community is asking the Public Utilities Commission to approve its contract with Hawaiian Electric Company to raise its rates in order to pay for the manufacturing of the diesel. In order to pay for the $320 million project, the average electric bill on O`ahu, Lana`i, Moloka`i, Maui and the Big Island would go up by an average of $1.55 to $1.86 a month for a typical residential customer. However, electric prices would stabilize over time, as the cost of synthetic fuel produced here would be stable, according to HELCO officials. The PUC will take comments from the public and consumer advocates. 

State Department of Agriculture staff members Jimmy Nakatani, Leslie Campaniano and Gayle Nakamura
with Chairman Russell Kokubun, at right.

RUSSELL KOKUBUN has taken his position as chair of the state Department of Agriculture. In his message to the people of Hawai`i, he said the Hawai`i Department of Agriculture’s 260 employees statewide work to support, enhance and promote Hawai`i’s agriculture and aquaculture industries. 

     “Hawai`i’s transition from mono-crop plantations, such as pineapple and sugarcane, to diversified agriculture, including nursery products, seed crops and other vegetable and fruit crops, is important to the state’s economy, environment and lifestyle. Agriculture not only feeds our state, but it also keeps our unique working landscape green – a feature appreciated by residents as well as the millions of visitors to our islands.
     “Hawai`i’s agricultural products are valued around the world for superior quality and the sharing of the Aloha spirit. Hawai`i is also a recognized world leader in aquaculture, producing the finest seafood products for Hawai`i consumers and export markets.
     “In addition, the Department of Agriculture protects our agricultural interests with inspection for invasive species of incoming plant material and animals, safeguarding animal and plant health, supporting farmers with affordable land and water, providing financial assistance to farmers and assuring quality of produce,” said Kokubun.
     He suggested that everyone keep in touch with him through the website at Hawaii.gov/hdoa.
     After winning re-election to the state senate, Kokubun was appointed by Governor Neil Abercrombie to head the Department of Ag.
     His Senate seat is now held by Gil Kahele, also appointed by Abercrombie.

MEET THOMAS JAGGAR, the founder of Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, this morning as he discusses his work during a living history program set in 1912. The program takes place every Friday in January at 10 a.m., 11 a.m. and noon at Kilauea Visitor Center in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park as part of Volcano Awareness Month. Park entrance fees apply.

A CONCERT FEATURING the Honolulu Jazz Quartet and Junior Choy, with special guest Moons Landing, takes place tomorrow night at 7 p.m. at Kilauea Military Camp Theater in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Call 967-8222 or visit www.volcanoartcenter.org for ticket information.

THE OCEAN VIEW COMMUNITY CENTER offers square dancing tomorrow night, and every Saturday night, from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. It is open to everyone, and children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult.

Ka`u News Briefs Jan. 13, 2011

HELCO president Jay Ignacio tells Pahala residents that the electric company can help 

to wean itself from foreign oil by making a synthetic fuel plant in Pahala.

ABOUT SIXTY COMMUNITY MEMBERS gathered at the Old Pahala Clubhouse last night for a presentation on a proposed synthetic fuels processing plant being planned for Pahala by a hui called `Aina Koa Pono. Engineers and investors, as well as the president of Hawai`i Electric Light Company, Jay Ignacio, explained their plan for Pahala to help wean HECO off foreign oil, in exchange for jobs, economic development and community benefits. The hui promised 300 union construction jobs to build the $320 million manufacturing plant and energy farm, with 100 permanent jobs from agricultural equipment operators to factory and office workers.

     To begin, the fuels made from biomass would be manufactured in Pahala and trucked in liquid fuel tanks to the Keahole power plant in Kona. Pahala could also become the manufacturing site for fuels to burn in the Hilo power plant and to manufacture a variety of fuels from diesel for trucks to jet fuel. Fuels manufactured in Pahala could also be shipped off island. 

     The plan is to initially harvest eucalyptus trees and Christmas berry as well as crops that would be grown on 13,000 acres between Pahala and Na`alehu. The feedstock would be trucked on the old cane haul roads to Pahala where it would be vaporized by a giant microwave and turned into various kinds of liquid fuels in an 80-foot-tall distillation cone. One of the first sources of fuel could be the large stand of eucalyptus trees above the town. 

Engineer Alexander Causey

     Engineer Alexander Causey said that the initial operating capacity would provide for a truck every 20 minutes coming into the plant with wood and other feedstock down the cane haul road behind Ilima Street. Six liquid fuel trucks a day would head down the Maile Street lane of Norfolk pine trees to Hwy 11 and out to Kona. 

     There would be 1.28 million gallons of fuel stored in giant fuel tanks on the grounds of the manufacturing site, like the fuel tanks you see at Hilo Harbor, he said.
     Two homeowners living adjacent to the hui’s preferred manufacturing site – the macadamia truck shed just below Ilima Street – said the site was too close to their homes and the preschool.
     Homeowner and family therapist Sara Witt said she worried about the safety of the microwave plant and the noise of the trucks going by behind her house.
     `Aina Koa Pono representatives said that the microwave unit and its shield would be changed each year.
     Former County Council member Guy Enriques asked about community benefits and said that the landscape was radically changed at South Point when new windmills went up without providing any reduction in electric bills or other benefits to the Ka`u community.
     Building contractor Bob Taylor said that the Electric Company was turning away a lot of the wind energy being produced at South Point. “Why invest in alternative energy if the electric company doesn’t use all that it can use?” he asked.
     Rancher Al Galimba questioned the availability of enough feedstock for the manufacturing of the fuels. “We have a drought and nothing will grow, then where will you get your feedstock?” he asked.
     The engineer pointed out that sugar was grown for many generations in Ka`u without irrigation and that his hui is looking into growing plants that require much less water than sugar cane.
     He also said that water was available from a giant reservoir above town that was built by the old plantation.
     County planner Ron Whitmore asked about the use of fertilizer and pesticides – the downstream effect. Causey said that they plan to run cattle to the fields for fertilizer and hope to limit chemicals on the land. Whitmore asked about the test plots of various plants that could be used for biofuels to see how they hold up in the vog. The hui said that they plan to conduct tests by growing various plants to see which ones do best here.
     Causey said they plan to grow perennials that would be mowed and bailed – like hay, rather than shoveled out of the ground like the sugar cane was harvested by plantations in the past. He said the grasses they could grow would not create seeds that would become invasive but would be grown from rhizomes.
     Sophia Hanoa asked if an Environmental Impact Statement is being written for the project, and Causey said he didn’t think that one would be required. She also asked if there is any place in the world where such a manufacturing plant is operating so that community members could assess it. She was told that there is a test plant next to University of Denmark but that it is being moved and not currently operating.

A house on Ilima Street near the initial site planned for a synthetic fuels manufacturing plant in Pahala.
An alternate site is proposed next to Pahala rubbish transfer station.

     The hui said that an alternate location, near the Pahala transfer station, is being considered as it is farther from homes and schools. The engineer and investors said they will be coming to Pahala at least once a month. They and County Council member Brittany Smart said another community meeting will be planned soon.

AS PART OF VOLCANO AWARENESS month, an interpreter from Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park leads a hike to Pu`uloa this afternoon at 1 p.m. Participants meet at the Pu`uloa parking lot on Chain of Craters Road. This two-mile hike takes one-and-a-half hours, and park entrance fees apply.

VOLUNTEERS AND THOSE INTERESTED in becoming volunteers are invited to the monthly Red Cross meeting tonight at 7 p.m. at the HOVE Road Maintenance Corporation office in Ocean View. Call Hannah Uribes at 929-9953.

Ka`u News Briefs Jan. 12, 2011

Gil Kahele will be the new senator for Ka`u. He emceed Gov. Neil Abercrombie's inauguration ceremonies in Pahala
in December with Hulali and Big D.

GIL KAHELE has been selected to become the new Senator for Ka`u, Puna and Waiakea Uka. Kahele, who emceed Governor Neil Abercrombie’s ceremonies at Pahala Plantation House on December 12, headed the East Hawai`i Abercrombie campaign during the election season. He was a community organizer in Miloli`i who helped Native Hawaiians become homeowners there. He also served on the state legislature’s Coastal Preservation Task Force. 

     The governor, who chose him over finalists Russell Ruderman and Anthony Marzi, said that Kahele “has the ability to bring people together to address our common challenges.” Kahele served in the U.S. Marine Corps and retired from the Department of Defense in 2000. He worked in Public Works at the Naval Communication Station on O`ahu and at Pohakuloa Training Area on this island. He has received the Rural Development Corporation National Award for community service and has been president of Pa`a Pono Miloli`i and the Department of Natural Resource’s Na Ala Hele Advisory Council. Kahele, who was appointed by Abercrombie after Senator Russell Kokubun stepped down to become chair of the state Department of Agriculture, will serve for two years and then will be eligible to run for re-election.

Bionic Fuel Technologies in Germany designed this plant.

The microwave can process most anything into fuel.

REPRESENTATIVES OF A HUI PLANNING to build a biodiesel processing plant and saw mill in Pahala will come to Ka`u to answer questions today at 4:30 p.m. at the Old Pahala Clubhouse on Maile Street. Kenton Eldridge, a partner in the hui, and engineer Alexander Causey will speak to members of the public, along with County Council member Brittany Smart. The processing plant had been planned for the old macadamia equipment shed near Pahala preschool, the Methodist Church and homes at the bottom of Ilima Street. However, other sites are being considered, including one just mauka of the Pahala Transfer station.

ENGINEER ALEXANDER CAUSEY said the processing plant would have a footprint of more than 150 feet by 300 feet. It would include two small power plants to run the operation and a sawmill. Questions will be answered about the microwave technology that would be used to process trees and plants into a liquid fuel. `Aina Koa Pono plans to process all the eucalyptus trees above Pahala, Christmas berry and other wood as well as sweet sorghum or other crops that could be grown on former sugar lands above Pahala. Representatives of the venture will also answer questions about the new process being able to dispose of municipal waste.

THE MILITARY IS HOSTING a talk story session in Hilo this evening regarding the expansion of its operations at Pohakuloa Training Area along the Saddle Road between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa. The military is submitting a Programic Environmental Impact Statement on potential effects with construction and operation of an Infantry Platoon Battle area at Pohakuloa. The expanded facility “would improve the current shortfall in collective (group) live-fire training capabilities for units stationed in Hawai`i,” says a media release from the military.
     The military wants to construct and operate an Infantry Platoon Battle Course Live-fire Shoothouse, and a Military Operations on Urban Terrain facility.
     The public is invited to scoping meetings to ask questions and examine tabletop displays. Comments will be allowed. The Hilo scoping meeting will be tonight at 
Hilo Intermediate School
, 587 Waianuenue Avenue, with an open house from 
5:30 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. 
and an open microphone session from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. See www.garrison.hawaii.army.mil.

JASON ZIMMER SHARES his knowledge and skills in making ahu la`i – Hawaiian rain capes – this morning at 10 a.m. on the lanai of Kilauea Visitor Center in Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park. Park entrance fees apply.

SUZANNE SCHILLER DISCUSSES Living Stress-free and Pain-free at a workshop tonight at Ocean View Chiropractic and Wellness Center. She requests a $10 donation. Call 929-9229 for more information.

THERE ARE MORE PLACES to pick up applications for Miss Ka`u Coffee 2011, Miss Ka`u Peaberry and Little Miss Ka`u Coffee. Prospective contestants can pick them up Kahuku Gift and Garden Shop in Ocean View, Grandma's Closet in Na`alehu, Pahala Community Center and R&G Store in Pahala. Applications are being accepted through Wednesday, January 26. For Miss Ka`u Coffee, girls contestants must be ages 17 to 24; for Little Miss Ka`u Coffee ages 10 to12 and Miss Ka`u Peaberry ages 7 to 9. The age category is determined by the age of the contender on May 13, 2011. Each contestant’s main residence must be in the district of Ka`u. Call Gloria Camba at 928-8558, Nalani Parlin at 217-6893 or Nona Makuakane at 928-3102. Posters can be seen around the community.