Ka`u News Briefs March 17, 2011

HEAVY WIND blew smoke and odor from Volcano to Pahala yesterday, and residents called public officials to find out if a fire was near the town. But just like the fumes from Halema`uma`u crater, winds had blown the smoke across the Ka`u desert. Wind also blew the smoke and particles away from Pahala, and the skies became clear within minutes.
     The eleven-hundred-acre fire started from the Kamoamoa eruption between Halema`uma`u and Pu`u `O`o and has burned for more than two days. The gusty winds pushed and stoked the fires as they moved southwest toward Holei Pali, park officials said. Park firefighters have held the blaze east and north of Chain of Craters Road, which remains closed at Mau Loa O Mauna Ulu. Firefighters from Whisky Town National Recreational Area in northern California will provide reinforcement to Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park firefighters, arriving on Friday. The fires are moving through uluhe fern and ohia, park officials said.

LOW LEVELS OF RADIATION have been found in mail from Japan at San Francisco and New York post offices but not in Hawai`i, according to the U.S. Postal Service. U.S. customs allowed the mail to go through after assessing that the levels were very low. Customs is spot-checking mail when it arrives in Honolulu. The state Department of Health said that no radiation has arrived from the release of radiation from Japanese nuclear plants, and none is expected at this time.

SEN. DAN AKAKA sent an email this morning about a congressional hearing he is attending as a senior member of the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. The hearing is about Catastrophic Preparedness: How Ready is FEMA for the Next Big Disaster?" He said the committee will examine the Federal Emergency Management Agency's preparedness for catastrophic disaster. Akaka wrote that he plans to ask FEMA officials "to evaluate the agency’s ability to respond to a potential disaster in Hawai`i, tsunami preparedness and response efforts, and the need for a well-trained FEMA workforce to effectively carry out the agency's mission." The hearing is webcast live today, beginning at 9:15 a.m. Hawai`i time.

Puna Geothermal power generating equipment.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY is getting more national awareness following problems with the nuclear power plants in Japan that risk the health of many residents there. Hawai`i island is considered to have the most potential for geothermal development in the United States, as its sits on a hot spot on the ocean floor that is expected to last more than a half million years. The National Wildlife Federation reports good results for geothermal heat pumps that have been installed on 160 college campuses throughout the country. U.S. Geothermal is building a modular geothermal plant in Oregon with $90 million in federal funding. On the Big Island, Puna Geothermal is adding eight megawatts onto its production and says it can ramp up to 200 megawatts and meet most of the electrical needs of the island. 

`Aina Koa Pono's depiction of its proposed Ka`u Energy Farm.

     Another proposal is the biofuels farm and factory planned around Pahala, which would use trees and crops grown for a refinery. This proposal also calls for making transportation fuel to take cars, trucks and airplanes off of fossil fuel.

KA`U FEDERAL CREDIT UNION and Bank of Hawai`i have joined other financial institutions to collect funds for a relief effort for victims of the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear disasters in Japan. Mayor Billy Kenoi thanked the credit unions and banks “for stepping forward to join in this effort to assist the victims of this tragedy.” He said, “All of us have been saddened by the loss of life and terrible damage in Japan, and we all want to help.” Checks should be made payable to Aloha for Japan and can be dropped off at the Ocean View, Na`alehu and Pahala branches of Ka`u Federal Credit Union and Bank of Hawai`i in Pahala.

YESTERDAY, THE STATE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES passed $10.9 billion in state government spending for this year and another $10.9 billion for next year with a clause that lets the budget go back to the drawing board after the state Council of Revenues makes a new forecast on income. The forecast will be re-evaluated to take into consideration the earthquake and tsunami devastation in Japan, along with the unsettled nuclear power plant radiation crisis. The Japanese visitor market is important to the economy of Hawai`i, and how soon it could rebound remains a large variable to Hawai`i businesses. After meeting with the House and Senate leadership yesterday, Gov. Neil Abercrombie released a statement saying that raising the general excise tax is not being considered to make up for any deficit, but additional cuts in the budget are expected. 

Ka`u Hospital administrator
Merilyn Harris

KA`U HOSPITAL INVITES THE PUBLIC to meet its administration and public officials this Saturday, March 19 at 3 p.m. The meet and greet session follows the East Hawai`i Region of HHSC Board of Directors meeting to be held at the hospital in Pahala. On hand will be Sen. Gil Kahele, the board, and hospital administrator Merilyn Harris and her staff. Plans will be presented to improve Ka`u Hospital.

THE KA`U FEDERAL CREDIT UNION holds its annual meeting  this Saturday at 5 p.m. at Na`alehu Community Center. Officers will be inducted and a steak fry put on by the Na`alehu Roping & Riding Club. 

Ka`u News Briefs March 16, 2011

Illustration shows Hawai`i state government's required funding.

THE PROPOSED 2012 STATE BUDGET from the governor is accompanied by a bold illustration showing how much of the spending is required to pay for unemployment benefits and public employee benefits and such costs as infrastructure maintenance and education. Unemployment insurance alone will cost the state $262 million in special funds for extended benefits to unemployed workers, $54 million for public worker health care and retirement funds, $26.5 million for services for citizens from the Marshall Islands, Republic of Palau and Federal States of Micronesia, bond interest payments of $828,000 and $1 million to pay for dam safety. 

     The governor also wants to restore positions at the state Historic Preservation Division, which will accelerate permitting; rebuild the agricultural inspection system; and restore a procurement office to provide transparency and efficiency in government spending.
     The budget also provides $49.5 million for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families; $22 million for state highways; $14 million for schools to cover transportation, nurse services, textbooks and a fund for communities to use school facilities. Also for education is tuition assistance for Hawai`i National Guard programs and athletics. For energy, the governor wants $5.7 million for the Public Utilities Commission and Consumer Advocate to move forward on a clean energy agenda.

GOV. NEIL ABERCROMBIE said yesterday he was pleased by the ongoing recovery of the visitor industry following the arrival of tsunami waves from Japan last Friday. He toured the King Kamehameha Beach Hotel and saw guests checking in as the cleanup in the tsunami-flooded lobby continued. He witnessed rapid repairs on Ali`i Drive, where the pavement was crumbled near the seawall. The state Department of Transportation announced that the Kona pier will be ready for the shore boats from the 2,000-passenger ship scheduled to come into Kona today. Passenger ships are also coming into Hilo, where visitors disembark and tour the volcano, traveling as far as the black sand beach, and dining at Ka`u and Volcano restaurants.
     The governor flew over the island in a Hawai`i National Guard C-26 prop jet. Meanwhile, the cleanup of the Ka`u and Kona coasts continues, with state and volunteer divers trying to pull everything off the fragile reefs that doesn’t belong there. Volunteers were also drying out the collections of historic papers, maps books and other items that had been stored in the basement of Hulihe`e Palace, which was flooded with four feet of water by tsunami waves.
     Abercrombie said that FEMA will provide aid and the Small Business Administration will provide loans for victims of the tsunami. 

PUC director Mina Morita with Blue Planet Foundation
 executive director Jeff Mikulina after her senate confirmation.
  Mikulina is former director of the Hawai`i Sierra Club.
Photo courtesy of Blue Planet Foundation

MINA MORITA has been confirmed by the state senate and sworn in as the new director of the Public Utilities Commission. A graduate of Kamehameha Schools, she is known for her environmental work at Kilauea Point National Wildlife Refuge, Kaua`i Children’s Discovery Museum, Hanalei Community Association and Environment Hawai`i. She was a Kaua`i planning commissioner and has been a full-time member of the state House of Representatives since 1997. As the new Public Utilities chief she will be involved with the state’s renewable energy initiative and involved in the decisions on which energies are appropriate for Hawai`i. The Public Utilities Commission will be involved in decisions regarding the proposed agreement for Hawaiian Electric Company to purchase biofuel from the proposed refinery near Pahala and biofuels farm between Na`alehu and Pahala. 

SENATE BILL 1347 passed the Senate and is now being considered by the House. It would allow the PUC to approve Hawaiian Electric’s proposal to slightly raise electric bills across the state to help pay for biofuel that would be produced in Ka`u by `Aina Koa Pono, which has promised some 200 permanent jobs here. The bill goes to the finance committee and, if passed, to the full House of Representatives.

POTASSIUM IODIDE should not be ingested by people anticipating radiation fallout to reach here from Japan, the state Department of Health said yesterday in an advisory to the public. The statement said that the damage to nuclear reactors in Japan has led to concerns about radiation exposure in Hawai`i and other parts of the world. Interim Health Director Loretta Fuddy said, “There is no increased risk of harmful levels of radiation exposure in Hawai`i based on our situation to date.” She also warned against taking iodine unnecessarily as some people are allergic, particularly those already allergic to shellfish and people with some skin disorders and thyroid problems. She said that if such an emergency should occur, the health department would provide the potassium iodide to the public.

Brenda Ho

Dr. Robert Irvine

SENATOR GIL KAHELE will meet the public and staff at Ka`u Hospital this Saturday, March 19 at 3 p.m. The meet and greet session follows the East Hawai`i Region of HHSC Board of Directors meeting led by its president, orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Robert Irvine, and vice president Brenda Ho. Ho is also executive director of Hospice of Hilo. The board is holding its meeting in the hospital to show support for the staff and community and their commitment to building the capacity of Ka`u Hospital to meet the health care needs of Ka`u, said the hospital’s administrator Merilyn Harris. She will give a brief presentation to highlight improvements and plans for the local health facility.

Ka`u News Briefs March 15, 2011

Destruction of a home at Honomolino Bay, where tsunami waves washed the building off of its foundation.   
Photo by Kaiali`i Kahele

GOV. NEIL ABERCROMBIE is flying over the Big Island today to see the tsunami destruction along the coast. Ka`u residents and their neighbors, north to Miloli`i, were largely spared, with the exception of remote houses at Kapua, Okoe and Honomolino. 

`O Ka`u Kakou members clean up Punalu`u Beach,
where sand washed inland, filling part of the pond.
Photo by Katherine Okumura

Turtle warning signs
knocked down at Punalu`u.
Photo by Katherine Okumura

    Punalu`u beach was cleaned up with help from `O Ka`u Kakou. Founder Guy Enriques said the most obvious change at Punalu`u is the disappearance and distribution of sand. Sand washed deeper into private properties. Without permission from private property owners, however, it is unrecoverable. Much of the Pahala side of the pond at Punalu`u has been filled with sand. 

A BILL THAT INCLUDES NEW LANGUAGE that would allow Hawaiian Electric Company to spread rate increases throughout its customer base across the state to pay for new energy is alive at the state Legislature. The Public Utilities Commission recently turned down a HECO proposal to raise rates across the state to help pay for fuel that would come from the proposed `Aina Koa Pono energy farm and factory planned for Ka`u. The PUC ruled that since the biofuel would be manufactured for the Big Island, initially, it could not allow the electric company to charge customers in Maui and O`ahu counties for power they will not receive. 

     However, HECO proposed a measure that would allow spreading the cost. The new legislation was added to a bill that already passed the Senate to allow public utilities to make electronic filings to the PUC. The amendment was added and passed yesterday by the House Consumer Protection Committee. This change would allow the PUC to consider the proposal to spread the cost of the `Aina Koa Pono biofuel to all HECO customers. Rep. Cliff Tsuji, who chairs the House Agriculture Committee, voted for the measure during committee meeting. Rep. Bob Herkes was absent. The bill goes to the Finance Committee and, if passed, to the full House of Representatives for consideration. 

Croton caterpillars are grinding through Christmas berries
in the area of Kamaoa and South Point Roads and other
locations in Ka`u. Photo by Arnold Hara, UH-CTAHR

CHRISTMAS BERRIES are under attack by caterpillars that seem to have a population explosion about every 15 years in Ka`u. County Council member Brittany Smart said they are particularly noticeable at the corner of Kamaoa and South Point Roads. Entomologist Patrick Conant said the caterpillars prefer the Christmas berry but will also eat other plants in the same family. The croton caterpillar also likes plumeria, Christ child and castor bean. This caterpillar may be fast reproducing after the drought, followed by recent heavy rainfall. Its larval and egg parasites may have died out during the drought and will take awhile to come back, said the entomologist. The march of the caterpillars may go on for a couple of months, he said. In 1992, the croton caterpillar ate more than 100 acres of Christmas berry near Green Sands subdivision.
     This caterpillar is different from another caterpillar, Episimus stilis, which was released in Na`alehu in 1964 but did not work well in controlling the Christmas berry.

THE NUCLEAR CRISIS in Japan is leading health agencies to bring more radiation detectors to Hawai`i, and some people are stocking up on potassium iodine tablets, which protect the thyroid gland from cancer caused by radiation. 

     State Civil Defense deputy director Ed Texeira said that for now, the chance of radioactive clouds reaching here from Japan is low. The radiation entering the environment in Fukushima - through Tokyo Electric’s intentional release of pressure at the broken nuclear power plants, as well as explosions at the nuclear plants and a fire at a nuclear waste storage pond - has stayed out of the jet stream, according to the National Weather Service. 

A map of projected distribution of radioactive particles
from the broken nuclear power plants in Japan through
Wednesday, as predicted by theweatherspace.com.
It shows the jet stream staying far north of Hawai`i.

     Should it reach the jet stream, it could come this way. It is not unusual for the jet stream to be active between Japan and Hawai`i. In fact, the speed of the jet stream frequently reduces commercial airline flight time between Tokyo and Honolulu.
     The half-life of radioactive Iodine-131 is eight days and would likely lose its radioactivity by the time it reaches here, unless it arrives in the jet stream, health officials said. For now the jet stream is far north of Hawai`i. 

     Theweatherspace.com has come up with a map predicting distribution of the radioactive particles already released in Japan through Wednesday, again, showing any radiation that might be picked up staying far north of Hawai`i at this time.

EMERGENCY SIRENS for every community is an issue being taken up at the County Council today. Being discussed is requiring developers, or even new businesses with a capacity of hosting 50 or more people, to absorb the cost of $75,000 to $100,000 to install a siren should there be no siren nearby. The concern stems from the lack of sirens at Kohala coastal resorts where none were installed nor required when the resorts were being constructed. Whether the cost should be born by the county or private business is one of the points being argued.

TUTU & ME BEGINS ITS PAHALA program next week. The free educational program is open to children up to five years old accompanied by a grandparent or other caregiver. To register, call 929-8571.