Ka'u News Briefs April 2, 2012

Baby Hawksbill turtles are born along the Ka`u-Volcano Coast. Photo by Jay Robinson

PAHALA PUBLIC LIBRARY may not be turned over to Ka`u High School and Pahala Elementary School to use for other purposes. Members of the public are asking to keep the library open for both the community and the students. In a letter last week to the House Committee on Education, retired Hawai`i schoolteacher Lynn Hamilton, of Pahala, objected to testimony that “Pahala doesn’t need a public library,” that its materials and equipment could be turned over to other libraries and that the library system could focus on Na`alehu and Mt. View libraries.
       “This means that Pahala will not have a public library,” she wrote, pointing out the long distance from Pahala to Na`alehu. The Pahala Public & School library, which is adjacent to the high school campus and walking distance to all of Pahala’s residents, “is for the entire community,” wrote Hamilton. “We are a small town in a rural area, but this is our library for all the people.” She said Pahala Library has problems that could be solved. Students could check out more books if they could go there during and after school. The library is only open a few days a week from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. With students being in school next year to 3:15 p.m., the hours are incompatible with students using the library after school until the late bus takes them home. “Library hours don’t fit with many working people’s hours," she said. She also noted the value of the library in providing public and student access to the Internet and said that the Gates Foundation, in allocating funds to the library, “recognizes the need for rural areas to have computer access if they are to be able to compete in the 21st century. We want our children to have a library during school, after school, all summer, when they have graduated from school, and for a life of learning,” said Hamilton.
      On Friday, the House Education Committee recommended that the measure to turn the library over to the schools be deferred. See www.capitol.hawaii.gov.

President Obama spoke at the Conference on Conservation.

THE WHITE HOUSE CONFERENCE ON CONSERVATION will be reported at the County Council’s environmental committee on Tuesday. Council member Brittany Smart attended the confab in March in Washington D.C. President Barack Obama gave the keynote address, noting that conservationists are a diverse group. “We’ve got hunters and fishermen; we’ve got farmers and ranchers; we’ve got conservationists and government leaders; we’ve got tribal leaders,” the President said. He commended them for “working hard every day” to make sure that America’s “incredible natural resources” are “here for my daughters and your children and hopefully their children to enjoy.” Obama quoted Aldo Leopold, who said conservation “is a positive exercise of skill and insight, not merely a negative exercise of abstinence and caution.” Obama said conservation can build an economy, as in preserving lands for hunting and fishing. He said the “outdoor economy” supports more than nine million jobs and brings in more than a trillion dollars nationwide each year. 

      For this Tuesday’s meeting, Smart said, she plans to include the subject of hunter access here on the Big Island.

HAWAIIAN AIRLINES arrived on schedule 92.8 percent of the time last year and earned second place in quality of performance among domestic airlines. Air Tran was first, followed by Hawaiian, JetBlue, Frontier, Alaska, Delta, Southwest, US Airways, SkyWest, American, Continental, United, Atlantic Southeast, Mesa and American Eagle. The analysis includes lost bags, delayed fights, getting bumped and consumer complaints, as well as arrival times. Authors of the report said that airlines are improving. See http://airlinequalityrating.com/reports/2012.aqr.pdf.

USGS graph shows a series of DI events, with deflation
indicated by downward tilt and inflation by upward tilt.

THE NUMBER OF VOLCANIC DEFLATION - INFLATION events at Kilauea has increased substantially, beginning with the summit eruption in 2008. The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory reported in its latest Volcano Watch that during these DI events, sudden deflation lasts for one to three days, followed by equally sudden inflation that returns the tilt to pre-event levels. Prior to 2008, the number of DI’s averaged five to 10 per year. There were 47 in 2008, 64 in 2009, 68 in 2010 and 87 in 2011. Thus far in 2012, there were 37 DIs, “on pace to shatter the records from previous years,” the USGS scientists report. They explained: 

      “The 2008 increase in numbers of DI events corresponds to the start of the summit eruption, when gas emissions from the summit increased markedly (by about a factor of 4 to 5). As magma loses gas, it becomes denser and sinks, allowing less dense, gas-rich magma to rise toward the surface. This convection, similar to what can be seen in a boiling pot of soup, is common in magma chambers and can even be observed from circulation patterns within Kilauea’s summit eruptive vent. DI events might be an expression of such convection, with the deflation phase corresponding to sinking of dense magma, and inflation resulting from the rise of gas-rich magma.”
      DI events are often associated with changes in eruptive activity. During the deflation phase, lava effusion at Pu`u `O`o tends to decrease as the summit lava column lowers, while the inflation phase is accompanied by a rise in the summit lava column and sometimes a surge in lava from Pu`u `O`o.

Honu`ea, an art exhibit focusing on Hawksbill turtles,
invites entries in all media from all ages. Photo from VAC

AMATEUR AND PROFESSIONAL ARTISTS of all ages are invited to submit works of art for an exhibit at Volcano Art Center raising both awareness and funds for honu`ea, the critically endangered Hawksbill sea turtles. Entries are open to all ages, working in all media. Entry fee is $25 for up to two works for adults, and $5 per entry for youth under 18. Submit entries by mail on or before Fri, April 20 or at VAC’s Niaulani Campus in Volcano Village between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Fri, April 20 or Sat, April 21. For a prospectus, entry forms and more information, visit www.volcanoartcenter.org.

VOLUNTEERS CAN HELP Hawai`i Wildlife Fund clean up an anchialine pond in Ka`u tomorrow. Sign up with Megan Lamson at 769-7629 or meg.hwf@gmail.com.

PAHALA COMMUNITY CENTER hosts an Easter Egg Hunt & Fun Day Wednesday. Registration and activities begin at 3 p.m., and egg hunt starts at 4 p.m. Call 928-3102 or 929-9611.

VISIT OUR SPONSORS AT WWW.PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND WWW.KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM.

Ka'u News Briefs April 1, 2012

The copper-striped, blue-tailed skink (Emoia impar) is now extinct in Hawai`i. Photo from USGS

PROPERTY TAX POLICIES, ASSESSMENTS, AND EXEMPTIONS come up for review by the County Council beginning this week, following the release of a $40,000 audit from the International Association of Assessing Officers. The auditors recommend 40 changes and identify 15 areas of major concern. Reporter Tom Callis writes in this morning’s West Hawai`i Today that “the layers of categories and exemptions in Hawai`i County’s tax policies lead to confusion among property owners and potential inequality in taxation, an independent audit has concluded.”
      The document describes Hawai`i County tax policies as confusing, possibly unequally imposed and in need of a better appeal process and transparency. County Council chair Dominic Yagong said the Council will take it up on Tuesday and takes it “very seriously,” according to the West Hawai`i Today story. Mayor Billy Kenoi said he will also review the audit with his staff and attempt to implement appropriate recommendations.
      The West Hawai`i Today story said that “some of the report’s areas of major concern include limited review of exemptions, including those that apply to agricultural land; complex multi-tiered tax rates; lack of a formal complaint and reporting system; limited training opportunities for staff; vague property class definitions; and limited use of digital maps and photographs.

Dr. Elizabeth Tam Photo from University of Hawai`i

BUILDING ACTION-BASED LEARNING to change “our own behavior” to deal with vog is a goal of Dr. Elizabeth Tam from University of Hawai`i Medical School. She was talking to the 15th annual Ka`u Rural Health Community Association on Friday about a study that began with volunteer help of Ka`u people. She said that the Big Island Community had been asking for help with research on health effects of vog since 1982, when the ongoing eruption began spewing fumes. It was ten years ago that district health director June Kunimoto asked again and received help involving Tam. By the time the new Halema`uma`u vent opened in 2008, the vog study was up and running.

      In 2002, Tam met Jesse Marques, who founded the Ka`u Rural Health Community Association, and Marques pulled in volunteers. They put the first vog monitor up on the roof of the organization’s Distance Learning Center. Help also came from far away, from the National Institute of Health, Harvard School of Public Health and University of Southern California. Without local participants and local residents helping out, however, it never would have happened, Tam told the large crowd at Pahala Community Center. She said the long-term funding for such a study is unusual.

      Researchers studied children by testing them for lung function over time and also reviewed medical records of people of all ages. They also studied the vog itself. X-ray flourescence revealed that the vog is relatively clean compared to smog in places like Beijing before the Olympics and sites with heavy traffic, ships coming into harbors and coal-burning generators where air contains metals and other toxic substances. 

Wind carries vog to different areas. Map from USGS

      Locally, to reduce irritation from vog, Tam recommended “sheltering in place.” She said, “the learning thing is to close the window at night. Closing windows dampens the effect of vog.” Protection can also be increased. “Get ventilation systems that scrub out the vog,” she recommended. She also talked about smoking, saying, “Putting volcanic air pollution into context, the particulates from the volcano are less than what is in a smoker’s home,” warned Tam, a lung specialist and chair of Medicine at U.H. John A. Burns School of Medicine.

ANOTHER EXTINCTION among Hawai`i's native species has been announced. This one is a tiny lizard, the copper-striped, blue-tailed skink. A story yesterday in Science Daily says USGS biologist Robert Fisher and researcher Ivan Ineich noted that “island extinctions around the world often share similar factors, such as the loss of habitat due to uncontrolled human development. Another is competition or predation from invasive species accidentally or intentionally introduced through human migration and activity.”
      U.S. Geological Survey director Marcia McNutt said that “no other landscape in these United States has been more impacted by extinction events and species invasions in historic times than the Hawaiian Islands, with as yet unknown long-term cascading consequences to the ecosystem. Today, we close the book on one more animal that is unlikely to ever be re-established in this fragile island home.”
      “There’s some evidence that an invasive ant was preying on these skinks,” Fisher said. “That’s a new factor we’ll need to examine as we look out for other at-risk species in the Pacific islands.” See more at www.sciencedaily.com.

A volunteer studies water at an
anchialine pond. Photo from HWF

THE DEADLINE TO ENTER photographs into Friends of Hawai`i Volcanoes National Park’s photo contest has been extended to April 16. Original Photographs taken in the park can be submitted for first, second, and third place awards given in three categories: Amateur-Beginner, Amateur-Advanced, and Professional. All images will be considered for inclusion in a multi-image slideshow Saturday, April 28. All finalists’ photographs will be exhibited June 9 - 17 at Volcano Art Center Gallery, a co-sponsor of the event. Photos must be submitted as digital images online. Entry fee for up to three photos is $25. For full contest rules and to enter, visit www.fhvnp.org.

HAWAI`I WILDLIFE FUND sponsors a cleanup of an anchialine pond in Ka`u this Tuesday. Volunteers can sign up with Megan Lamson at 769-7629 or meg.hwf@gmail.com. 

EASTER EGG HUNT & FUN DAY takes place Wednesday at Pahala Community Center. Registration and activities begin at 3 p.m., and egg hunt starts at 4 p.m. Call 928-3102 or 929-9611.

VISIT OUR SPONSORS AT PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM.

Ka'u News Briefs March 31, 2012

The 2008 opening of a vent at Halema`uma`u crater sends up a plume with SO2 that blows through Ka`u.
Photo by M. Poland/USGS

LIVING WITH INTERMITTENT SO2 events can be managed much like living with rain, cold and heat. When SO2 is heavy, go inside and close the windows. If there is air-cleaning equipment in the building, turn it on when SO2 arrives, much like people turn on the heat for winter and air conditioning for summer in more severe climates. While wafts of SO2 are not technically the weather, SO2 traveling across Ka`u from Kilauea volcano is influenced by weather, particularly the wind.

Academic professionals addressed the fifteenth annual
meeting of the Ka`u Rural Health Community Association
yesterday. Photo by Julia Neal

      According to academic professionals who addressed the fifteenth annual meeting of the Ka`u Rural Health Community Association in Pahala yesterday, people can practically manage exposure to S02. Dr. Bernadette Longo reported that SO2 is more prevalent between 7 p.m. and 10 a.m., when winds calm down and gas from the volcano can drift slowly across Ka`u. Residents could reduce their chances of coming into contact with SO2 without disrupting their activities by simply closing windows at night before retiring. Schools and families could schedule regular exercise and other heavy exertion activities between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m., when there is likely to be less S02.
      Dr. Elizabeth Tam said there is also a trend toward purchasing personal monitors for homes and public places, as there is a big difference in when and where SO2 is concentrated.

Ka`u Rural Health Community Association founder Jesse
Marques with high school students interested in medical
careers. Photo by Julia Neal

      The two researchers talked about the difference between vog particles and SO2 gas. Communities closest to the source, like Volcano and Pahala, have more exposure to SO2, which usually blows through the villages. It takes about six hours for the volcanic gas to combine with other elements to create the sulfate particles that are seen as vog, Longo explained.  By then, on most days, wind carries vog north to give South Kona the heaviest particulate concentration, then up the coast to Kona where it sits like smog in Los Angeles.
      How dangerous is SO2? Tam said that in high concentrations it is unhealthy, but on most days not likely as unhealthy as the SO2 mix found in cities with heavy industry and traffic. In those places, the SO2 cocktail can include metals and other chemicals dangerous to health, she said. A study of the local vog showed that acidic particulates are comprised largely of sulfur, calcium and salt from the ocean air.

Volcanic gases from Pu`u `O`o also blow through Ka`u.
Photo by R.W. Decker/USGS

      The researchers also talked about asthma, concluding that SO2 and vog don’t cause asthma but can bring on more coughing and asthmatic events for those already afflicted. The more likely cause of asthma, which has become more prevalent in children worldwide, is the exploding population of mites in the home, particularly where there is carpet over slab floors, said Tam. She also talked about smoking, which creates the highest risk for lung health, beyond exposure to vog and SO2 in Ka`u. Not only does smoking compromise health, second-hand smokes creates a serious risk, and new research shows a danger in third-hand smoke. Tam explained third-hand smoke as minute tobacco particles landing on furniture, counters and floors only to be swept up into the air and breathed again.

Colette Machado applauds OHA settlement with the
Legislature and Gov. Neil Abercrombie.
Photo by Garrett Kamemoto from OHA

THE OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS plans meetings around the state in coming months to talk about the deal that passed the Legislature yesterday to settle debt owed by the state to Native Hawaiians for use of ceded lands. The state House of Representatives passed the measure, and Gov. Neil Abercrombie said he’ll sign it, giving OHA urban land in O`ahu at Kaka`ako in exchange for the debt. OHA chair Colette Machado said the settlement “represents a major milestone and the most critical stage in the process to provide hope for a brighter future for Native Hawaiians and all of Hawai`i Nei.” 

OHA CEO Cylde Namu`o said a master plan will be created in consultation with such stakeholders as Kamehameha Schools, Hawai`i Community Development Authority, University of Hawai`i and members of the community. Revenues from the properties will benefit Native Hawaiians in as far away places as Ka`u. For more, see www.oha.org and sign up for email alerts.

Site G has been selected for the new Kona
Judiciary Complex.

NA`ALEHU COURTHOUSE IS PAU for good as the new judiciary complex location is set for West Hawai`i. Most Ka`u court cases will be handled there - a nearly two hour drive from the old courthouse. The new regional judicial complex will be equipped with more than 500 parking stalls. Sen. Josh Green announced the location yesterday as ten acres of state land in Kealakehe, across the street from the West Hawai`i Civic Center, on the southwest corner of Kealakehe Parkway and Ane Keohokalole Hwy.  Chief Justice Mark Recktenwald made the final site selection. He and Green worked to receive $12 million for land acquisition and design. “This is a major victory for West Hawai`i,” Green said. “The new Justice Complex is a large investment in our community, and it will be a safer and more efficient center for our judicial system to serve the people of West Hawai`i. Green said he will request $75 million in appropriations next year to begin construction. The Kona Judiciary Complex, which will be designed to accommodate seven full-time judges and 220 employees, will meet the anticipated needs of West Hawai`i’s growing population through 2030 and beyond, the senator said. Preliminary plans call for construction of the 142,000-square-foot facility to begin in 2014 and finish in 2017. 

     Green, if re-elected, will serve from Kona Airport to Honu`apo, the new Senate District 3. Rep. Bob Herkes is running for Senate District 2, from Punalu`u into Hilo. 

Marcus Castaing's winning Guardians of
the Heart koa cabinet.

MARCUS CASTAING, a  more than 30-year resident of Wai`ohinu, has won Best of Show in the 20th Annual Hawai`i Forestry Industry Association’s Hawai`i Woodshow at Honolulu Museum of Art. His Guardians of the Heart koa cabinet will be on display at the Academy Art School Gallery at Linekona on O`ahu from Sunday through April 15. Admission is free. According to a release from the judges, “Castaing’s ability to allow the gorgeous figure and curl of the koa take center stage was what made his koa cabinet stand apart.” The competition drew woodworkers from around the world, but more were selected from the Big Island than any other place. 

       Jurors were nationally known wood artist Wendy Muryama, who is a professor of Furniture Design and Woodworking at San Diego State University; Peter Simmons, a consultant from In the Woods; and Steven Hill, from University of Hawai`i School of Architecture. The show was sponsored by Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods, the state Division of Forestry and Wildlife and Department of Agriculture, Kamehameha Schools, Martin & MacArthur, HFIA Board president Tai Lake and others.

THE `OIWI FILM FESTIVAL has issued a call for entries for films directed by Native Hawaiians. The mission is to highlight films by indigenous Hawaiian filmmakers to show Hawai`i through their own eyes in their own voices. Entries can be submitted April 2 through June 22 with an announcement of winners by July 2. The awards and screening will be held Nov. 10 – 18 at Honolulu Academy of Art’s Doris Duke Theatre. Arts, culture, lifestyle, history and politics are the subjects for qualifying films, which can be documentaries, shorts and features. For more, email oiwifilm@gmail.com.

KEAUHOU BIRD CONSERVATION CENTER Tour, next Friday from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m., still has openings. Attendees see and learn about native birds that the facility houses, including the ‘alala (Hawaiian crow), which is extinct in the wild; the palila, a finch-billed honeycreeper found only on the slopes of Mauna Kea; the Maui parrotbill, an insectivorous Hawaiian honeycreeper; and the puaiohi, or small Kaua`i thrush. Cost is $20 for Friends members and $30 for non-members. Students are half-price. Call 985-7373 or visit www.fhvnp.org to register.

VISIT OUR SPONSORS AT WWW.PAHALAPLANTATIONCOTTAGES.COM AND WWW.KAUCOFFEEMILL.COM.