Geothermal update 3/18/13 and Community meeting……..
Aloha
Puna Pono Alliance is hosting a community meeting next Saturday, March 23, beginning at 4pm at the Akebone Theater in Pahoa.
Most of you have heard about the latest accident at Puna Geothermal Venture last Wednesday. PPA has scheduled an informational meeting and will be collecting community accounts about the venting at PGV. Please come and help us spread the word.
HAAS school principle Steve Hirakami will be facilitating the meeting and we have invited Hawaii County Civil Defense chief Darryl Oliveira, who agreed to come and speak to the community. We also have invited the the state Department of Health, Mayor Billy Kenoi, PGV, Harry Kim, Senator Russell Ruderman and Representative Faye Hanohano to hear the communities concerns and hopefully help us to create a more functional plan for the future.
We are asking the Hawaii State Department of Health and Hawaii County Civil Defense to help us prepare forms to better evaluate the impacts on the community. We will be collecting information and ideas from you at the meeting to use in asking for a better monitoring and emergency response.
We also want water testing made available for catchments in the area, the aquifer (Water wells), surface waters including Greenlake, the Hot Pond, and the near shore ocean from Kapoho to Pohoiki.
It is our hope that we will find a way to ensure the community is protected particularly during the next incidents and accidents. Did you know what to do, or who to call, or where to go if need be? Many people did not, we need to change that.
We are asking DOH and Hawaii County to help us prepare a list and publish it that will have the information people need when there are geothermal accidents or incidents. Most of the people we talked to did not know who to call or have the phone numbers or know how to file an official report to document problems or impacts.
Please come to this meeting and help us as we try to work with the state and county to better protect our community, tell your family, your neighbors and your friends, they can help us now.
Sorry for the short notice, we need to get the information ASAP.
Everyone is welcome but this is a PPA informational meeting not a protest, please be respectful of everyone that comes. I have told them this is not a PR event, we want answers not spin. That will only happen if everyone treats each other with respect. I know some of you are upset, so am I. However we have an organization in PPA that can get more done if we put document our issues, put them on paper, and present them as a community. Letting our frustration get the better of us will not be as effective. Work with us, help us find ways to really make things better. Thank you.
For more information call Barb Cuttance 339-4344
Mahalo to everyone that helped last us Wednesday. The community pulled together and documented this accident pretty well independent of any government agencies. Our experience and organization is starting to pay off. If anyone knows the name of the family that evacuated to the Pahoa Community Center during the incident we would like to talk to them. If you saw the venting, smelled the gases, or had other problems we would like to talk to you.
See you Saturday
Bob Petricci
