Stop the plant
Hu Honua, the ill-conceived, so-called “renewable” energy project (which will pollute more than a coal-burning plant) is in legal trouble again.
Besides being sued (again!) for a half-million dollars for another breach of contract, they don’t want to pay the state the $25,000 fine for an illegal wastewater dump.
And because no environmental impact study was required, they have NO plan for their ongoing contaminated wastewater disposal other than “hoping” the wastewater treatment plant in Hilo will take it (they haven’t asked?!). And if the treatment plant says no, as they certainly should, the company president says they’d ship the waste off island.
At what cost? And to become whose problem, where?
HELCO, you backed out of this bad-in-so-many-ways deal once before. Time to back out again, for good.
Kamehameha Schools and Parker Ranch: Burning your eucalyptus to generate electricity is NOT a good use of the thousands of acres of trees that should never have been planted at all, but which you’ve not found a market for.
This particular “market,” Hu Honua, happens to be very environmentally unfriendly, with a long history of questionable business practices.
Hu Honua President Warren Lee says with all the millions already invested, he doesn’t think anyone will say “stop now.”
Lots of us who live on the Hamakua Coast and don’t want to see further harm done to our air, our roads, our water are saying: “Stop Hu Honua NOW.”
Lenley Lewis
Laupahoehoe
Tale of two wires
U.S. troops are deploying concertina wire along the U.S.-Mexico border. It sounds so nice: “concertina wire.” Much kinder than “barbed wire,” which is of course barbaric.
Barbed wire has sharp barbs meant to cause pain and discourage travel. Concertina wire is composed of scalpel blades that are designed to flay flesh from bone and cause copious bleeding.
Barbed wire will cause pain and injury; concertina wire can cause death from bleeding out. It’s a design improvement (militarily) over barbed wire.
That’s the design — it’s a weapon of war, not discouragement.
Ranchers do not use concertina wire to contain their herds. They use barbed wire instead, even though that might be more expensive. They want to contain their herds, not kill them.
Joel Aycock
Hawaiian Acres