VIEWPOINT: County must comply with EPA orders
By TERI LEONARD
It is another beautiful and sparkling Maui morning. This is a perfect day to take in a swim along the shoreline, catch a wave, snorkel or scuba out to the reef, clean the bottom of the boat, go fishing for dinner or just take the family to the beach and watch the children frolic in the gentle waves. But how safe is that water?
The Maui News June 6 article "EPA orders county to test isle waters" points out the refusal of the county administration to comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's order for Maui County to conduct injection well tracer and sampling tests along the Kaanapali coastline. The tests are meant to determine if the injection of millions of gallons per day of sewage effluent is reaching our nearshore waters and has the potential to affect the quality of the water, the health of the coral reef system and the physical and economic health of the county's citizens and visitors.
The EPA ordered the county to submit a proposal for the sampling plan by March 15 and that the final sampling plan to be submitted by April 26. According to the article, none of these submissions occurred. The county appears to be stalling.
Cheryl Okuma, representing the county administration, is quoted in the article as saying that injection-well effluent may account for only 5 percent of the pollutants affecting our impaired Maui waters and that runoff may account for 95 percent. How are these numbers substantiated?
Tests by the University of Hawaii have shown that algae in the nearshore areas of the county's injection wells are utilizing a form of nitrogen that is found only in human or animal sewage. Another study by the U.S. Geological Survey found pharmaceuticals in these waters as well. Water scientists, the EPA and environmental groups such as the DIRE (Don't Inject, Re-Direct) Coalition interpret these results as a smoking gun. The EPA has determined that a need for more testing has been triggered with these findings. Why is the county resistant to conducting these tests? Does the administration prefer that the quality of our ocean and reefs continue to deteriorate?
The county says that the testing is an expensive process although, because the administration has refused to submit the required proposal for sampling, we do not know what the costs will be. The EPA has the responsibility to fine the county huge amounts of taxpayer money if the administration does not comply with proper water quality protocols. The longer we wait to deal with these issues, the bigger the expense will be to our physical and financial well-being.
Why has the county faltered? Is it indeed attempting to ignore this issue? If the injection well effluent is not a factor in the demise of our beautiful reefs, why not embrace the EPA order to prove this stance?
The Clean Water Act mandates that United States citizens have a right to fishable, swimmable waters. As citizens - and as employers of county administrators - we recommend that the county complete its moral, legal and fiduciary responsibility of complying with the EPA's orders.
* Teri Leonard is a member of the DIRE Coalition.
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ENVIRONMENTAL MOVEMENT DOES MORE HARM THAN GOOD
In response to the June 2 letter urging people to join the Sierra Club and/or get involved in the environmentalism movement:
For me, the scary part is that the environmentalism movement has done more damage than good.
Examples might be the banning of DDT that has killed 50 million-plus people on this planet, mostly women and children, all because of hysteria over some bird eggs; convincing the Environmental Protection Agency to declare carbon dioxide an air pollutant; or 40-plus years of blocking any form of nuclear energy - the energy system that could have solved most of our present problems.
In reference to the tragedy in the Gulf, BP has real culpability in the spill, as does our government for not doing its job in overseeing existing regulations. But while everyone is having a hissy fit about BP, you might want to ask why they were drilling in 5,000 feet of water, 52 miles offshore in the first place. Environmental organizations have forced the inability to drill on both coasts and in Alaska.
Sooner or later this thinking will need to meet the realities of life. Drilling will be part of our world for the foreseeable future; wouldn't it make more sense to concentrate on doing it safely?
How much quicker could this spill have been fixed in Alaska or a few miles off the coast of California in a few hundred feet of water? History shows it probably would not even have happened.
Bill Botts
Lahaina
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MONEY NOT BEING PROVIDED FOR PUBLIC DEFENDERS
I have been prosecuted for the crime of distribution of a large sum of crystal methamphetamine.
Where is the taxpayers' money going when it comes to the system and the courts?
I had been instructed by a public defender to take a plea agreement though I did not have any possession of the illegal substance. Why does the court system have money to continue funding prosecutors but lacks the funds to allow people the right to a lawyer or public defender by laying off or firing defense attorneys? What is the reason for this power play? Who or what people in the court system are receiving taxpayer money to fund or decide to discriminate those accused of crimes?
There needs to be a federal audit of the Maui County prosecution and court system so that one-sided favoritism, corruption and injustice cannot prevail.
Daryljean Hauoli Ka'ahui
Lahaina
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NEIL ABERCROMBIE OFFERS SOLUTIONS
A June 5 letter writer uses the same tired, old arguments that renewable energy is not cost-effective. Apparently our only solution is to stick with our addiction to oil despite the facts that "drill, baby, drill" will have resulted in the near total collapse of the ocean ecology from Louisiana to Florida by the time a full accounting has been made of the Gulf oil spill.
I am tired of people saying no to any new idea or alternative to our addiction to oil, especially when renewable energy development in Europe far outpaces America's.Most likely this is because for the 8 years under the Republican Party, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, all energy development was led by the oil company executives themselves behind closed doors in the White House and at the Minerals Management Office, likewise administered by the oil industry and the GOP's deregulation policies.
All one has to do is go to Scientific American Magazine and see for oneself all the renewable energy alternatives. For example, in the story "A Solar Grand Plan" (January 2008), SA lays out the solution using concentrated solar thermal power mirror technology to provide 70 percent of America's electricity by 2050. It's already been used in the Southern California desert successfully and economically now for almost 20 years.
Need another solution? Go to the Neil Abercrombie for governor website and see his platform for energy security. You'll be inspired and glad you did.
Lance Holter
Paia
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LAND SHOULD BE GIVEN BACK TO HAWAIIANS
I had been confused about Hawaiian sovereignty until I did a project in my social studies class. Now some things are cleared up for me and I can make a good opinion.
I think that the United States should give the land back to the Hawaiians because it is the right thing to do. People in favor of the U.S. argue that we should not give the land back simply because all the people that are not Hawaiian will be crammed into a little space. But it really does not matter where the others have to go because before they even came to Hawaii it belonged to the Hawaiians and they deserve it.
The U.S. also argues that it would be hard to get around the island. The U.S. could invest in putting in roads that go around the Hawaiians' lands.
Another reason why I think that the land should be given back to the Hawaiians is because it is a kind gesture to Hawaiians and shows that they are appreciated. But the U.S. also argues giving the land back to the Hawaiians would mess with the U.S. military because of Pearl Harbor. A way to prevent that would be for the U.S to ask for Pearl Harbor and tell them how it offers them protection also.
Jamaal DuPree
Kihei
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GOVERNMENT HAS ITS HEAD IN THE SAND
Just before the oil spill began, the president added his two cents on the news that we need to drill, drill, drill. Don't hear that now.
Our government has had its head in the sand for years. Is this the change we need?
Bill Myrick
Kihei
