A proposal to pump about 5,000 gallons of carbon dioxide into the waters off Nawiliwili Harbor was the focus of a public meeting held Wednesday. The Environmental Protection Agency held the meetings Tuesday in Honolulu and Wednesday at Chiefess Kamakahelei
A proposal to pump about 5,000 gallons of carbon dioxide into the waters off Nawiliwili Harbor was the focus of a public meeting held Wednesday.
The Environmental Protection Agency held the meetings Tuesday in Honolulu and Wednesday at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School in Puhi on the issue.
About 40 people attended the Puhi meeting.
Dr. Gerard Nihous fielded questions for the Pacific Institute for High Technology Research (PICHTR), the general contractor for the experiment.
The U.S. Department of Energy is funding the experiment in cooperation with other international companies, but did not participate in the public hearings.
Toward the end of the first meeting session all of the 15 who testified said they were in opposition to the experiment because the effects of pumping CO2 in the ocean are not known. They urged the EPA to deny the permit and to require an environmental impact statement for Nawiliwili.
EPA environmental scientist and ocean dumping coordinator Allan Y. Ota said that after reviewing PICHTR’s permit application, the EPA has made a tentative decision to grant the permit, but will make a final decision after reviewing public comment and substantive arguments.
Ota said the EPA is not a proponent of the experiment and the tentative decision does not mean the government agency advocates or commits to the deep-water carbon dioxide test.
“The program focuses on the development of carbon dioxide atmospheric emissions control technologies – specifically, utilizing the deep ocean as a long-term repository for CO2 removed from hydrocarbon-fuel combustors,” states PICHTR’s Web site.
The proposed experiment calls for nearly 5,000 gallons of liquid carbon dioxide droplets to be released into the waters off Nawiliwili Harbor in the dredged materials dumping site, about four miles off the coast.
The CO2 would be released about 3,000 feet down, from specially designed nozzles on hoses connected to remotely-controlled vessels. Carbon dioxide would be monitored with cameras and motion sensors, according to Nihous.
PICHTR hopes to discover the behavior of physical and chemical changes to the CO2 droplets after being injected into seawater; and potential biological responses resulting to short-term exposure to CO2, according to a public notice of permit application issued by the EPA.
Opponents to the experiment, of which there are many, say they worry about effects to ocean and marine life. Carbon dioxide lowers sea water temperature and will increase the acidity of seawater, they say. Though temporary, opponents say these side effects may harm fish and other sea life when the droplets dissolve and are dispersed in a plume.
The Hawai’i chapter of the Sierra Club has asked the EPA to deny the permit, and an environmental impact statement for the Nawiliwili project before any permits are granted.
“The Department of Energy wants to try to sweep the problem under the rug and leave it for future generations to deal with. Kaua’i doesn’t want to be the testing ground for this misguided policy,” said Judy Dalton, co-chair of the Kaua’i group of the Sierra Club in a press release issued Tuesday.
Don Cataluna of Koloa, the trustee representing Kaua’i and Ni’ihau on the statewide Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Thursday added his voice in opposition to proposed carbon dioxide tests proposed in waters off Kaua’i.
Cataluna was a member of the OHA land use committee when the experiments were first proposed for the Kona Coast of the Big Island.
“I was against it then, and I’m against it now,” said Cataluna, arguing that introduction of concentrated amounts of CO2 into ocean waters will change the pH of the water, and cause marine life to die.
PICHTR is being funded by international companies and the United States Department of Energy to develop infrastructure and implement a test plan. These international scientific bodies proposing the tests should put up a $100 million bond if they aren’t willing to have the tests done in oceans near their own countries and are certain there won’t be environmental harm from the tests, Cataluna said.
If environmental harm is found to have occurred because of the tests, the County of Kaua’i would get $50 million, and the state $50 million for mitigation purposes, he proposes.
OHA is concerned with the environment, land and marine life, and these proposed tests will harm algae, plankton, and fish, and impact the entire food chain, Cataluna said.
Isaac Harp, president of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Dumping, pointed out that PICHTR’s board of directors includes interests from the oil industry and University of Hawaii, who could potentially benefit monetarily from the sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions.
Kaua’i County Council member Gary Hooser said that he feels this “not in my backyard” issue leads him to feel an obligation to protect the finite resources of our island. Hooser urged the EPA to require a full environmental impact statement because the potential risk to marine life is not known and could lead to unintended consequences.
Valentine Ako, a retired Kaua’i fisherman, said that ocean current studies used to prove Nawiliwili was a feasible test site are “full of baloney,” since he and other fishermen have a closer, more realistic knowledge of ocean patterns.
Native Hawaiian Robert Pa said pumping CO2 into the ocean would ruin his fishing practices and way of life if it continues to a larger scale. His comments to Nihous and the EPA summed up the sentiment of meeting attendees: “Take your experiment back to the fish bowl.”
Staff Writer Kendyce Manguchei can be reached at kmanguchei @pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 252).
