Letters 9-23-13

Ford’s fracking
stance applauded

I applaud Brenda Ford for taking a stance on not allowing fracking to take place in Hawaii.

The water supply here (and everywhere) is our very precious commodity. We cannot live without fresh, clean water. If you believe fracking is not harmful to the environment, please view the Josh Fox documentary “Gasland.” It is available through the Hawaii State Public Library System. There may be a “Gasland2” in the works, however, I have not viewed it yet. The potential risks for irreversible damages far outweigh any benefits.

I’m glad to see that there are folks concerned about water management and our aquifers (West Hawaii Today, Sept 17). For further information on the effects our activities are having on the ocean, I encourage you to read “The World is Blue” by Sylvia Earle, also available through the library system.

Sheri McDaniel

Naalehu

Development to cause more than minor impacts

In regard to the time share/residential project inland from Kahaluu Beach park: I do not understand how the developers can say there will be minor impact to the area. That seems a bit far-fetched.

The amount of traffic will be crazy. Comparing it with the number of people who stayed at the Outrigger hotel is not apples to apples. A lot of those visitors came in cabs and shuttles.

There will be at least one or more automobiles associated with each residence in the new project. Do the math — 321 units and 17 single-family homes. Having that much traffic entering and exiting off of Alii Drive will be an absolute nightmare.

Given the size of the property, I doubt that people are going to be walking from their residence to the beach, let alone their own pools on the property.

The developers should be required to build the section of the bypass road from Keauhou Shopping Center to the north corner of their property to accommodate the traffic entering and exiting the project. Imagine if there is a tsunami warning and people from the lower portion of the project are evacuating to Alii Drive.

I could understand an access off of Alii Drive for emergency vehicles and it could be opened for an egress in the event of a tsunami.

For those of us who live on Alii Drive and vicinity, I am sure people are wondering where the malama aina went with this decision.

Tim Smith

Kailua-Kona

Older cars getting 2-year safety stickers?

I can’t believe no one has noticed that there are numerous cars on the road that have the 2015 safety sticker (green and red) that are not brand new cars that are allowed a two-year sticker. There must be a shop or shops that are putting 2015 stickers on checked cars that should be 2014 (green and blue).

Seriously, this should be investigated and the shops fined for applying illegal stickers.

And shame on the police for not noticing that a car of significant age has one of these stickers. Take notice, I am sure you will be surprised as to the number of these on the road.

Jerri Waterman

Kailua-Kona