Letters | 4-16-14

Don’t let federal agencies take over county and state responsibilities

I’m deeply concerned about the actions of the National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These federal agencies intend to control how much new development happens in North Kona it seems.

For example, the National Park Service wants the state to designate the Keauhou aquifer as a water resource management area and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wants to assign nearly 19,000 acres of land in North Kona as a critical habitat area. In addition, the National Park Service was the first entity to intervene in the stalled Queen Kaahumanu Highway phase 2 widening project’s section 106 process in early 2011.

These requests, if approved, will impact all new developments in North Kona. It strips home rule authority from the County of Hawaii and adds an additional layer of bureaucracy to the entitlement process.

I firmly believe the county and state are in a better position to manage our resources than a bunch of bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.

Aaron Stene

Kailua-Kona

Everyone needs imaginary boogeymen

I do not know much about fluoride, except that every dentist I ever talked to and the Centers for Disease Control are in favor of water fluoridation. While fluorine is a toxic gas, the fluoride in water is a salt. The main danger is the emotional distress caused by attitudes like that expressed in Tuesday’s letter.

There is a popular culture that has come to distrust science, and instead accepts anecdotal evidence (true or not) to reject: fluorides, vaccination, pasteurized milk, nuclear power, seat belts, geothermal, genetically modified organisms, windmills, helmets or anything else they heard a horror story about. This happens in spite of overwhelming scientific and statistical evidence that the benefits outweigh any risk. I guess the world needs boogeymen, even if they are imaginary.

Ken Obenski

Kaohe