It was almost entertaining to read the full-page ad purchased in the paper by the promoters of the Honua Ola incinerator plant in Pepeekeo. The company’s proposal to sell electricity to HECO at roughly four times the cost from alternative sources, which cost would be passed on to electric consumers, has been rejected by the state Public Utilities Commission. The company wants to generate electricity by cutting down trees and burning them.
The advertisement is a pitch to get public support for this ripoff, under the banner of a company front-group, “Save Hawaii Island Jobs.”
There are so many fabrications in that ad that it would take pages and pages to debunk them. Lets just focus on one issue: the company’s Nov. 6, 2018, release of industrial wastewater into the ocean.
The company claimed in its ad that it did not authorize the discharge. False. While the company initially took this position, Warren Lee, company president, withdrew that defense. Which is to say, he admitted that the company’s initial statement was a lie. In fact, both the testimony of a whistleblower as to the discharge and the conclusions of the state Department of Health (DOH) were that the company intentionally discharged between 3,500 and 32,500 gallons of industrial wastewater — that had not been fully treated — into the ocean. All of this — including Lee’s confession — can be seen in an article that appeared in Hawaii Tribune-Herald and West Hawaii Today on Dec. 20, 2018.
The company’s advertisement also made the false statement that DOH “determined” that the discharge (a) was non-toxic, (b) did not pose a health risk and (c) was unauthorized by the company. None of these things are true. What DOH did say was that, arriving at the scene two weeks after the event, it could not determine the health risk or level of toxicity of the discharge. The evidence had washed away (Hawaii Tribune Herald and West Hawaii Today, Nov. 20, 2018). DOH also ruled that the discharge was “intentional” and fined the company accordingly.
Finally, we should not be lulled into thinking the November 2018 toxic wastewater release will be a one-time event. Every time this plant goes through a regular shutdown, there will be a boiler-flushing, producing yet another load of toxic liquid. And every moment the plant is in operation, the limited air-pollution control equipment will be capturing toxic materials from the air discharges. This material, generally referred to as “fly-ash,” will be yet another disposal nightmare for the company. (Did you notice that the picture the promoters used in their ad did not show their smokestack?)
So, we here have a company that will regularly accumulate many thousand of gallons of toxic liquid and many tons of toxic “fly-ash.” This same company attempted to discharge such liquid into our ocean, got caught and then lied about it. And it is now lying about it again.
What could possibly go wrong here?
James W. McGowan is a resident of Kailua-Kona.
