Hawaii Dairy Farms Final EIS was filed with the State Department of Health Tuesday January 17, 2017. That filing is at best self serving because it only means that the same company that prepared the dairy plan, Group 70 International, has filed the final part of their report claiming no significant environmental impact from the proposed industrial dairy operation. To date, there has been no independent engineering review or governmental agency review of the Group 70 claims. Are we surprised that Group 70 found the Plan they developed was safe?

So what happens now? Yes, you can and should send a written response if the dairy’s response to your Draft EIS Comment was “not satisfactory” or failed altogether to address your concerns. Our time is short. Respond as soon as you can as the EPO director, Laura McIntyre, will need make a recommendation to the DOH Director, Virginia Pressler, MD. The recommendation will be either to “accept” or “reject” the EIS on or before February 10, 2017. DOH has 30 days and we need to give them any critical information we have, being as concise as possible, as soon as possible because the Director has a deadline of February, 14, 2017. ACCEPTING OR REJECTING THE EIS IS NOT THE SAME AS APPROVING AN INDUSTRIAL DAIRY OPERATION AT MAHA`ULEPU. The Waste Water Branch Chief, Sina Pruder, P.E., is still charged with an independent review to determine whether the proposed industrial dairy will be allowed to operate at Maha`ulepu. Sina Pruder, P.E., has reviewed the diary Plan but has not approved HDF’s Plan thus far. It would probably be helpful if there are obvious shortcomings in the dairy’s response to your DEIS Comment to direct you response to all three of the following individuals:

Ms. Laura McIntyre
State of Hawai’i, Department of Health
1250 Punchbowl Street
Honolulu, HI 96813
[email protected]
[email protected]