BREAKING NEWS!
Posted 11/14/2024
Aloha Friends,
SHARING A FUN & FREE COMMUNITY EVENT
In celebration of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, St Michael’s and All Angels Church, adjacent to the Lihue library, invites the public to a Craft Fair, Bake and Plant Sale 9:00 am – 1:00 pm and free Hawaiian music concert 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm Saturday, November 16.
ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT
The meeting Wednesday November 13, 2024 on the shrimp farm and its potential for significant contamination of the West Kauai beaches and ocean went well. Thanks to all who turned out to testify. Please find the comment presented by FOM, filed with the Clean Water Branch of the Hawaii State Department of Health, below.
Also the testimony filed by Surfrider Kauai through their attorneys at Earthjustice, the testimony of Sierra Club Kauai, and the testimony of Carl Berg, PhD who conducted years of water quality testing collecting data for important court cases establishing the levels of pollutants draining onto the beaches and into the ocean at Kekaha. Dr Berg has personally worked on this operation for the past ten years. All who attended were keen to protect beaches and ocean on the west side as the shrimp farm has asked to increase their wastewater discharge into the ocean from 7 to 20 million gallons, proposing to dump a significant increase of pollutants to the ocean. As you will see from the FOM comment below, based on the scale and the size of the shrimp farm operation, a good food industry for Kauai why not have this operation and the many other ADC Ag operations that drain unrestricted use pesticides, like atrazine, and herbicides into the very same ditch draining across the same beach at Kekaha, be jointly required to build a wastewater treatment system to assure the cleanest possible runoff to the ocean. Cruise ships and other small vessels are no longer allowed to dump waste in waters around the Hawaiian Islands. Since there is a direct discharge to the ocean from all these operations, we ask the State to please consider requiring wastewater treatment. The shrimp emit a lot of waste during their growth and development. If you read the comments attached here, you will learn more about all that is currently draining into the waters of West Kauai. The State Department of Health Clean Water Branch had all of its employees either in person or on Zoom during the meeting and assured the audience they would respond to all of the comments offered before any permit to pollute is given.
We will keep you posted and our legal team is ready to assist if need be. As we approach year end, we have been plenty busy. Your donations make our work possible. Your donation is tax deductible.
Help us as we remain committed to preserving the environmental health of Kauai for people now and in the future.
——– Forwarded Message ——–
In celebration of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma, St Michael’s and All Angels Church, adjacent to the Lihue library, invites the public to a Craft Fair, Bake and Plant Sale 9:00 am – 1:00 pm and free Hawaiian music concert 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm Saturday, November 16.
ENVIRONMENTAL REPORT
The meeting Wednesday November 13, 2024 on the shrimp farm and its potential for significant contamination of the West Kauai beaches and ocean went well. Thanks to all who turned out to testify. Please find the comment presented by FOM, filed with the Clean Water Branch of the Hawaii State Department of Health, below.
Also the testimony filed by Surfrider Kauai through their attorneys at Earthjustice, the testimony of Sierra Club Kauai, and the testimony of Carl Berg, PhD who conducted years of water quality testing collecting data for important court cases establishing the levels of pollutants draining onto the beaches and into the ocean at Kekaha. Dr Berg has personally worked on this operation for the past ten years. All who attended were keen to protect beaches and ocean on the west side as the shrimp farm has asked to increase their wastewater discharge into the ocean from 7 to 20 million gallons, proposing to dump a significant increase of pollutants to the ocean. As you will see from the FOM comment below, based on the scale and the size of the shrimp farm operation, a good food industry for Kauai why not have this operation and the many other ADC Ag operations that drain unrestricted use pesticides, like atrazine, and herbicides into the very same ditch draining across the same beach at Kekaha, be jointly required to build a wastewater treatment system to assure the cleanest possible runoff to the ocean. Cruise ships and other small vessels are no longer allowed to dump waste in waters around the Hawaiian Islands. Since there is a direct discharge to the ocean from all these operations, we ask the State to please consider requiring wastewater treatment. The shrimp emit a lot of waste during their growth and development. If you read the comments attached here, you will learn more about all that is currently draining into the waters of West Kauai. The State Department of Health Clean Water Branch had all of its employees either in person or on Zoom during the meeting and assured the audience they would respond to all of the comments offered before any permit to pollute is given.
We will keep you posted and our legal team is ready to assist if need be. As we approach year end, we have been plenty busy. Your donations make our work possible. Your donation is tax deductible.
Help us as we remain committed to preserving the environmental health of Kauai for people now and in the future.
——– Forwarded Message ——–
| Date: | Wed, 13 Nov 2024 16:33:08 -1000 |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Fwd: Comment Proposed Permit Renewal |
| To: | Darryl Lum <[email protected]> |
| Cc: | Dee Morikawa, Representative <[email protected]>, Senator Ronald Kouchi <[email protected]> |
| From: | Bridget Hammerquist <[email protected]> |
Aloha Daryl,
The following is the additional testimony offered to supplement our prior testimony of October 2021. Your kind consideration of the following is vital to the health of our beach and ocean. Thank you for your anticipated and consideration of all the testimonies offered today at the public meeting in Kekaha.
Mahalo nui,
Bridget Hammerquist, President
Friends of Maha`ulepu, a 501(c)(3)
Kia`i Wai o Wai`ale`ale, Co-founder
PO Box 1654
Koloa, HI 96756
friendsofmahaulepu.org
[email protected]
(808) 742-1037 home
(808) 346-1973 cell
The following is the additional testimony offered to supplement our prior testimony of October 2021. Your kind consideration of the following is vital to the health of our beach and ocean. Thank you for your anticipated and consideration of all the testimonies offered today at the public meeting in Kekaha.
Mahalo nui,
Bridget Hammerquist, President
Friends of Maha`ulepu, a 501(c)(3)
Kia`i Wai o Wai`ale`ale, Co-founder
PO Box 1654
Koloa, HI 96756
friendsofmahaulepu.org
[email protected]
(808) 742-1037 home
(808) 346-1973 cell
——– Forwarded Message ——–
| Date: | Wed, 13 Nov 2024 16:27:10 -1000 |
|---|---|
| To: | Clean Water Branch <[email protected]> |
| From: | Bridget Hammerquist <[email protected]> |
| Subject: | Comment Proposed Permit Renewal |
—
Bridget Hammerquist, President
Friends of Maha`ulepu, a 501(c)(3)
Kia`i Wai o Wai`ale`ale, Co-founder
PO Box 1654
Koloa, HI 96756
Donate
friendsofmahaulepu.org
[email protected]
(808) 742-1037 home
(808) 346-1973 cell
Aloha Clean Water Branch,
Re: NOTICE OF PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD AND PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED RENEWAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PERMIT FOR SUNRISE CAPITAL, INC. NPDES PERMIT NO. HI 0021654 DOCKET NO. HI 0021654
Please accept the following additional testimony filed on behalf of the members of Friends of Maha`ulepu (FOM), many of whom live on the west side of Kauai and who practice traditional and cultural food gathering in the near shore waters close to the shrimp farm operated by Sunrise Capital, aka Kauai Shrimp. As was testified to at the Hearing today drainage from the shrimp farm operation into Canal D and the KineKine ditch, are contaminating the water sufficiently to cause local fisherman and Limu gatherers to suspend their previous food gathering practices.
FOM strongly objects to the proposed permit for the following reasons:
There is a significant legal issues in the proposed permit which is listed as a “Renewal” but will be given to a new entity which today confirmed they will have a new and different operation from the Dutch Company that previously operated Sunrise Capital.
Re: NOTICE OF PUBLIC COMMENT PERIOD AND PUBLIC HEARING ON PROPOSED RENEWAL WATER POLLUTION CONTROL PERMIT FOR SUNRISE CAPITAL, INC. NPDES PERMIT NO. HI 0021654 DOCKET NO. HI 0021654
Please accept the following additional testimony filed on behalf of the members of Friends of Maha`ulepu (FOM), many of whom live on the west side of Kauai and who practice traditional and cultural food gathering in the near shore waters close to the shrimp farm operated by Sunrise Capital, aka Kauai Shrimp. As was testified to at the Hearing today drainage from the shrimp farm operation into Canal D and the KineKine ditch, are contaminating the water sufficiently to cause local fisherman and Limu gatherers to suspend their previous food gathering practices.
FOM strongly objects to the proposed permit for the following reasons:
There is a significant legal issues in the proposed permit which is listed as a “Renewal” but will be given to a new entity which today confirmed they will have a new and different operation from the Dutch Company that previously operated Sunrise Capital.
- The application on file for permit renewal does not identify with sufficient specifics how the new owners operation will differ. Generalizations were made but no details. Bottom line, the operation will be under a new company, Laun Family Farms which thus requires a new form 2C application.
- The proposed permit does not consider the cumulative impact of the multiple contributors to the drainage running into Canal D and the KineKine ditch.
- The proposed permit does not clarify that pollutant testing will be done at the point source of drainage, the pipe that drains the collection of ditches from the shrimp farm into KineKine ditch.
- Most importantly, the State appears to adopt a position that they are required to allow this pollution of the waters of the US setting limits based on operator representations rather than any objective testing.
- There is no apparent consideration of requiring a wastewater treatment of the effluent that drains Canal D out through KineKine ditch. There are several ADC Ag operations discharging through the same ditch as the shrimp farm. Between the shrimp farm and these operations, it seems reasonable to require the operators to jointly invest in a wastewater treatment plant to most effectively achieve water quality control of what is allowed to drain into the ocean.
- The proposed permit and application are deficient in identifying the basis for the operators request to increase the permit from 7 million gallons of wastewater to 20 million gallons of wastewater. Is this increase associated with a plan to line the unlined ditches on the shrimp farm, thereby eliminating the current practice that knowingly loses millions of gallons of effluent into the sand based ditches which then travels laterally to the near shore waters very close to the shrimp farm.
- Increased testing should be done from the effluent at the point source, the single pipe that carries the collection from all their ditches to KineKine. That data can then be compared with similar testing of the ADC drainage above the pump station to identify their pollution content, likely supporting need for a joint wastewater treatment system and/or allowing for sufficient data to have an informed NPDES permit that considers the cumulative content of the drainage from KineKine onto the beach and into the Kekaha to Waimea coastal waters.
- Under the State Constitution, Articles 11 and 12, we implore the Clean Water Branch to move first to discharge the cleanest possible waters into our ocean where industrial farming is involved. These operations should be able to jointly acquire wastewater treatment facilities and nothing less should be allowed.
Bridget Hammerquist, President
Friends of Maha`ulepu, a 501(c)(3)
Kia`i Wai o Wai`ale`ale, Co-founder
PO Box 1654
Koloa, HI 96756
Donate
friendsofmahaulepu.org
[email protected]
(808) 742-1037 home
(808) 346-1973 cell
Posted 11/12/2024
URGENT NOTICE – Shrimp Farm Meeting Tomorrow and CORRECTION on Comment Due Date
Aloha Friends,
In the last email we sent November 8, you received 2 emails sent to Friends of Maha`ulepu (FOM) informing us of a public meeting tomorrow regarding the proposed pollution permit (National Pollution Discharge Elimination System – NPDES permit) for the Shrimp Farm operation from the State Clean Water Branch, Hawaii Department of Health (HDOH). CORRECTION: Our email stated that Comments on this permit were due no later than November 22, 2024. The Comments are due by midnight November 13, 2024 and can be emailed to [email protected] before midnight tomorrow.
As you may recall from our last email, our concern about the permit the State is proposing to give the shrimp farm is based on the following:
- The Shrimp Farm drains its multiple ponds, the waste and genetically modified shrimp larvae in the Kinekine ditch which drains directly over the beach and out to sea without any consideration for the fact that the pollution permit is to be given for drainage that will be compounded by Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) drainage of pesticides and fertilizers which will enter the same ditch following the same drainage pattern to the ocean.
Aloha!
Humpback whales are often seen breaching off the shores of Maha’ulepu during the winter months.
Friends of Maha’ulepu is comprised of a group of concerned citizens (local and beyond) who are contributing their time and talents to protect the natural beauty of this pristine coastal valley.
Maha’ulepu Beach is located on the South Shore of the Island of Kaua’i in the Hawaiian Islands, approximately 3 1/2 miles northeast of the town of Poi’pu. Poi’pu is one of the major visitor destinations on the island due to it’s beautiful beaches, swimming, snorkeling and surfing, sea turtles, whales, monk seals, trade winds, palm trees, and spectacular sunsets. Learn more about Friends of Maha’ulepu and the work we are doing!
