Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 4, 1 April 1991 — Puna geothermal well blowout: too hot to handle [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Puna geothermal well blowout: too hot to handle

by Moanikeala Akaka Trustee, Hawai'i

A blowout at the Ormat Puna geothermal plant in late February injured two workers and has raised eoneem about the safety of the geothermal industry. One worker was up on the drill rig at 1 10 feet when

the blowout occurred. Several area residents were touring the plant and witnessed the explosion. The drill worker blacked out and others climbed up to help him. Robert Petrici, a loeal resident, photographed the steam shooting up twice as high as the 170-foot tower. The explosion was heard a mile away and poisonous hydrogen-sulfide gases were vented for 10 minutes, frightening area residents. They were further upset when plant workers refused to sound the civil defense alarm system. "A huge cloud of steam went right into the community," Petrici stated. "They promised us monitoring, they promised us enforcement, they promised us relocation." Harry Kim, Hawai'i County Civil Defense director, said the amount of gas released first appeared to be minor but he considers the blowout a major incident in terms of "credibility and what we're trying to do to insure the safety of the public." "We damn well better leam from this," the Hawai'i Tribune Herald quoted Kim as saying. Aurora Martinovich, who lives nearby, said half the area residents suffered health problems for a few days since the mishap. Because of Pele's heat, the temperature of the steam at a depth of 1,650 feet where the blowout began, was 500° F or what drillers would have expected at four times the depth. Is Tutu Pele telling them something? These mainland geothermal people have a lot to lean about our 'aina and her many moods. The Honolulu Advertiser initially reported that the poliee referred to this blowout as a minor industrial accident. However, were it not for Petrici's photo, would the media have whitewashed the situation, misinforming the public about seriousness of this mishap? Several days after the blowout, Ormat sealed the well after a recommendation from Harry Kim and company experts flown in from Nevada. Kim told the Hawai'i Tribune Herald "the well will be plugged, and evaluated for possib!e abandonment." In early February the federal government dealt a blow to the state's geothermal program when it said it wanted to withold a $5 million appropriation to a test drilling program in Puna until it is settled in court whether a federal environmental impact statement is needed. Although state officials say the loss of expected federal funds "won't kill the program," they admit it will hurt the state's ability to make a thorough assessment of the resource. This state has been drilling pukas into Pele's domain for almost a decade — in Opihikao, around Puna and at Pu'uanahulu, Kona. Before the blowout, Ormat reopened the Hawai'i Geothermal Project-Abbott well (HGPA) that had onee been closed down because of pollution. This well is the only resource site known thus far islandwide. No matter how many holes they drll, Pele country remains one of the most unpredictable geothermal areas on earth. There were a few eyebrows raised when in early February state Sen. Tony Chang introduced a bill for a nuclear power plant on O'ahu. Chang and Sen. Matsuura from Hilo are "merely trying to use the threat of nuclear power to extort support for geothermal" says Anne Wheeloek, spokesperson for Big Island Rain Forest Action Network to

Honolulu Advertiser. These senators play with fire by using what Wheeloek termed a "nuclear blackmail" tactic. Five Puna community members who live near the geothermal area recently went on a statesponsored geothermal site inspection tour in Califomia, Colorado and Nevada. Three state Department of Business and Eeonomie Devebpment empbyee accompanied them on the five-day trip in early December. They met with geothermal regulators, plant operators, industry consultants and representatives, and loeal community members. The tour included the Geysers and Coso in California; Steamboat Springs, Colorado, Yankee Caithness, and Omiat's Soda Lake II and Stillwater geothermal plants in Nevada. The trop allowed these concerned residents to leam more about the technology and regulation of the industry and the experiences of other communities.

In Lake County community groups were largely responsible for getting more stringent regulation and eomplianee programs. Friends of Cobb Mountain has been dealing with the geothermal issue for 18 years, and still feel they have to watch the developers "like a hawk." They are included in an 'early' community input process before the permit comes to public hearing. The Puna residents felt the site inspection confirmed their concerns about the industry. Kapoho resident Jane Hedtke said, "The resource is mueh hotter in Hawai'i. The hydrogen sulfide content, pressure and silica levels are fargreater, making the engineering of the resource more hazardous."

The group learned that a process to reinject geothermal waste by-products back into the well has failed at a Coso geothermal plant in California where the technology began. It is being discontinued after three years because of gas buildup and interference with production weils. Puna community members worry that reinjection planned here as a means to control pollutants is not a proven technology. Should it fail, there could be another HGPA with the venting and brine ponds, only ten times the size." Apparently, complaints and opposition to geothermal development are directly related to distance. The plants with distant neighbors had no complaints; those with residents one mile or less away faced sharp opposition. Luana Jones, a Kamehameha Schools graduate stated "Geothermal development and residents

just cannot co-exist it's adding insult to injury. It's enough to have to breathe it, then you have to prove it's harming you." Her families and others live on the border of the Hawai'i geothermal lease sites. More than 50 houses are within a one-mile radius of the Ormat 25 megawatt project in Pohoiki. Carl Kirkendall, who lives next to the True Geothermal site in Wao Kele O Puna, remarked in a report filed with the DepartmentofBusinessand Eeonomie Development that "large scale geothermal development within the former Puna forest reserve will result in far more fracturing of the forest ecosystem than the loss of forest acreage indicates. Though eaeh unit may encompass only a small area . . . the sum of the development will be the compound of the parts." The Puna residents concluded they would not want to live near geothermal power plants and well fields, given the unique situation here in Hawai'i. The first week of March Trustee Rowena Akana and I drove up to Lakeport after attending a sovereignty conference in the San Francisco Bay area. The weather unfortunately was stormy, flooding in areas and made for worrisome travel. We met with Mark Dellinger, Lake County geothermal coordinator and Bob Reynolds, county, state and federal noise and air quality control regulator. It appears California is mueh more protective of their community than our state has been on development. Reynolds was in Hilo a year ago as a witness in a court case on geothermal hydrogen sulfide by-product. He stated that some attitudes and laek of eoneem by state employees involved in geothermal development are so bad that "they should be canned." He also said that the health department, whieh plays an important role in geothermal development, knows about diseases but knows nothing about engineering or toxic poisoning. Those state officials who are supposed to be protecting our community are instead just going along with what the developers have been proposing. One Hawai'i attorney general told Reynolds "the state policy is to do geothermal so we're going to do it!" This could prove disastrous to our fragile Hawaiian ecosystem. Reynolds pointed out some fundamental differences between Hawai'i and California geothermal. Our resource is acidic and very corrosive in nature. There is mueh chloride and brine. He felt drilling for geothermal on an active volcano is hazardous and geologically risky."If the earth moves (earthquake), you ean shear off the drill." He feels it's going to make more misery for developers and be hazardous to the community. It seems to me," he stated, "you've got unique problems in Hawai'i."

Dellinger said the state and developers have to be upfront and honest. There will be deterioration of the quality of life in the area where geothermal is developed. "Drift from wells will brown and kill trees," Reynolds added. "It ain't going to be better, you're going to lose something." The Geysers well sites in California are down 20 percent in energy output and expected to be depleted 50 percent by the year 2000. Dellinger commented "(it) will drop to a point then level off." Yet we keep being told that this energy is renewable — sounds like "shibai." If Hawai'i is foolish enough to develop geothermal, it is imperative we have a good, strong monitoring and eomplianee person on the loeal level. This person should be vigilant, independent and not owned by the geothermal industry and truly responsive to community needs and concerns, say the Lake County officials. By ignoring community concerns as has been happening in Hawai'i this past decade, the geothermal industry and state have been building continued page 23