Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 4, 1 April 1991 — Geothermal development: a boon or bane? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Geothermal development: a boon or bane?

by Rowena Akana Vice-chair

Anoai ke welina. Last month Trustee Moanikeala Akaka and I traveled to San Rafael to attend an international indigenous sovereignty eonference for two days. When the conference was over, Trustee

Akaka and I traveled down to Lakeport, California in the beautiful wine country of Napa Valley. However, our purpose for going to Lakeport was to visit the geothermal energy wells in the Geysers area of Lake County, and to speak with county planning officials about their personal experience with geothermal energy development. While in Lakeport we spoke with Robert Reynolds, director of the Lake County air quality management district and Mark Dellinger, Lake County geothermal coordinator. Both men explained, and I agree, that geothermal energy may be a good source to tap, provided the following criteria ean be effectively met: • Land use planning must take into account goals, policies and implementation measures for all stages of geothermal development. • A water quality monitoring program is necessary and should be an joint agency and industry effort. • A noise control and monitoring program is needed to do spot-checking and to make regular noise measurements. • Air quality management should be the eoneem of a committee made up of industry, regulatory agencies and environmental groups. • Loeal permitting, monitoring and enforcement processes must be established, and public participation encouraged at all steps. • Environmental planning should require baseline data to establish a pre-development setting, thereby protecting both industry and community interests. • The permitting process should require an applicant to identify specifications on such things as well pads, access roads, pipeline, power plant

and transmission tower locations. Before granting development permits, Lake County made the geothermal company build a water reservoir above the well site to ensure fresh, uncontaminated water would always serve the town. They required the company to post a large bond to make sure it had sufficient financial resources to both cover the cost of cleaning up and environmental restoration in event of any accident, as well as at the end of the plant's life cycle. Recently Dellinger was brought to Hawai'i by a public relations firm who represented the eompany that has been granted a permit by the state to conduct geothermal test drilling in the Wao Kele forest in Puna. He was brought in to speak to residents living near the test site. However he was not allowed by the company to see the geothermal well sites, in particular the site that suffered a blowout this year.

Reynolds said he is concerned that a number of factors about the Puna environment and geology make geothermal development a proposition that should be very closely watched by the state and community groups. These factors include the test site's location near a residential area, in an zone of known seismic and volcanic activity. Further, he said the already high acid content of Hawaii's soil may make the islands' water sources and vegetation more susceptible to any increase in soil acidity from acid rain, either from vog (volcano haze) or produced through the geothermal venting process. This combination may have ramifications that are not fully understood or anticipated at present, he said. Any action has its cost and in the case of geothermal, we must weigh long-term environmental impact against the potential eeonomie and energy value a project may offer. While visiting the geothermal well site in Lakeport, I saw 100 year-old pine trees near the well sites slowly dying from the top down. In another 10 years, I was told, these trees would be dead. I am concerned that our state is not well enough equipped to grant permits for geothermal development because we don't know enough about what criteria and requirements are needed. More information is needed so our state ean impose appropriately tough restrictions on development of geothermal energy. While geothermal energy ean be beneficial to Hawai'i, it was a statement by Reynolds that rang true for me: eaeh community must weigh the pros and cons of geothermal energy de velopment on an individual basis. What works for one community may not work in another. The Lakeport men said they are now conducting a study to resolve the question of why the projected 30-year life expectancy of a geothermal well has consistently been cut in half. Geothermal ean be a boon for energy development in Hawai'i, but I want to see it be safe for all of us. Eaeh community must ask itself whether the eeonomie benefits outweigh the environmental costs over time. Is the amount of money that could be realized worth the damage and discomfort they will endure? The final determination should be by the people of the community.