Hawaii Alert! No Matter What They Are Telling You and Not Telling You, Stay Far Away From Puna Geothermal!

The current eruption is one mile from a geothermal plant that has had multiple blow outs in the past, unregulated, not compliant with EPA, and dumping chemicals into the surrounding area. No one online is talking about the possible connection to the current eruption.

ORIGINAL PGV SITE-Did you know the original site for Puna Geothermal was Pu’u ‘O’o vent? The group Pele Defense Fund was in court trying to stop it, and a few days before drilling was supposed to start, BOOM Pu’u ‘O’o exploded sending lava hundreds of feet into the air! The front page of the newpaper said “Final Witness Speaks”. Now that vent has been going for 35 years.

PGV BLOW OUT AFTER ISELLE-When Hurricane Iselle hit they did not shut down the plant and there was a blow out, and our civil defense officials did not tell us. Ive been working with the group Puna Pono Alliance that has been fighting to clean up this geothermal plant and they said there were 2 people who died, 10 people passed out, and over 130 people that got sick from this blow out.

1990 BLOW OUT-There was a blow out in 1990 and the people who went to the community center 3 miles away reported there were birds dropping from the sky!

1991 BLOW OUT-This blow out could not be contained for 3 days and if affected 100 people. They said that the leaks would affect people in a 1 mile radius, but the effects were reported as far as 3 miles away.

2014 BLOW OUT-The June 21, 2014 blow out that lasted 31 hours- those effects could be felt as far as 10 miles away. Fire Fighters have to respond in full Hazmat Suits, what does this tell you? The residents of Puna have been dealing with this for over 30 years with no help from our county officials or the Department of Health.

HYDROGEN SULPHIDE-Hydrogen Sulphide gas is heavier than oxygen, so it rest close to the ground, 3 feet and under. This is why its affects people when they are sleeping, and it really affects children. And kids immune systems are not fully developed to so theyre not as strong as adults. Hydrogen Sulphide burns your nerve fibers, so soon you start to not smell it anymore. The lava is on-site at the geothermal plant, people are reporting the smell of sulphur, what else do yo think could be in that smoke? Did you know PGV is the only geothermal plant in the WORLD that is in a residential area, this tells us it should not be in residential areas!!!

LAVA IN 2014-After Iselle there was a contested case to stop Puna Geothermal from renewing their air pollution permit, thats when the lava came towards Pahoa last time.

CURRENT CONTESTED COURT CASE-The past months Ive been getting the court documents from this current contested case for PGV to renew its permit, and then all these eruptions started. Now the plant is closed and they’re saying its closed indefinitely. Once again, Pele has the final say.

NO REGULATIONS OR ENFORCEMENT-PGV was approved to build a 30 Megawatt facility, but they built a facility that generates 60 MGW. When they passed Act 97 it states that geothermal is the only thing exempt from all building codes, we have no authority to regulate geothermal at all. They have had a numbers of incidents of Failure to Comply and failure of responsible government agencies to enforce.

NO EIS OR EA-They switched zoning to Ag lands to avoid the Environmental Impact Study and the Environmental Assesment. Even with a fine from the EPA, they still play by their own rules. The geothermal plant’s life span is 20-30 years, our geothermal plant is 35 years old, think about those pipes. The EPA believes the blowout in 1991 contributed to total dissolved solid contamination of neighboring aquifers, and the USGS study examined the possibility of contamination of additional aquifers.

EPA COMPLAINT, 10 YEARS LATER STILL NOT FIXED-The EPA criticized PGV/s air monitoring and emergency planning and the State Health Department’s supervision of these activities. EPA’s San Francisco office lodged a complaint against PGV for failing to report the 1991 and 1993 releases to the National Response Center, and that state and local officials had not received timely info about these incidents. In other words, PGV tries to keep things secret when dangerous stuff happens. In 1993 the EPA conducted a chemical facility inspection in August 2013 and found the company failed to take the necessary steps to prevent accidental releases of Hydrogen Sulphide. So 10 years later and they still did nothing.

Here are post from 2 different people who went to the community meeting and spoke with the representative from PGV. He said they moved the 60,000 gallons of pentane out of the operations area, but they only moved it 100 feet away to the top of a crater. If theres a gas station on fire and the gas tanker is 100 feet away its still dangerous right? This is that but much much worse, not to mention all the chemicals that leaked into the ground over 30 years.

They use a various amount of toxic chemicals and mix them to make what they call a caustic soda, they add it to the reinjection wells and then it bubbles up…and there are 400 million gallons of “geothermal fluid” per day. Caustic soda contains metals, silicia, and other toxic materials. These chemicals are toxic on their own, and there are not studies to show the harmful effects when these chemicals are mixed together. Even if they moved the 60,000 gallon of pentane, the ground is still saturated from the 90 pounds of pentane they were losing every day. Google pentane, it says it is extremely flammable!

Please protect yourself, your keiki, and your animals. A high quality respiratory masks is best. If you do not have a mask you can mix baking soda and water, soak a handkerchief or wash cloth in that and breathe with it over your mouth and nose, that what residents were instructed to do during the PGV blow outs.

And Big Island residents, dont be complacent just because youre not by the lava…if you can see the vog there is possibility of exposure. And if something does happen to our power source, we need to make sure we all have our emergency kits prepared, especially when everyone is sending so many donations to Hilo. Better to be informed and be prepared in case anything happens.

Let’s light up the phones and social media, we need this place shut down and cleaned up!