What the Frack? Not in Hawaii!
In the last legislative session, Senator Russell Ruderman introduced a bill (to some derision) that would ban fracking in Hawaii. It received little support, and failed to pass. I am beginning to understand why, only now, and why it must be re-introduced.
The twenty-some drilling companies circling off-shore of the Big Island, their fins visible above the water, would most likely employ a technique with the innocuous moniker of EGS. Now, that sounds bland enough – but what it means is: Enhanced Geothermal Systems. How are such systems enhanced, one might ask? Why, by fracturing the rocks…or as we say today, fracking.
The residents of the Puna district living near the existing PGV geothermal plant, represented by Senator Ruderman, are wise in the ways of geothermal, having been the unwilling guinea pig neighbors to the processes involved for almost thirty years. On the weekend of August 17-19, they marched the 26 miles from Pahoa to Hilo en masse to protest further geothermal exploration in their community, and deliver a petition with over 3000 signatures to HELCO President Jay Ignacio.
Once in Hilo, they joined up with hundreds more protestors on the sidewalks outside HELCO鈥檚 office, who were beating drums, playing horns and guitars, and chanting, 鈥淣o fracking way!鈥 Several polynesian-tattooed Hilo policemen stood by pleasantly, chatting with protestors, and a few Blackwater-looking plainclothes security-types hovered near HELCO鈥檚 doors, keeping the hoi polloi out of the building (as I discovered as I moved toward the entrance with my camera).
Thanks to Puna Pono Alliance, the protestors spanned the Puna demographic – little babies in strollers, tutus in capris, long-haired kids in lavalavas, farmers, surfers, fishermen, Hawaiian practitioners, middle-class soccer moms, retired nuclear submarine commanders to creative artists, business owners, veterans 鈥 in every color of the human rainbow 鈥 united by one common purpose: keep any more geothermal development out of Puna. The march was a success, but HELCO has decided, in its majestic largesse, to continue to entice globalist corporations onshore to continue to poison the environment and its citizens, seemingly with complete disregard for the health, welfare and safety of the residents of the Island of Hawaii, in stark contrast to their IRP stated objectives.
You see, HELCO鈥檚 five year Integrated Resource Plan includes the brilliant idea of siting geothermal plants, ostensibly which will be providing a major portion of our island鈥檚 energy needs, right smack dab in Lava Hazard Zone 1 鈥 the area most likely to be soonest covered up with lava. There, the geothermal drillers will puncture Pele鈥檚 delicate flanks repeatedly, extracting her 鈥榞ifts鈥. If that isn鈥檛 enough to persuade her, they will resort to EGS 鈥 fracking 鈥 although they claim otherwise, now.
Pele鈥檚 鈥榞ift鈥 is steam, and if she gets steamed up enough by all this fracking, she will let loose something that no one will have anticipated, I fear. I had an ominous, visceral sense of what the outcome to this will be, one that haunts me to this day. I have tried to warn them of what I felt in my bones 鈥 that through an unexpected chain of events, our area, and perhaps, the island, would be rendered uninhabitable by toxic and uncontrollable release of gasses. That this would be the direct result of continued geothermal exploration into a most delicate part of Pele鈥檚 anatomy. My pleas, and the pleas of concerned citizens of Puna, have fallen on deaf ears, and the process grinds inexorably ahead.
WIth the reins of government now grasped tightly in the greedy hands of corporations, people watch in horror as their environment is poisoned, polluted, torn up, the people sickened, even killed, by industrial wastes, wildlife and forests decimated. Until such time as corporations are stripped of all constutional rights, the people will continue to be second-class citizens in their own land, their well-being sacrificed on the enormous, glittering altar of corporate greed.
Across our nation, and the world, neighbors are joining together in the multitudes to ban fracking. There is still hope. All power is inherent in the people. Hana hou!
About the author: Vicki Vierra is an artist, soap-maker, and gardener in Keaau, Hawaii. Her work is in collections around the world, including the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Art in Public Places collection.
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