Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 7, Number 5, 1 May 1990 — Showdown at Wao Kele O Puna [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Showdown at Wao Kele O Puna

By Moanikeaia Akaka Trustee, Hawai'i

It was a great feeling to be among the almost 2,000 people from throughout our islands (and a few from beyond) who gathered at Wao Kele O Puna on March 25 for the largest showing thus far in opposition to the

Campbe!l Estate/True Mid Pacific Geothermal development. This coming together in the spirit of peaee and aloha was a success despite the continued blasphemy against Pele's domain, the destruction of that precious Hawaiian rainforest, and the illegal ceded land exchange. It was a success fundamentally because of the strong solidarity expressed by a broad range of the population from all of Hawai'i against this most unpopular, environmentally threatening enterprise. Participants and poliee are to be commended on the way they behaved in a volatile situation. However, new Chief of Poliee Vierra who is supposed to be neutral is now saying that the arrested protesters should pay for the $55,000 expenses of that late March Wao Kele action. "Geothermal protests are costly to the county," Vierra stated. lt amazes me that he and the Big Island Labor Allianee feel that citizens exercising their constitutional rights should be charged a fee of almost $400 per person. In a letter to the editor (Hawai'i Tribune Herald, April 9), a Puna resident stated, "this is a shameful attitude for the head of our supposedly neutral peaee keeping force. Obviously, this man is letting his own personal views on geothermal issue affect his professionalism. Perhaps the hotel workers should be billed for the cost of poliee on the picket line. Perhaps they should front the cost of the federal mediator." Another Puna resident stated in the same eolumn, "It is a good thing the crowd maintained its peaceful purpose. I hate to imagine what would have happened to hundreds of unarmed civilians if anything occurred that would have given the hundred or so hidden SWAT cops armed with riot gear, the opportunity to justify their presence; would the poliee, the developers and the state feel vindicated then?" Not protesting geothermal is not just costly to the county but to everyone in these islands. At the present, electricity is almost 9.4 cents per kilowatt hour. It is said that when and if geothermal gets cabled to Maui and O'ahu electricity will cost you, the consumer, between 13 and 16 cents per kilowatt. Yet by using energy-efficiency measures, it would cost 3.2 cents per kilowatt hour. The geothermal energy will cost seven to eight times more than the energy efficiency measures. We already pay the highest electric rates in the country in these islands. As mentioned before, a Washington state consultant feels the cable that will carry the resource will alone cost up to $4.6 billion, probably to be paid by us rate-and-taxpayers. The power lines carrying this energy over the Big Island to Kawaihae across the treacherous Alenuihaha Channel will surface at a very vulnerable and historically significant area on Maui — Ahihi. It is also feared that these power lines create an electro-magnetic field that contributes to a high incidence of leukemia among children who live near such power lines. Underground power lines would be the safest, but developers say this is cost prohibitive. Our children will be exposed to harm to preserve the developers' budget calculations. New Yorker magazine carried a three-week series last summer on this issue. Within the past month, Hawai'i Tribune Herald admits this electromagnetic field could be a problem relating to the geo-

thermal power lines. If indeed anyone is to pay the $55,000 cost of the March 25 action, it should be the developers True Mid Pacific and Campbell Estate. After all, it is they who will profit from this rape of Pele's home, possible health problems, and the loss of the last immense lowland tropical rainforest of its kind in the world — although there are other fragments (fingers) of this type of rainforest in areas other than Wao Kele. The illegal land exchange of Wao Kele Forest Reserve out of its ceded land status by the state legislature in 1985 for Campbell Estate's Kahauale'a is a de facto loss of 15,000 acres overrun by Pele since January 1983, several thousand acres of ancient, sacred raped 'ohia forest, and 5,000 acres to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park — depriving not only us native Hawaiians but all the residents of these islands who are the true owners of the ceded lands. Though we native Hawaiians are supposed to receive mineral right royalties from geothermal development through OHA, I as one trustee feel our mueh needed revenues should not be gained at the expense of our Polynesian ethic. Our eultural value system is aloha 'aina — ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono — yet, we are being told, "let them poke holes into Pele's home for a profit." Well, Pele our goddess is not for sale. Here is a situation where the labor union members have been used by their leadership against the best interest of the rank and file. The Hawai'i Island Labor Allianee spokespersons made up of Bobo La Pena of the ILWU and Herbert Perreira have gone on a "witch hunt" against those opposed to geothermal, stating that it is outsiders from the mainland that are rabble-rousing against geothermaI and they attempt to build resentment between haoles and locals. If you were at the rainforest that day, you would have seen a cross-section of the community, young and old, locals and others who are Hawaiian-at-heart. Only 13 of the 141 arrested reside on the mainland. There were over 21

young people that were also arrested this time including keiki's from 6- to 10-years-old who were rightfully proud of standing up for the 'aina; for the youth are the inheritors of our future. And the gods know our planet is endangered by profiteers of every description locally, nationally, and internationally, all of them flying the banner of progress at any cost. Thus far, two unions that belong to the Big Island Labor Allianee, HSTA (Hawai'i State Teachers Association) and UHPA (University of Hawai'i Professional Assembly) "have balked at being included in the coalition's highly visible support of geothermal development," according to a front page Hawai'i Tribune Herald article on Tuesday, April 3. Their membership have written letters to the editors of loeal and state newspapers questioning La Pena's "misrepresentation when they elaim massive union support to their other radical pro-development views." Here is a case that points out the Labor Allianee is not in full support of geothermal development. Labor unions of the Big Island should review their own history, remembering that August 1938 at Hilo Harbor hundreds of workers were gathered peacefully demonstrating and werte shot by a poliee "SWAT squad" wounding several workers. My fellow Hawaiians, we must face the reality of our situation today. Eeonomie forces whieh are insensitive to our Hawaiian tradition and love for the 'aina threaten us at every turn from Lana'i to Kaho'olawe, Wailea in Maui to Miloli'i, to Puna. It is for us Hawaiians to show them the meaning of aloha 'aina. If we fail to do this we will be overwhelmed with golf courses, condos, poorly planned resort developments, and most threatening heavy industrial complexes that will devour our lifestyle and irreversibly destroy all that we hold dear for the present and future of these islands. There is nothing more dangerous than ignoranee in high places. Malama pono. Ua mau ke ea o ka 'aina i ka pono.