The small community building in Kahuku was full and loud on Tuesday, June 23, as about 50 community members and environmental impact researches talked about the Champlin windmills to be built in Kahuku.
About 20 people lined the road outside the building before its doors opened, holding “no more windmill” signs. Cars honked as they sped past.
One sign-holder, Kent Fonoimoana of the Kahuku Community Association, said, “We are not against renewable energy. It’s just where they are putting them.”
Champlin is the developer, while Na Pua Makani is the operator of the wind farm. The proposed project would add up to 10 industrial-sized wind turbines to the existing 12, generating an additional 24 megawatts, which is “enough to power 9,000 homes,” according to Champlin’s President Mike Cutbirth.
Cutbirth said, “Local community - just like tonight - get to give their comments, questions and concerns,” but do not ultimately make the decision. The project will be approved or not approved “by federal, state, and county agencies. Those agencies take into account the community’s feedback.“
A 2012 University of Hawaii survey showed that 97 percent of people on the island are in favor of renewable energy in general, and 86 percent of those surveyed said wind power is among the energy technologies they favor.
A study prepared by QMark Research in March of 2014 surveyed 300 people via phone, with 100 people from the North Shore, asking them “think broadly about the ways to generate electricity-which one do you think is the best way for Oahu to meet the power needs of the island?”
They were restricted to a single answer, and of those 100 people, 12 percent answered with wind as their most preferred renewable energy technology, as did 13 percent of residents on Oahu not from the North Shore.
State Senator Gil Riviere was at the meeting, as he represents the 23rd Senatorial district that encompasses Kahuku and much of the North Shore. He said, “We really need to listen to the people who are impacted by this. Too often decisions are made downtown without consideration of the sentiments of the people who are most affected.”
Projected benefits of the project include reduced and stabilize electricity rates for the island, a Kahuku community benefit package, and jobs, among other things.
Joe Kalili of Hauula said, “We have local guys up there working. It’s clean and I’m pretty sure it’s all good stuff. I’m for it.”
Mike Reid, a Kahuku community member, said he is strongly opposed to the building of any more windmills. “Our electric bill used to be $75. Now it is $300. It doesn’t stabilize it because you have to keep fixing the dumb windmills.”
“You have to look at it by the whole system,” Cutbirth said. He said it costs about 32 cents to get electricity from oil, and only 15 cents with renewable energy.
“The more renewables you bring on, the lower those costs will be. It’s going to take time.”
Na Pua Makani’s website states the “community will receive $10,000 per turbine each year over the life of the project. For Phase 1, that would amount to about $2 million over the 25-year life of the project.”
That is not acceptable compensation to Cindy Tutor. “How long will that payoff last in relation to the wind turbines lifetime? Money is spent and we still have to look at them.”
Some people like how the turbines look, and some people don’t, but residents are concerned about how the visual impact with affect tourism. “People come for the beautiful scenery. They don’t come to see an industrial wasteland,” said Fonoimoana. “We’ve already lost our sunset. Now they want to take away our sunrise. A dollar amount should be put on that.”
Maria Seagai said there is better renewable technology “on the cusp. [These wind turbines] are obsolete as soon as they go up. Tourism is our No. 1 source here. We shouldn’t be shooting ourselves in the foot. Not too many people can drive up and not recognize the beauty here. [The turbines] mar the landscape. It would be sad for us to leave this to our children. A pile of rotting turbines.”
A pile of rotting, rusted turbines sat on the Big Island’s South Point for several years, which is what several community members are afraid will happen in Kahuku.
“Nobody is going to do anything illegal,” said 76-year-old Buddy Ako, who has lived his whole life in the region. He said he is not afraid of change, having seen a lot of changes in the community, with the closing of the sugar mill in 1971 and the building of the schools.
“There were anti-people back then too, saying to keep the country country—don’t build! Keep the Country Country—for who? We want quality control change and progress. We cannot stay static. Slowly you accept eventual goodness of what is happening. We cannot stagnate and live in the past. Part of the progression is to take care of sustainable energy and get rid of oil. A windmill is non-intrusive and doesn’t pollute. Ugly is in the eye of the beholder.”
The project is part of the initiative by the state to stop using fossil fuels by 2045 so Hawaii can be energy independent. Mike Reid, said he thinks that is “very isolationist. Saying we—this little island—don’t want to use the resources of the whole world. Why do we want to stop using fossil fuel? Wouldn’t it be smarter, if Hawaii is such an expensive place to live, to get the cheapest, most economical resource in the world?”
According to Reid, that cheap resource is oil, which only gets expensive “because of greed.” Reid said, “I’m very concerned about the farmers. It looks like there’s going to be competition between the farmers and the windmill company.”
Currently 225 acres of the land between the town and mountains is designated as agricultural land, or an “ag park,” according to the Hawaii Department of Agriculture.
Brita Woek of Tetra Tech—an environmental impact consulting company hired by Champlin— said most of the existing land use and access to areas behind the town will not change with the project’s completion, though there might be some limitation as they are being built.
“During operation, it’ll be like just one truck. They are not even allowed to widen the road,” which would encroach on agriculture land. She said there have been “big design changes. The landowners said we’ve got to move the turbines so they can still use agriculture. My understanding is the next iteration is to have the line moved farther away from the farm land.”
Current farmers are affected, which leads Polly Reid to believe these measures will still have "an effect because you can plant it but you can't harvest it afterward because no one is supposed to go under the windmills."
In addition to farmland, Woek said, “The Zipline stays the same. You couldn’t put a windmill too close to the houses. You can still go visit the bunkers to restore them."
The research is “based off of existing studies, weather patterns, and other things,” she said. Champlin has to do an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and have a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) in order to build. It must abide by the findings as well. “In order to get the permit, they are committing to this suite of mitigation measures,” said Tom Snetsinger of Tetra Tech.
“The environmental review and permitting process is more rigorous in Hawaii than any other state or community we’ve developed—and I’ve been in business 20 years,” said Cutbirth. “After three years of studies, the conclusion is there are no adverse impacts.”
Part of the EIS is considering the cultural impact of a project. Dr. Tevita Kaili, cultural anthropology teacher at BYU–Hawaii and resident of Kahuku, said, “The first thing that they don’t address in their Cultural Impact Assessment is that the birds and bats that are going to be killed by the turbines are culturally significant to Hawaiian and Polynesian cultures.”
Three birds in question, the Hawaiian Moorhen, the Hawaiian Short-Eared Owl, and the Hawaiian Goose, are considered aumakua, or ancestral guardians of certain families. “Even today, Hawaiians who come from those families will not hurt or kill those animals. The belief is very strong,” he said.
The hoary bat species is affected by the turbines as well. “The bats are very sacred because they are considered the physical manifestation of one of the four major Gods of Hawaii—Kanaloa. It’s like how with Native Americans eagles are sacred. That’s the same issue as is happening here in Hawaii,” Kaili said.
Kaili continued, “I talked to the archeologist yesterday and he said he never thought of it, and when he was interviewing other people, they never thought of it. I guess they were thinking about artifacts but not thinking about things that are alive as culture.”
Once the EIS is complete, the mitigation measures to reduce the projected impact must be kept if the project wants to move forward. “The mitigation plan is because they are killing the birds in Kahuku you have to keep the birds alive somewhere else," said Kaili. "That may address the biological problem, but if you are striking a sacred bird, how do you mitigate that?”
The Habitat Conservation Plan talks about protecting threatened species in the James Campbell National Wildlife Refuge, located between the shrimp ponds and the ocean north of Kahuku.
Under the June 10 heading, the Fish and Wildlife Service has the entirety of the Habitat Conservation Plan, Draft Environmental Impact Statement, Cultural Impact Assessment and other studies done.
Donna Brown said she and her family, including a son with cerebral palsy, moved to Maui so they can sleep. "We noticed ever since they put up those windmills, he had a hard time going to sleep. He would wake up every night at about 2 a.m. and the only way to get him to sleep was to put him in the car and drive him toward Laie and Hauula. As soon as we turned around he would wake back up."
Others at the meeting said their special needs children would also wake up around 2 or 3 a.m.
Junior Primacio is “83 years young” and said, “I really don’t think that's an issue, in my opinion. And you know why? From 1895 to 1971 every year we heard the grinding of the mills. And the plantation families learned to live with it.”
Consultant company HDR Inc’s Scott Noel explained its findings about the noise impact. He said the existing windmills have a “sound power level about 3 decibels higher” than the proposed ones. A human ear will notice a difference in 5 decibels.
“The EPA has an indoor noise guideline of 45 db. This project is predicted to be less than 45 decibels outside,” and the walls of a home block about 10 decibels, making it sound about 35 decibels inside. “It shouldn’t keep people awake at night.”
A 2011 review of international policies concerning Wind Turbine distances from residences done by the Minnesota Department of Commerce found, “There is no worldwide agreement on appropriate wind turbine setback distances from homes,” and none in the United States.
In Europe, minimum recommended distances vary from 300 meters (984 ft) to 1,000 meters (3,281 ft). Na Pua Makani’s website states the closest wind turbine to Kahuku High School will be 3,800 feet away. One member suggested building them between mountains where there is open space.
The turbines “should be over the Koolau mountain range where there is space,” said Ben Shafer of Kahana Bay, who was wearing a Keep the Country Country cap. “What I want to know is who’s getting the energy from this thing? How much are the tax payers in Koolauloa getting back? Tax payers are not getting a return.”
Cindy Tutor said windmills have “served well in places they’ve been—like Texas and Holland. I think they have their place, but this is not the place. It sounds like such a great idea, but as you dig deeper you find that it’s really not.”