07-14-2008, 02:00 PM
gtill, I didn't change it to O'okala; you mentioned something I wasn't sure about, maybe the O'okala project, and I asked if that was it. Then I commented on it as a proposal that has actually been made. I have no comment on a hypothetical in Puna; until the location and implementation are defined, it's just an idea.
I don't want to get in an argument, but this comment is simply uninformed:
OK, take a look at the Protect O'okala website, as there are pictures of the membership at the top. Please tell me if these are "upper crust of beautiful people ... rich outsiders" you were referring to.
Photos of the protesters:
http://protectookala.org/files/images/top2.jpg
http://protectookala.org/files/images/top1.jpg
Website:
http://protectookala.com/
O'okala itself is NOT an industrial zoned area; it is one industrial site that housed a sugar mill in the midst of a larger residential area. There are places like this up and down the Hamakua coast, and in Kohala, that are the legacy of King Cane, which operated by setting up housing camps around the mills. What sort of worked with sugar mills does not mean that heavy industry generating pollutants is a good fit today as a center for a village.
The people of Hamakua and Kohala who made that living have a very high rate of cancer that has been linked to working on poisoned land. I was loosely involved with a community group there back in the late '90's, who were rising up and saying they are sick of their land being poisoned and made toxic for a few poor low wage jobs.
The people in O'okala who oppose this project are most of the residents, and they ARE the people who have been there, many of them, NOT the beautiful people. Have you ever been to O'okala and looked at the homes there?
This project started out pitching jobs to locals and ended up with some silly figure of a dozen or less jobs, with only a couple people in the whole community interested in having one. The others would commute. It was a mainland company with a bad track record trying to pitch jobs to get approval for a mill that wouldn't turn a profit in order to back door in a power facility across the street from where children and elders live.
http://www.protectookala.org/files/08220...Herald.pdf
Now there appears to be a new proposal to modify the veneer plant idea and do biomass production, which I just now found:
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/arti...ocal05.txt
I won't comment on this plan because I haven't studied it. I guess we'll see.
Hamakua coast is one of the areas on this island not plagued by vog, and people move there to find clean air ... so to slate this area for any manufacturing that pollutes the air, seems short-sighted to me.
Let's hope that when something gets built in Puna the story is a better one. Part of the veneer mill scheme is or was to harvest trees in PAHALA and truck them to O'okala, through Puna, of course. Then milled wood trucked back over the gulches to Hilo port. Studies on the amount of fuel needed to do all this trucking? Not sure.
I don't want to get in an argument, but this comment is simply uninformed:
quote:
O'okala is an industrial zoned area, and was a living for many generations of local people. The island needs commerce, which means jobs. We can't let rhe upper crust of beautiful people turn everything into a realtors dream, full of rich outsiders.
OK, take a look at the Protect O'okala website, as there are pictures of the membership at the top. Please tell me if these are "upper crust of beautiful people ... rich outsiders" you were referring to.
Photos of the protesters:
http://protectookala.org/files/images/top2.jpg
http://protectookala.org/files/images/top1.jpg
Website:
http://protectookala.com/
O'okala itself is NOT an industrial zoned area; it is one industrial site that housed a sugar mill in the midst of a larger residential area. There are places like this up and down the Hamakua coast, and in Kohala, that are the legacy of King Cane, which operated by setting up housing camps around the mills. What sort of worked with sugar mills does not mean that heavy industry generating pollutants is a good fit today as a center for a village.
The people of Hamakua and Kohala who made that living have a very high rate of cancer that has been linked to working on poisoned land. I was loosely involved with a community group there back in the late '90's, who were rising up and saying they are sick of their land being poisoned and made toxic for a few poor low wage jobs.
The people in O'okala who oppose this project are most of the residents, and they ARE the people who have been there, many of them, NOT the beautiful people. Have you ever been to O'okala and looked at the homes there?
This project started out pitching jobs to locals and ended up with some silly figure of a dozen or less jobs, with only a couple people in the whole community interested in having one. The others would commute. It was a mainland company with a bad track record trying to pitch jobs to get approval for a mill that wouldn't turn a profit in order to back door in a power facility across the street from where children and elders live.
http://www.protectookala.org/files/08220...Herald.pdf
Now there appears to be a new proposal to modify the veneer plant idea and do biomass production, which I just now found:
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/arti...ocal05.txt
I won't comment on this plan because I haven't studied it. I guess we'll see.
Hamakua coast is one of the areas on this island not plagued by vog, and people move there to find clean air ... so to slate this area for any manufacturing that pollutes the air, seems short-sighted to me.
Let's hope that when something gets built in Puna the story is a better one. Part of the veneer mill scheme is or was to harvest trees in PAHALA and truck them to O'okala, through Puna, of course. Then milled wood trucked back over the gulches to Hilo port. Studies on the amount of fuel needed to do all this trucking? Not sure.