NEW INFORMATION AND UPDATES HERE

REVISED DRAFT "AIR PERMIT" IS RELEASED FOR PUBLIC REVIEW (ATTACHED BELOW)

July 2008--

On July 23, Protect O'okala member Scott Enright's letter to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald is published in which he challenges statements made to the press by Tradewinds Forest Products' president and CEO Don Bryan. The letter is attached below.

On July 22, after months of the State Department of Health telling Protect O'okala that there were no public records nor any updates on the status of the permit, the DOH suddenly releases a significantly revised draft permit with revisions that were made in response to the public comments on the first draft permit issued last Oct. There is a 30-day public comment phase scheduled, commencing immediately and ending on Aug. 21, but no public hearing is scheduled. Despite Protect O'okala being told previously by the DOH that if any significant changes were made to the draft permit, a 30-day public comment phase AND public hearing would occur, the notice states that if anyone wants a public hearing, they must ask for it in writing and even then, it's at the DOH director's discretion to grant the request. The public notice, new draft permit with revisions, and a description of the revisions are attached below.

On July 14, the State Department of Health, with approval from the US Environmental Protection Agency, grants Tradewinds' request to build the mill before issuance of the "air permit." That letter is attached below.

On July 10, Tradewinds submits a mill equipment list to DOH as part of their request to build before "air permit" is issued. List is attached below. 

June 2008--

Don Bryan, president and CEO of Tradewinds Forest Products, files a request with the Hawai'i State Department of Health and the US Environmental Protection Agency to build the veneer mill before issuance of the covered source permit (commonly called the "air permit"). This is a drastic change in plans that Mr. Bryan notes in the letter was in the works since Oct 2007, which was the month that the public comment period for the FIRST draft permit was underway. So while the O'okala community was busy analyzing and commenting on the first draft permit, Mr. Bryan was already changing the plans (once again) but failed to disclose this to the community or to the DOH (he notes however, he did discuss the changes with the power company HECO in Dec. 2007). In his request to DOH and EPA for permission to start building the mill before receiving the air permit, Mr. Bryan argues that the veneer mill, now called a "green" mill because the veneer would not be dried but rather shipped out wet, is a completely separate facility from the power plant and therefore can be built before the "air permit" is issued. The letter is attached below for your review. The DOH and EPA later grant Tradewinds' request.

May 2008--

According to the state Department of Health Clean Air Branch, there are no public records and no updates on the status of the permit this month.

April 2008--

The EPA fails to respond to Protect O‘okala's petition to object by the 60-day deadline. Protect O‘okala then files a Notice of Intent to sue EPA, thus establishing the option. That letter is posted below in pdf for your review. Please note that the EPA is seriously backlogged as far back as 2006 in reviewing and rendering decisions on petitions. Also, please note that thus far, THE "AIR PERMIT" HAS NOT BEEN ISSUED TO TRADEWINDS.

February 2008--

Protect O‘okala files a petition to the EPA asking for an objection to the permit citing faulty emissions data, faulty classification as a minor source of HAPs, use of equipment and/or machinery that is not the best available control technology (BACT), faulty meteorological data upon which the health risk assessment was based, among other concerns. That petition is posted below as a pdf for your review. Note that following the filing of the petition, the State Department of Health suspends its work on responding to the public comments that were submitted to DOH in October of 2007. Also note that THE "AIR PERMIT" HAS NOT BEEN ISSUED TO TRADEWINDS.

November 2007 to February 2008--

Hawai‘i State Department of Health reviews public comments submitted in October 2007 and corresponds with Tradewinds Forest Products about wood moisture levels, CO emissions, startups and shutdowns, and biodeisel quality and emissions. DOH says changes will need to be made in the draft permit in response to some of these concerns. Please find those emails below in pdf files for your review. Please note that any significant changes in the draft permit will result in rewriting of the draft permit, another 30-day public comment phase, another public hearing, and another 45-day EPA review.

PLEASE SEE EARLIER POST FOR MAY 2006 TO NOV 2007 UPDATES.

PLEASE SEE NEW POST ABOVE FOR INFORMATION ON PHASE TWO OF TRADEWINDS' AIR PERMIT APPLICATION.

NOVEMBER 2007-FEBRUARY 2008 UPDATE--Hawai'i State Department of Health is working on its response to public comments.

OCTOBER 2007 UPDATE--

Oct. 30: Public hearing is held.

Oct. 23: A supplemental communication document sent from Tradewinds to the DOH, dated 9-12, entitled "Hydrogen Chloride Emission Rate," has been posted below.

We also received notice today from Catherine Lopez at the DOH Clean Air Branch that the 45-day EPA review has commenced. Please note that if the current public comment phase results in any "major" changes to the permit application, the 45-day EPA review is retriggered and starts all over again.

Oct. 1: An email to Protect O'okaka from Catherine Lopez of the state Department of Health's Clean Air Branch states that the 45-day EPA review period of the draft permit has not yet started. DOH will submit their draft permit and review to the EPA Region 9 offices in San Francisco in two to three weeks, which, according to Ms. Lopez, triggers the start of the 45-day EPA review.

SEPTEMBER 2007 UPDATE--

Sept. 28: State Department of Health issues Tradewinds' Draft Permit. The Public Hearing is scheduled for Oct. 30, 2007, 6:00 p.m., at Laupahoehoe School Cafeteria. The DOH Draft Permit Review, Draft Permit, and Public Hearing Notice are posted below as attachments.

Click on an image for larger view

       

Here's a map of O‘okala so you can see how the proposed site of the mill and power plant is located right in the middle of our residential community. Despite Tradewinds’ claims that “this has been an industrial site for several generations,” there has not been an industrial business located in the O‘okala community for 20 years, the span of an entire generation. The truth is, O‘okala is no longer a company town, but rather a well-established, thriving residential community of 89 privately-owned homes. The industrial zoning of the old O‘okala mill site is left over from the by-gone sugar era and such use is no longer acceptable to the vast majority of O‘okala residents.

As stated in our Opposition Statement, found at the top of the home page of this website, the nine-member Protect O‘okala Ad Hoc Steering Committee speaks on behalf of sixty-three (63) of the community’s total of eighty-nine (89) households, or the homeowners of 71% of O‘okala’s households. The homeowners have signed a petition stating in whole:

• I, the undersigned, am a homeowner in O‘okala and oppose the construction of a veneer mill, co-generation power plant and plywood lay-up facility at the old O‘okala sugar mill site. These proposed industrial facilities will create unacceptable health, safety and welfare risks to the residents of O‘okala.

In contrast, homeowners of only eight (8) households have signed a petition in support of the project. Seven (7) households abstained from signing either petition, and eleven (11) households either have not yet responded or have been unavailable to ask. (Signed petitions are available for review upon request.)

Here attached is some of the clearest evidence of Tradewinds poor business plan here on the Big Island. For seven years, Tradewinds has been on the verge of default of their state land lease agreement for logging at Waiakea Timber Management Area because of lack of financing and performance. Despite the repeated pleas of the forestry experts of the State Department of Forestry and Wildlife to the State Board of Land and Natural Resources (the body responsible for oversight of Tradewinds' license) to find Tradewinds in default of their license agreement, the Board refused to grant the default request. As citizens of the state, we are concerned with the lack of fiduciary responsibility on the part of the State of Hawai'i in allowing Tradewinds to tie up the multi-million dollar asset at the Waiakea Timber Management Area with empty promises over the course of seven years.

One of the things we'd like to alert the public to is the power plant component of this venture.

When Tradewinds stopped negotiations with Kamehameha Schools for use of KS lands for their project and secured an option to buy the old O‘okala mill site, Tradewinds’ business plan shifted from a large veneer mill and true co-generation facility employing 400 people to a small veneer mill and oversized power plant employing only 100 people.

We believe that rather than the mill, the power plant is the important nut in the deal. The veneer mill has a low probability of success-- and we have lots of documents to show that posted here on the website-- but once in place the power plant can become something beyond the forest products plant. In fact, the power industry is a good business in Hawai'i and has a high probability of success.

One of the biggest myths that Tradewinds never corrects or clarifies is the myth that they have the contract for the trees in Hamakua. The Protect O'okala Ad Hoc Steering Committee cannot find a forestry expert in the state who believes this is true or ever will be true. The truth is the trees on Kamehameha Schools’ Hamakua lands were planted expressly for chipping, not value-added veneer, and according to forestry experts, less than 15% of the trees are veneer quality wood. Tradewinds simply will not be securing the contract to log these trees. If you doubt this statement, please contact the president of Tradewinds, Don Bryan, and ask him to produce the contract or a letter of intent for these trees. He will not be able to do so because neither exists.

Attached is the wood Supply Plan that Don Bryan, president of Tradewinds, is circulating among the local forestry trade community. The plan proposes that Tradewinds send chips from its proposed veneer mill to the lessee of the Kamehameha Schools' trees in Hamakua (stated as Pru on the sheet, but now leased by Hancock) in exchange for larger diameter logs. This trade is supposed to balance the wood supply accounts so that Tradewinds has enough volume of logs to sustain its mill business. However, the Supply Plan is bogus because Tradewinds does not have any agreement in place for this exchange to take place. If you doubt this statement, please contact Mr. Bryan and ask him to show you either the contract for this exchange or the letter of intent for this exchange. He will not be able to do so because no such agreement exists.

The basic fight of the Protect O'okala group involves protecting our community from the establishment of a heavy industrial business in the middle of our residential community. But when members of the steering committee conducted extensive research into Tradewinds business plans, we uncovered a lot of interesting stuff. We discovered that Tradewinds does not have the contract to log the trees in Hamakua, and that they will not be securing it. But even more interesting, we discovered that forestry experts throughout the state, those who have done the seminal research into the island's tree inventory, have serious doubts about the existence of the economy of scale (i.e. sufficient quality and quantity of trees) needed to sustain a veneer mill at all.

From the beginning we've said that Don Bryan, the president of Tradewinds, is an expert salesman. We wish that more people would look behind the curtain of this professional marketer.

Please find attached a good example of Mr. Bryan's spin. It's a recent article from a wood trade industry magazine. While you read the article, pay close attention to the part about the major investor Rockland Capital Energy Investments and their interest in the power generating portion of the project. We believe that rather than the mill, the power plant is the important nut in the deal. The veneer mill has a low probability of success-- and we have lots of documents to show that posted here on the website-- but once in place the power plant can become something beyond the forest products plant. In fact, the power industry is a good business in Hawai'i and has a high probability of success.

During the recent primary election season, candidate and now County Councilman-Elect Dominic Yagong emerged as O'okala's hero.

When we first learned back in May of Tradewinds' intent to build a veneer mill and power plant in our residential neighborhood, we were distressed to discover that our local elected officials supported this plan. Our State Representative Dwight Takamine put forth a bill for a $25 million special purpose revenue bond for Tradewinds. Luckily, Governor Linda Lingle thought that special purpose revenue bonds should not be used for private gain, and for that reason, combined with her concerns about our opposition, she vetoed the bill. When our nine-member steering committee met with Mayor Kim at his request, he spent most of the two hours lecturing us about the value of a diversified forestry industry and we had to work to get a word in edgewise. He never did hear the details of our concerns about Tradewinds locating their industrial business in our community, and he refused to accept our signed petitions. Our county councilman Fred Holschuh wrote in his monthly column in the Hamakua Times that "I know some people will be upset, but I am in favor of Tradewinds' plans for the Ookala mill site." We were dumbfounded. How could it be that our local elected officials didn't care about the impact this mill and power plant would have on our quality of life?

Here are a bunch of stories carried in the local press about our community's opposition to the mill and power plant being located in our residential community. We're grateful for the interest in this issue. There's a saying that goes, if the press doesn't show up, nothing happened. Well, the press has been showing up. The press showed up when Governor Lingle vetoed the $25 million special purpose revenue bonds earmarked for Tradewinds. In fact, that was when we got wind that Tradewinds had their sights on the old O‘okala mill site. Prior to that, Tradewinds had held meetings only with focus groups and had bypassed notifying all 89 households in our community. We would not have known what was going on if the story had not been covered by the local paper, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald. The Trib also published letters to the editor that we wrote on behalf of the community. And most recently, the Trib closely covered the county council race in our district, where the incumbent Fred Holschuh supported the mill coming into O'okala, and the challenger Dominic Yagong came out in all his stump speeches against Tradewinds coming into O‘okala. What’s more, Yagong came out against any industrial business being located in any residential community. We're happy to say, Yagong was elected Sept. 23 as our new county councilman.

It is the intent of the members of the Protect O‘okala Ad Hoc Steering Committee, on behalf of the O‘okala community, to vigorously seek recourse during the governmental permitting process (Tradewinds will need at least 17 permits under governmental oversight) and with all organizations that are considering doing business with Tradewinds. Currently, Tradewinds is in negotiations with the local power company, HECO, on a Power Purchase Agreement for the excess power that will be generated by the power plant.

Here are a couple of documents that show the stiff competition on the global market that Tradewinds would be up against. Over the past seven years, Tradewinds has been unable to secure financing for the mill component of their venture and they’ve been on the verge of default of their state land lease agreement for logging at Waiakea Timber Management Area because of this lack of financing and performance. While Tradewinds has been tying up the multi-million dollar State asset at Waiakea with empty promises over these seven years, the global wood market exploded.