KAILUA-KONA — The University of Hawaii canceled permits for geothermal exploration on Hualalai and a lead researcher said Wednesday that the university has no plans for future scoping of the dormant volcano’s potential for producing geothermal energy.
But that doesn’t mean plaintiffs plan to back down from a lawsuit originally launched to block the exploration.
The project ran into funding and staff problems last year and UH asked the state Board of Land and Natural Resources to rescind exploration permits in February. Meanwhile, a lawsuit brought by Native Hawaiian groups and residents on the slopes of the mountain has been ongoing, with the opponents of the exploration claiming the state needed to conduct an environmental assessment before it approved the permits.
Now that the project was scuttled, the state filed a motion to dismiss the case. But plaintiffs are saying they need assurances the same thing won’t happen again when the funding picture is brighter.
“There is credible evidence this wrongful activity could be resumed,” said Terri Napeahi, vice president of the Pele Defense Fund.
A hearing on the lawsuit is set for May 11 before Judge Ronald Ibarra in Environmental Court in Kealakekua.
In June 2014, the state Department of Land and Natural Resources contracted with the university for magnetotelluric and gravity surveys on 19 parcels of agricultural land on Hualalai’s West Rift Zone. The surveys, in part, would have mapped the electrical conductivity of rocks to depths up to 20,000 feet. The BLNR approved two permits in March and June 2015.
The exploration was to be part of a larger effort called the “Geothermal Resources Exploration Plan for Hawaii,” with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy and DLNR. But that funding expired nine months ago, and attempts to find other sources were unsuccessful, said Don Thomas, director of the Center for the Study of Active Volcanoes at UH-Hilo.
Additionally, one key staff person took a job on the mainland and another person who would have done much of the data processing and analysis died unexpectedly in November 2015, according to court documents.
The university spent $40,631 applying for the permits and obtaining right-of-entry agreements and permission from 40 to 50 different landowners as well as archaeological inspections for 65 to 70 different proposed test sites scattered over 154 square miles on the slopes of Hualalai, according to legal documents.
“There is no further geothermal exploration work being pursued on Hualalai, nor is there any plan or interest in pursuing further geothermal exploration work on Hualalai by anyone at UH that I know of, and I know pretty much everyone that does that kind of work at UH,” Thomas said in an email.
But plaintiff Robert Petricci, president of the Puna Pono Alliance, said his group wants a promise from UH that it will receive notification if the university does any more surveying — even for water, since water surveys could serve as a guise for geothermal exploration.
“Geothermal is an environmental problem,” Petricci said. “It’s a huge industrial activity they put right in a residential area and they say it’s safe and that’s just not the case.”
Email Bret Yager at byager@westhawaiitoday.com.
