The meeting was attended by well over 100 people, and as it turned out, by a show of hands it was clear that nobody, other than WasterStreames, was in favor of the site selected by WasteStream and the County. WasteStream's coordinator, Bob Martin, ran down the agenda list, making the case that WasteStream has a passion for recycling, and that, apparently, the end result justifies the means by which it is achieved. Fortunately, there were no buyers.
It was very difficult for me to keep my cool, when confronted by these condescending statements over and over again. These people from WasteStream, and their coordinator look like intelligent individuals. My question is; why do they assume that we, the residents of Ainakea are all stupid?
An entire young football team entered the meeting, in solidarity with the residents of Ainakea, and stayed a short while.
I have noticed the WasteStreamers were walking barefoot, perhaps to look more native than the rest of us, after all they claim 20 years residence in Hawaii. I did not see any of the real natives follow their example, they all wore their shoes.
Following the presentation, we were given an opportunity to ask questions, however, for many they had no answer. For example, one questioner wanted to know how far the planned waste facility would be from the ocean; they did not know. But they did pretend to know, when once asked that it would be 0.4 mile (702 yards) from the nearest house. And, that apparently is wrong, because one resident says, his home is 200 yards from the site.
Another resident, who spoke during the comment period, asked, “what are they thinking?” Yes, indeed what are they thinking of? It was a great opportunity for our community to show that we are not stupid, and that we are all against this ill-conceived, and opportunistic project that would benefit few, and harm many. Still another resident commented on the fact that WasteStream want to create a “showcase of state of-the-art waste management” (WasteStream’s description). She suggested that this indicated to her that these people wanted to be seen. I said it before, on their road to glory they would be willing to trample on the community, they pretend to care for.
WasteStream still try to convince us, that the gasification plant is off the table, despite that their published brochure tells otherwise. And, to proof them false, one of their sympathizers got up to speak, trying to tell us that, apparently, he knows all about gasification (he even flashed the book he had read, probably), and that gasification was clean energy, and there was nothing wrong, supposedly, with using this process. My question is simply this, if gasification is truly off the table, why try to still sell it to us? The answer is clear; it is not off the table, at least not for long.
Peter Klika, the retired land use attorney (and member of our ‘Against’ group), brokered a deal with WasteStream and the County, which puts the current site on hold for 90 days, allowing them, with the help of Peter, to revisit other sites contained in the original list of 104, and perhaps also others. It is my sincere hope that they will find another more logical site for this project. We at ‘Against’ will not sleep for these 90 days, and make sure that our list of registered residents (80 so far), who oppose the current designated location, will grow, and re-enforce the strong statement made at the meeting.
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