Cane burning conflict heats up | ||
November 5, 1997
By TIMOTHY HURLEY | KIHEI -- When the sugar cane burns, Donna Hansen's throat constricts, her sinuses clog up and she develops a skin rash that burns like a fire. Her doctor told her to move from Kihei.There are times when Constance Palmore is afraid to go to sleep at night. Her asthma becomes so severe, she's fearful that she may die before she awakes. Shawn Lester wakes up choking during a burn, often spending days curled up in the corner with a headache. These are some of the stories told Tuesday night during a public meeting on the effects of sugar cane burning. State and federal environmental officials sat in an audience of more than 250 people at Kihei School as some 40 speakers offered testimony on the topic. The meeting was held by the Maui Clean Air Coalition, a Kihei-based group that has been working since June to find cane-burning alternatives and gather testimony for a possible class-action lawsuit. While many speakers told of the suffering they endure and some demanded an immediate stop to the burning, others called for compromise and cooperation with Puunene's Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., which owns the state's largest sugar plantation. A handful of sugar workers told the audience that they fear for their jobs. They asked those who are complaining to turn down the volume so that HC&S can stay in business. At times the meeting threatened to degrade into a confrontation, but it remained civil. A contingent of about 50 sugar workers and supporters sat in one corner of the school cafeteria, while two Maui police officers stood at the door. State Sen. Avery Chumbley said afterward that he was leaving with a greater degree of optimism. He said he heard a willingness from both sides to work together. ``It's the first time they've reached that level of cooperation,'' he said. Bruce Anderson, the state's environmental health director, said he had never seen so many people turn out for a meeting on air quality. Anderson pledged to work with the Maui Clean Air Coalition to better control agricultural burning. HC&S officials say they're working to end sugar cane burning by testing new varieties of the crop and harvesting methods. But while a solution to the problem is drawing near, it may not be as close as their critics want. Speaker after speaker offered testimony about how sugar cane burning affects them. Dennis Benn said he and his wife were surfing in Paia Bay when they were engulfed in a giant cloud of cane smoke. He said he'd never been to a public meeting in his life, but felt compelled to show up this time. He said he told his friends at HC&S: ``Come on guys -- we all got to live here.'' Mary Bush, an 8th-grader at Maui Waena Intermediate School in Kahului, held up pictures of her school shrouded by cane smoke and said Maui is no paradise as long as the sugar cane burns. Pukalani physician Michael Klaper said he obtained records from a Kahului pharmacy showing that when the cane burns, prescriptions for respiratory medicine double. ``The sooner cane smoke is removed from Maui, the better we're going to breathe,'' Klaper said. Herb Squires, the man who led the last effort to find alternatives to sugar burning, said Alexander & Baldwin Inc., the parent company of HC&S, is dragging its feet in its efforts to find an alternative. He said the alternatives are available now. ``If it's going to take lawsuits to motivate them, then they're going to get them,'' he said. But Dan Rather, a sugar worker union official, said he was discouraged by the misinformation and scare tactics he had heard. He said if HC&S is forced to discontinue burning before it's ready, it will have to shut down. And if it shuts down, urban areas will spring up where the sugar cane is now. ``Watch what you wish for,'' he said. ``If you think you have pollution problems now, wait until (Maui is) another Oahu, and then you'll have pollution.'' Agreeing was Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr., who said he's an asthmatic who must leave his Pukalani house when HC&S burns nearby. But he doesn't mind living with the nuisance as long as there aren't new subdivisions to replace the green fields. ``New people, do not change Maui,'' he said. ``Live with it. You moved here -- do like the natives do, brother.'' But Daniel Fields said his brother had to move away from Maui because of health problems associated with sugar cane burning. ``Is cane burning part of Hawaii? I don't know. I always thought clean air and water were part of Hawaii,'' Fields said. Sugar worker Richard Varga reminded the audience that HC&S has been operating for more than 100 years. ``You just came here yesterday,'' he said. Union official Nick Casumpang Jr. added that the union's biggest challenge is trying to obtain benefits for its many long-lived retirees -- people who breathed cane smoke all their lives. Colin Miyake, a third-generation plantation worker, urged cooperation. ``We need to all work together to keep Maui beautiful,'' he said. Brian McCafferty of Paia asked the audience to give HC&S the time it needs to develop new green harvest technologies. He said he's confident the company is moving toward a solution. ``We've been putting up with it for a long time. We can stick it out a little bit more if we know a solution is near,'' added Sherri Carden of Lahaina. In addition to the testimonials, the coalition presented a film about a new technological process that can turn all parts of the sugar cane stalk into any number of products. Maui Clean Air Coalition coordinator Susan Douglas said she would be discussing the technology with HC&S in the coming weeks. |
EPA Reviews Sugarcane Smoke |
October 31, 1997
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Group Forms To End Cane Smoke |
By TIMOTHY HURLEYStaff Writer
KIHEI -- The movement to ban sugar cane burning is a hot topic again, thanks to a new group that has been meeting with fervor since summer.The Maui Clean Air Coalition has been exploring cane burning alternatives, discussing them with sugar growers, lobbying politicians and gathering information for a possible class-action lawsuit -- all with the aim of ending the traditional harvesting practice. The group's latest effort is the scheduling of a Nov. 4 meeting at Kihei School billed as an opportunity for Maui residents to tell the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about the problems they have experienced due to cane burning. The 7 p.m. meeting is being held for the benefit of Fraser Felter, the Hawaii/Nevada liaison for the EPA Western Region Office in San Francisco, who was invited to Maui by the coalition to hear concerns about the problem and to experience the burning firsthand. In a telephone interview, Felter said he hopes to gain a better understanding of the issues involved in the controversy on Maui. He said complaints to his office about cane burning have escalated since the formation of the Maui Clean Air Coalition. In addition to meeting with the anti-cane burning faction, Felter said he plans to visit with Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. officials and possibly view a cane harvest at the company's large Central Maui plantation. The federal Clean Air Act contains the minimum standards for open-air burning, and the state Health Department is designated by the EPA to enforce those standards. Felter said his agency is now considering revisions to the Clean Air Act and among the targeted issues is agricultural burning. Final revisions are expected to be adopted in six to eight years. As for the Nov. 4 meeting, Felter said he would not be there to take formal testimony. Rather, he said, he plans to sit in the audience and ``become educated. Coalition coordinator Susan Douglas said she hopes Felter learns about the seriousness of the problem and returns to California with a new perspective and some recommendations for federal administrators. Douglas said the seriousness is reflected in the Maui Clean Air Coalition, which formed June 10 after she wrote a letter to the editor. The letter included her voice mail number, and more than 50 people called wanting to do something about the situation. A core group has been meeting every Monday night, and general meetings are held every other Tuesday at the Kihei Community Center. Central to the group is the belief that open-air cane burning is hazardous to the health and environment of the island and especially to the people living downwind of the cane fires. Douglas said she and many others believe Hawaii's environmental standards are behind the times and that the EPA shouldn't be giving away its authority to the state Health Department. One of the coalition's major areas of concentration is the exploration of harvesting alternatives. Douglas said there are several promising and economically feasible nonburning systems already employed in other parts of the world. Fears that jobs will be lost with the end of burning are unfounded, she said, because even more employees would be needed to gather the cane stalks and take them to the factory. Douglas said new leadership at HC&S has been open to discussions about alternatives, and she's optimistic that an end to cane burning is in sight. In case those efforts fail, however, the coalition is working in a different area. A legal committee is gathering data and taking testimony from residents on how the cane burning affects them. The group has been circulating a testimonial letter and asking residents to document the health, property and life impacts of the burning. Douglas said a class-action lawsuit is a real possibility if the sugar grower doesn't move to end the practice. Steve Holaday, HC&S plantation manager, said he doesn't see the end of cane burning, given the current technology, which he termed expensive. But, he said, potential modifications in harvesting methods may lead to less burning. Holaday said that while he will be off-island Nov. 4, he would expect a company representative to attend the Kihei School meeting. |
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