The State Rubber-Stamps Geothermal Expansion: Exposing the "State of Hawaii" Department of Health's Dangerous Deflections and dismissal of the entire Puna Geothermal community #PunaLivesMatter
- wearepuna
- Jul 5
- 8 min read
On June 25, 2026, the State of Hawaiʻi Department of Health (DOH) Clean Air Branch officially approved an amendment to Noncovered Source Permit No. 0008-02-N. Signed by Environmental Management Division Chief Joanna L. Seto, this paperwork officially gives Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV) the green light to expand its power plant capacity from 41 MW to 46 MW.
Along with the approval, the state included a "Response to Comments" document. When you read through it, a deeply concerning pattern emerges. Instead of protecting public health, the DOH is using narrow bureaucratic loopholes to completely dismiss the hundreds of Puna residents who are being harmed by the air they breathe.
Here are the four major deflections and injustices hidden in the state’s official response:
1. The "Zero Emissions" Loophole (Ignoring Toxic Metals)
The Community's Concern: Residents asked why the permit completely fails to mention or measure the cumulative health effects of the toxic substances contained in the geothermal resource—including Hydrogen Sulfide, Radon, Mercury, Lead, and Arsenic.
The DOH’s Deflection: The state admitted that the plant's steam, brine, and gas contain these heavy metals. But they completely dismissed the health risks by stating that because there is no traditional "point source of emissions" (like a standard smokestack) during normal operations, there is no increase in emissions.
The Truth: Calling a facility "zero emissions" just because it doesn't have a traditional smokestack is a dangerous legal semantic. It completely ignores fugitive emissions, leaks, and historical well blowouts that release these toxins directly into our neighborhoods.
2. Frozen Air Monitors Are Labeled as "Proof of Clean Air"
The Community's Concern: Community members pointed out that the online air quality monitors are frequently frozen, inaccurate, or completely offline—showing a flatlined reading of "two (2) across the board for months" while other island monitors fluctuate normally.
The DOH’s Deflection: The DOH defended the frozen data, writing: "A consistent low reading does not indicate equipment failure; it more likely reflects the absence of elevated emissions."
The Truth: In what world is a frozen sensor accepted as scientific proof of safety? For a regulatory agency to claim that a flatlined, unmoving monitor means the air is perfectly clean—rather than demanding an immediate, independent equipment audit—is a severe failure of oversight.
3. Shifting the Burden of Historical Safety Enforcements
The Community's Concern: Residents noted that critical safety recommendations from the Goddard & Goddard investigation—which was launched after the severe 1991 well blowouts (KS-7 and KS-8)—have never been fully enacted or enforced.
The DOH’s Deflection: The state ducked accountability by claiming they couldn't address the issue because the commenter didn't explicitly list which specific recommendations were missing, pointing out that PGV filed a response agreeing to them way back in September 1991.
The Truth: It is the state’s job to track and enforce blowout safety compliance, not the community's. Shifting the technical burden onto layperson residents is a bad-faith tactic designed to avoid enforcing safety protocols.
4. Authorizing 261 Pounds of Daily Chemical Releases
The Community's Concern: The permit reveals that as part of this expansion, PGV is changing its chemical motive fluid from pentane to cyclopentane.
The DOH’s Deflection: The state has officially authorized cyclopentane emissions of up to 261.69 pounds per day. They justify this by classifying them as "fugitive sources" rather than a single point source.
The Truth: You cannot claim a facility has "no emissions" on one page, and then authorize over 260 pounds of a Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) to escape into our atmosphere every single day on another page.
Watch the Video Breakdown
We are not going to let these bureaucratic games slide. Watch our latest video update where we go over these certified documents and show you what we are up against as we wrangle to notify the hundreds who TESTIFIED and said NO to this air poisoning permit being approved:
Take Action: FLOOD the Clean Air Branch
The state is banking on us being too overwhelmed by their legal jargon to fight back. Let’s show them we are paying attention. Page 3 of the state's letter provides the direct contact for the Clean Air Branch.
Call or email right now and demand to know why frozen monitors are being used to justify a 46 MW expansion:
Contact: Mr. Evan Fujimoto, Clean Air Branch
Phone: (808) 586-4200
Demand: Independent air monitoring calibration, a full cumulative health impact study on geothermal heavy metals, and accountability for the 261 lbs of daily fugitive emissions.
The Human Cost: Severe Health Complications for Our Ohana
Dismissing these emissions as "fugitive" or "stable" isn’t just a legal loophole—it is a direct attack on our health and our lives. For thirty-seven years, our community has lived close to this land, practicing aloha ʻāina. But when the state allows over 261 pounds of cyclopentane to escape daily alongside unmeasured traces of heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and radon, the physical toll on our community is devastating:
Chronic Respiratory Distress: Constant exposure to even low-level toxic mixtures paralyzes respiratory systems, resulting in severe asthma, chronic bronchitis, and permanent lung damage.
Neurological & Reproductive Havoc: Toxins like hydrogen sulfide and heavy metals target the central nervous system, causing chronic migraines, memory loss, and cognitive decline, while presenting long-term risks to reproductive health.
Extreme Suffering & Unexplained Deaths: For years, residents downwind have suffered through unprecedented rates of severe illnesses. To dismiss these patterns while approving a capacity expansion to 46 MW is a violent disregard for human life.
Voices from the Ground: The Evidence of Harm
The state claims everything is fine on paper (MY A$$ ), but the reality on the ground tells a completely different story. Below are critical testimonies and footage documenting the ongoing crisis and the direct impact of these environmental decisions.
Watch: Pro Se Paralegal Sara Steiner Demands Due Process at the Clean Air Branch Hearing:
Nowhere is the state’s absolute dismissal of our community more visible than in the powerful testimony of pro se paralegal Sara Steiner during the Clean Air Branch hearing on December 8th. Sara has been single-handedly fighting these massive corporate and state entities in court through geothermal injunctions and rulemaking petitions. As she exposes in the video below, our community has been systematically denied due process for over a decade—trapped in a loop since 2015 waiting for a real, transparent contested case hearing while the Department of Health repeatedly delays, dismisses, and rubber-stamps new 5-year permits behind closed doors. (see for yourself in video right here)
While the state forces us to wait years for legal recourse, they have allowed PGV to drill multiple wells without updated permits, operate an injection well for two years without a state underground injection permit, and escape the requirement of a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Sara’s testimony blows the lid off the DOH's logic: she captures how perimeter air monitors completely fail to record massive, hours-long steam plumes because they are placed uphill and up-lava, blowing the toxic gas directly over our homes while the sensors read absolutely nothing.
Watch: Kumu Hula Aunty Robbie McGrath Exposes the Fatal, Lifelong Trauma Left in PGV’s Wake:
The ultimate, devastating proof of how criminal it is for the state to dismiss community suffering is found in the heart-wrenching testimony of Kumu Hula Aunty Robbie McGrath of Leilani Hula Hālau. At the December 8th hearing, Aunty Robbie shared the tragic reality of her children's father, who was rendered unconscious by a toxic gush of hydrogen sulfide gas and brine during a severe 1993 plant accident. Read straight from historical medical documentation by a licensed clinical psychologist, her testimony exposes the brutal, lifelong physical and neurological destruction inflicted on workers and residents. Following the toxic exposure, a once happy, extroverted man was left suffering from severe cognitive impairments, deep depression, and uncontrollable anxiety over what the toxins were doing to his liver and kidneys, alongside horrific, systemic bodily sores shared by his co-workers. By rubber-stamping an expansion while flatly denying that this air causes extreme suffering and death, the Clean Air Branch is actively trying to erase the lives, memories, and profound losses of our ʻohana.
Watch: 44 Years of Resistance—Robert Petricci Exposes Decades of Generational Poisoning and Collusion:
The legal tactics used by the DOH are part of a deep-seated, 44-year history of institutional negligence, as powerfully detailed by long-time frontline resident Robert Petricci in his December 8th testimony. Robert, who built his home next to the plant site in 1981, delivers a devastating, firsthand history lesson on how the DOH has consistently thrown Puna under the bus to protect corporate interests. From the 1991 blowouts to Tropical Storm Iselle in 2014—which left over a dozen residents unconscious for hours due to uncontrolled toxic releases—the state has never implemented a working community evacuation plan or an honest ambient air monitoring network.
Robert exposes how the state went so far as to shut down a local health survey and exile its own DOH doctor decades ago just for attempting to document the actual human toll of geothermal pollution. His testimony cuts straight to the economic and environmental discrimination at play: forcing one of the poorest communities in the state to repeatedly fund its own lawsuits and purchase its own handheld air samplers just to prove they are being poisoned, all while the state acts as an administrative shield for PGV.
The Legal Path Forward: How We Fight Back
The approval of this permit by the Department of Health (DOH) is not the final word. When a state agency fails its statutory duty to protect public health, the community has constitutional and legal avenues to demand accountability.
Here are the concrete legal actions and steps we can pursue:
1. Exhausting Administrative Remedies & Contested Case Hearings
Before a matter can be taken to court, we must formally challenge the DOH's decision within their own framework. We have the right to request a Contested Case Hearing, demanding a formal, trial-like administrative proceeding where the DOH and PGV must defend their logic under cross-examination. We will force them to answer why a frozen air monitor reading "2" for months is legally acceptable data.
2. Filing an Environmental Injunction
Building upon established legal precedents—such as the community-led legal actions in the 2024 Hawaiʻi geothermal injunction—we can seek a temporary or permanent judicial injunction. An injunction can request a judge to halt construction or operation of the new 46 MW units until an independent, third-party cumulative health impact study is conducted.
3. Challenging under the Hawaiʻi Environmental Policy Act (HEPA)
We can challenge the legal sufficiency of the environmental review process. By demonstrating that the DOH failed to evaluate the cumulative impact of changing the motive fluid to cyclopentane (authorizing 261.69 lbs/day) and completely ignored the risks of heavy metals (Comment 24), we can argue that the permit violates state environmental review laws.
4. Asserting Public Trust Doctrine and Constitutional Rights
Under Article XI, Section 1 of the Hawaiʻi State Constitution, the state has a mandatory duty to protect and conserve public resources, including the air we breathe, for the benefit of the people. Furthermore, Article XI, Section 9 states that each person has the right to a clean and healthful environment. Denying the community accurate air monitors and ignoring toxic heavy metals is a direct violation of our constitutional rights.
Join the Frontline
Our lives and the health of future generations depend on our willingness to stand firm. Share this article, watch the videos, and prepare to stand with us as we organize our next legal and community actions. If are someone who is affected by this all and who testified against this this past December 8th 2025 in Pahoa, HI, and you want to join a class action style suit going forward please email wearepuna@gmail.com as soon as possible.
Aʻole Geothermal. Aloha ʻĀina.
Jazzy
KahuPuna #WeArePuna Aloha Activism #JusticeIsComing #AOLEPGV
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