Posted on: Wednesday, May 1, 2002

Hearings to discuss Kaua'i carbon dioxide tests

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Kaua'i Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — The Environmental Protection Agency will hold hearings on O'ahu May 21 and on Kaua'i May 22 on a proposal to pump liquid carbon dioxide into the deep ocean off Kaua'i.

The experiment, to be conducted by the Pacific Center for High Technology Research, is designed to study how carbon dioxide disperses in the deep ocean. It calls for pumping about 5,000 gallons of the compound over two weeks into the ocean four miles off Nawiliwili Harbor, at a depth of nearly 3,000 feet.

The EPA already has said that if it approves a permit for the experiment, it also will require monitoring of any effect on marine life.

The permit request for 18 months is designed to allow researchers an opportunity to arrange for a ship and gather the required equipment.

"It can take a year to assemble all the equipment. This is a small-scale experiment on a scale of days," said Allan Ota, oceanographer with the EPA office in San Francisco.

Ota said many initial comments in response to the project have expressed a concern that the project is on a much larger scale and for a longer time.

"This research permit has very, very clear limits to it," Ota said.

Public hearings are scheduled from 4 to 6 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. May 21 at Washington Middle School on O'ahu and May 22 at Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School on Kaua'i. Detailed notices of the meetings will be published tomorrow.

A larger-scale project proposed off Keahole Point on the Big Island was withdrawn after extensive opposition by community groups and fishing interests.