Hawaii County is drafting a request for proposals for a study on whether geothermal development in Puna is having an impact on the health of residents.
The study is one of the recommendations made by the Geothermal Public Health Assessment Study Group in its report to the county last year.
The group includes nine Puna residents, and was tasked by the county to address concerns related to health and safety of geothermal power production. A consultant, Peter Adler, assisted with the process.
The group’s report stated a study is needed to determine if releases of hydrogen sulfide have impacted the health of residents who live near Puna Geothermal Venture.
The 38-megawatt power plant operates on a “closed system,” and its operators have maintained its facility doesn’t pose a safety risk. But releases of hydrogen sulfide, a product of the geothermal process, have occurred, increasing the concern of its residential neighbors.
The report refers to the 1991 well blowout at the facility and activity at an earlier geothermal testing site as providing “exposures associated with adverse health effects.” Since 1993, the report says the group is less certain health effects have occurred.
The health study is at the top of the list of recommendations, and some group members expressed disappointment that the county was tackling others first.
The Windward Planning Commission in February approved the use of the county’s geothermal asset fund for the purchase of additional hydrogen sulfide monitors, and to cover the cost of groundwater sampling in the area, an analysis of published studies on hydrogen sulfide exposure, and an environmental assessment of the former HGP-A geothermal test site.
Each was recommended by the group.
The health study is more complicated, county officials said, and would take more time.
But they appear to be making good on their promise that the study will happen.
Clarysse Nunokawa, executive assistant to Mayor Billy Kenoi, said the county is working with Jay Maddock, chairman of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s Office of Public Health Studies, on formulating the draft RFP, which would be used to help find a contractor to perform the study.
The county presented the document to the study group on Tuesday, she said.
The group offered recommendations for changes, and the document will be amended as a result, Nunokawa said.
Tom Travis, a study group member, said the comments were about making the document more specific about what the county wants from the study.
“Most of the things the Adler group recommended were in incorporating things in the Adler group report,” he said. “To make sure they were highlighted.”
Nunokawa said any changes would be brought back to the group for review.
The planning commission would be responsible for approving and issuing the RFP since money would be used from the geothermal asset fund, of which it has oversight.
Kenoi in February said he was expecting to bring the funding request before the commission in the “second quarter” of the year.
Nunokawa said “hard to say at this point” exactly when that will happen.
“We understand the urgency of the community,” she said.
Meanwhile, the county has received hand-held monitors that it plans to provide to two residents.
Darryl Oliveira, county Civil Defense administrator, said the intent is for the residents to be able to help the county determine which areas aren’t exposed to hydrogen sulfide during a major release.
“If we need to direct people to safe areas, they would be part of that rather than identifying its source,” he said.
Another two stationary monitors will also be placed near PGV.
“We’re still trying to identify where they will be placed,” Oliveira said, adding they have not yet been procured.
Those devices are intended to improve monitoring. The state Department of Health has one monitor in the area. PGV has three monitors along its perimeter.
DOH previously had three monitors but two were removed because of funding constraints.
Last year, the county purchased eight hand-held monitors for the fire department and two portable monitors to be used in the event of a release.
Nunokawa said the county has contracted with John A. Burns School of Medicine on providing the analysis of hydrogen sulfide studies. That review is expected by the end of September.
The results of water sampling done by the U.S. Geological Survey is expected that same month.
In regard to the environmental assessment of the HGP-A site, Nunokawa said the county is waiting for access from the state Board of Land and Natural Resources.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.