The June 27 lava flow took centerstage Wednesday during a Congressional subcommittee hearing on volcano monitoring in the United States.
Hawaii County Civil Defense Administrator Darryl Oliveira, while speaking by video from the Big Island, briefed the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources on the ongoing threat to lower Puna while also offering his support for U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory.
The hearing was in part intended to address fiscal challenges associated with running five volcano observatories and monitoring 169 potentially active volcanoes in the United States, and Kilauea’s latest threat to Big Island residents helped illustrate how important that work can be.
“We’re obviously preparing for a significant life-changing event,” Oliveira said.
“They (HVO) provide a tremendous service to our community and an invaluable service to our department.”
The subcommittee also heard from state Insurance Commissioner Gordon Ito, who attended the hearing in person, and U.S. Reps. Colleen Hanabusa and Tulsi Gabbard, who represent Hawaii.
While monitoring Kilauea, perhaps the world’s most active volcano, may not suffer as much from fiscal constraints, USGS’ Volcano Hazards Program Coordinator Charles Mandeville noted that not enough funding is available to properly monitor all high-risk volcanoes, primarily those in the Pacific Northwest.
“We’ve known since 2005 there are monitoring gaps on highest-threat volcanoes,” he said, referring to volcanoes mostly in the Cascade mountain range.
Mandeville referred to Kilauea’s ongoing 31-year eruption as the volcano’s most destructive since 1790.
Regarding the threat to Puna, Ito told the subcommittee his greatest concern is the nonrenewal of insurance policies for lower Puna residents who are in or near the lava flow’s path.
“We’ve done everything we can within the confines of the law to ensure the insurance companies continue to renew policies,” he said.
He also requested the “access point” for a federal natural catastrophe insurance program be lowered so the state could provide additional insurance assistance.
During a conference call with reporters, Steve Brantley, HVO acting scientist-in-charge, said there are some “monitoring gaps” on Kilauea and Mauna Loa but noted more than $3 million has been invested in recent years to improve its assessments.
“There still are a few monitoring gaps on Mauna Loa and Kilauea volcano we would like to improve upon,” he said.
“We have made great strides in improving monitoring capabilities,” Brantley added.
Email Tom Callis at tcallis@hawaiitribune-herald.com.