KILAUEA — Public health officials say most people in Kilauea have little to fear over a recent discovery of arsenic and dioxin in land near the former Kilauea Sugar Mill site. A meeting today will give the Kilauea community a
KILAUEA — Public health officials say most people in Kilauea have little to fear over a recent discovery of arsenic and dioxin in land near the former Kilauea Sugar Mill site. A meeting today will give the Kilauea community a chance to hear the news straight from the officials.
In late 2010 and earlier this year, researchers from the state Department of Health discovered high levels of arsenic on one residential property in a Kilauea neighborhood and a nearby ditch. Slightly lower levels were found on another homeowner’s yard.
“We have no reason to believe that other areas or neighborhoods would have elevated or harmful concentrations of pesticides,” said Fenix Grange, supervisor of Site Discovery, Assessment and Remediation for DOH. “It is well under control, no one is being exposed.”
No other soil contamination left over from the mill’s old pesticide mixing and storage operations has been discovered, Grange said, and arsenic can only harm a person if ingested, making young children the most susceptible.
To prevent contamination, a property owner placed fencing around the ditch behind the Old Mill commercial building. Another homeowner’s full lawn, along with clean, uncontaminated soil in neighborhood planting beds makes exposure unlikely, Grange said.
“We want to reassure people that their children are safe,” she said.
To help quell community members fears and answer questions about the contaminants, DOH officials will hold a meeting today from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Kilauea School cafeteria, at 2440 Kolo Road in Kilauea. Community members will learn about soil contamination that is impacting two properties on A‘alona Place, at the north end of A‘alona Street in Kilauea.
DOH Director Loretta Fuddy, Deputy Director Gary Gill and staff from the Hazard Evaluation and Emergency Response Office will be present to explain what they have found, what it means for affected residents, workers and property owners, and the actions the state government plans to take to protect public health and the environment, a press release stated.
The meeting agenda includes the following:
∫ 6:30 p.m. Drop-in information session
∫ 7 p.m. Short presentation on the continuing investigation and talk by Dr. Al Bronstein of the Rocky Mountain
Poison Control Center on health concerns
∫ 7:30 p.m. Information session and one -on-one discussions
Those who attend the meeting will also be provided with information on the history of the site, how DOH officials became aware of the potential problem and what measures are being taken to ensure no one is exposed to contaminated soils. Staff members will also address health questions and concerns, the press release said.
DOH held a meeting specifically for people living on or near the contaminated properties earlier this month.
“This meeting is to talk to the whole community, just because it’s been in the paper,” Grange said. “We want people to know what the issues are so there is no misinformation.
“It can be alarming to hear about arsenic and dioxin in your town.”
DOH staff members plan to return to Kilauea in a few months, once they determined some solutions, to ask for the public’s opinion. Grange said that’s how the state’s cleanup program works.
“When there is a site like this in the middle of the community we want the community to know what steps we are taking to protect human health and the environment,” she said.
“The community’s input is an important part of our decision-making process.”
One solution could be laying concrete over the ditch.
Sugar cane farmers once mixed arsenic with pesticide to manage crops. The Kilauea Sugar Plantation, established in 1877, produced its last harvest in 1971. The mill was demolished in the 1980s, and the land was parceled into commercial and residential subdivisions.
Following discovery of possible contamination on A‘alona place via old maps of the mill, Grange said health officials notified the residents and then kept them abreast of further developments. That included finding what Grange described as arsenic levels as high as 80 times what the state would consider acceptable in a yard.
No one needed to get tested for arsenic exposure, Grange said, but one resident chose to be tested but there was no evidence of exposure.
“That’s really reassuring for us and should be for other residents in the area,” Grange said.
Contact Grange at Fenix.Grange@doh.hawaii.gov; Laura Young at Laura.Young@doh.hawaii.gov; or call (808) 586-4249 for more information.
• Jessica Musicar, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or by e-mailing jmusicar@thegardenisland.com.
