Anyone who takes Pope Francis’ “Care of Creation” seriously should feel the call to do what they can in their professional capacities to protect the land and the health of the community. The damage we are seeing wreaked on the environment and on people in the pursuit of profit is a call for local empowerment and action by those charged with ensuring that laws are enforced. Companies should be held accountable, not just to shareholders but to the people in whose midst they conduct their open air spraying of Restricted Use Pesticides to the detriment of the health of children, pregnant women and the public at large. When physicians are raising the alarm, why would we not heed the call to exercise oversight? https://www.impactfund.org/social-justice-blog/kauai-evslin This is not just a local problem, as this story illustrates. Hawai’i can be an example to others of a community that knows how to protect people against predatory corporate practices.
These grounds where children play and eat their lunch should be a safe place. But Waimea Canyon School on Kaua’i, is where children were taken ill after suspected exposure to Restricted Use Pesticides sprayed on adjoining fields.
Testimony in Opposition to the granting of a renewable permit rp5983 Syngenta Seeds, Inc, TMK (4) 1-2-002:040-000 and requesting a CDUP be required.
BLNR Meeting of October 27, 2017
Agenda item: DLNR Land Division Item #3, Annual Renewal of Revocable Permits on the Island of Kauai.
DLNR Staff Recommendation: “That the Board find this project will probably have minimal or no significant effect on the environment and is presumed to be exempt from the preparation of an environmental assessment.”
This testimony is in opposition to the issuance of any Revocable Permit to Syngenta until an appropriate environmental review per HRS chapter 343 has been completed. Syngenta, and all other identified RP applicants, must also comply with DLNR Office of Conservation and Coastal Lands’ (OCCL) recommendation that they apply for conservation district use permits for their land uses and those CDUPs should not be exempted from HRS 343 environmental document preparation.
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Dawn Morais 
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