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Public concerns table
Kona global-warming
experiment

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By Rod Thompson
Star-Bulletin

KEAHOLE POINT, North Kona -- Faced with public opposition, the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority has voted to exclude an experiment with carbon dioxide from its Kona waters.

The laboratory's board of directors earlier gave preliminary approval to an experiment on carbon dioxide "sequestration," meaning locking carbon dioxide in ocean water.

The experiment would help see if the method could be used to slow carbon dioxide buildup in the atmosphere, thought to cause global warming.

Authority Executive Director Jeff Smith said the experiment was "obviously well thought out."

But the board voted against it because of concerns about its scientific merits, legal ramifications, a change in scope, public opposition, and opposition by the Keahole Point Tenants Association, he said.

Gerard Nihous, the scientist in charge of the experiment, conceded, "We have faced a mountain of public opposition." He does not believe the opposition was based on good science.

For example, opponents quoted the Union of Concerned Scientists, which said ocean sequestration is untested and that it must be carefully studied, he said.

That is exactly why the research group wants tests, Nihous said. And scientists want careful tests because that is the only way to get accurate information.

The Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority exclusion applies only to a patch of ocean at Keahole Point about two miles wide and 2.6 miles out to sea.

The experiment might still be done in the general area, perhaps outside the state's 3-mile-wide territorial waters, Nihous said.

A "planning ballet" under way since 1997 would make it difficult to transfer the $5 million project elsewhere in the world, he said. Environmental studies of the Kona waters would have to be started from scratch elsewhere, he said.

Keahole was chosen because the plan was to pipe liquid carbon dioxide from shore to an undersea depth of about 3,000 feet. The plan now is to pipe carbon dioxide from a ship while two other ships assist.

The experiment will pump small amounts of the liquefied gas two hours at a time, increasing to 7.6 metric tons in two hours.

Scientists expect a plume of droplets will rise and dissolve in the water, never getting higher than 2,000 feet below the surface.

The droplets will turn the water in the 50-foot-wide plume from its normal slight alkalinity to a slight acidity, "not highly acidic," Nihous said. The effects may last six to 12 hours, he said.

The experiment is to find out exactly how big the plume is, how acidic and how long it lasts, he said.

Nihous hopes the tests can still be done on schedule in the fall of this year.