Disaster aid drifts in with vog

Calves are born at half the normal weight. Fences that usually last 15 to 20 years need replacing in three. High-value flowers such as roses and chrysanthemums wither.

Ranchers and farmers continue to lose millions of dollars on Hawaii island where thousands of metric tons of sulfur dioxide spew daily from Kilauea’s Halemaumau Crater where an active vent opened in 2008.

"Basically, we lost all our roses. Most of them died," said Jeff McCall, part-owner of McCall Flower Farm in Kau.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie, citing continued agricultural production losses, announced Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has renewed a disaster declaration for Hawaii island because of volcanic emissions.

The declaration enables more than 100 ranchers and farmers there to qualify for a number of emergency services, including low-interest loans and cost-sharing to replace corroded fences and waterlines. Cost-sharing allows the federal government to provide up to 75 percent in financial assistance.

Lester Ueda, executive director of the federal Farm Service Agency, said its Emergency Conservation Program has paid out about $3 million a year to ranchers and farmer who participate.

Farmers and ranchers, he said, are making changes to survive the varied effects of corrosive sulfur emissions from Kapoho in Puna in East Hawaii, to Wai­mea and Kona in West Hawaii and down to South Point.

McCall said roses and chrysanthemums either died or withered to the point of being unmarketable after the vent opened on the crater floor, allowing a huge plume of gases to escape.

McCall said he now plants other flowers less susceptible to sulfur burn, including snapdragons and lilies. Still, his farm’s production has shrunk.

"We’re farming one-quarter of the size we used to before 2008," he said.

The continuing eruption at Kilauea began in January 1983 and, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, "ranks as the most voluminous outpouring of lava from the volcano’s east rift zone in the past five centuries." The flows have destroyed 213 structures and covered nine miles of highway in lava as deep as 115 feet, the observatory said on its website.

Kahua Ranch official Monty Richards said volcanic emissions have eaten away metal posts, barbwire fencing and motorcycles in the Kau area.

He said the fencing normally lasting a decade or two has to be replaced in three to five years.

Within a couple of miles from Halemaumau at Kapapala Ranch, manager Lani Petrie said emissions are affecting livestock in various ways. For example, calves weigh 30 to 40 pounds at birth, compared with 85 pounds before 2008.

Petrie said her ranch’s 50 miles of pipeline, valued at $2 million and made mainly of galvanized steel, is deteriorating.

She said she needs to replace 10 miles of line in the next two years and is looking at using high-density polyethylene instead.

But she’s unsure just how long the pipes and other farm equipment will hold up in the vog.

"It’s affecting our vehicles, our trailers," she said.

"We’re rebuilding as fast as we can," she said.