Gov. David Ige backs wind farm’s construction in Kahuku

The company planning to build a wind farm in Kahuku “should be allowed to proceed,” Gov. David Ige’s office said Tuesday as protesters continued to rally at the construction site.

Protesters gathered for a third day Tuesday near Kamehameha Highway in Kahuku to block the developer from delivering the heavy equipment needed to begin construction of the Na Pua Makani wind farm project.

The project’s developer, Virginia-based developer AES Corp., intended for Sunday to be the start of a seven-week schedule for delivering turbine parts from Kalaeloa Harbor, where pieces weighing over 100,000 pounds were shipped, to the Kahuku project site leased from the state.

“We are told the AES Corp. has met all of the permitting requirements and therefore, should be allowed to proceed,” said Jodi Leong, spokeswoman for the governor, in a written statement.

When asked whether the state will have the protesters removed to allow AES to move the turbine parts onto the property, Leong wrote, “The state is not allowing protestors to camp out on state land.”

Roughly 100 opponents — down from a peak of about 200 — remained Tuesday night near the entrance to Kahuku Agricultural Park.

Because that entrance and driveway are too narrow for the wide vehicles that are expected to bring the wind turbine parts, the protesters are in what police have designated as a public safe zone, the group says.

Police on Sunday determined a public safe zone that was approximately 50 feet from the edge of the highway, but at about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday a police liaison determined that the zone should be 30 feet from the center of the roadway, Ku Kia‘i Kahuku spokeswoman Liz Rago-Ka‘ili said.

Kananiloaanuenue Ponciano, president of Ku Kia‘i Kahuku, said the group is cooperating the best it can.

“So long as we’re remaining peaceful, and they’re staying on their side of the line and we’re staying on our side of the line,” she said she sees no problem.

Rago-Ka‘ili said the Kahuku and Hauula community associations have opposed the wind turbines, but the Laie Community Association will be receiving from AES $20,000 annually, according to the AES website, napuamakani­hawaii.org.

“While these three small towns have been unified on many issues, the acceptance of these moneys has been the cause of some tension among these community members,” she said. “There are people in Laie who do not want these wind turbines, and they’re with us today.”

Choon James, a Laie resident and Kahuku fruit farmer, said she has been opposing the wind turbines for 10 years on the basis of environmental health issues due to the noise and the electromagnetic waves.

“The people of Kahuku should not be the guinea pigs,” she said. “The health impacts have not been proven, but we don’t want to be guinea pigs just like when they told us tobacco is OK.”

Kahuku resident Sia Tonga, 44, a mother of eight children, said she is concerned about the health and environmental impacts.

The project’s wind turbines are slated to be bigger than the existing turbines in Kahuku and are going to be closer to the community, she said.

“Everybody is going to be affected,” Tonga added as she sat in a folding chair under an open canopy and shielded her eyes with her hand from the sun’s rays.

Kahuku farmer Chai Yoshimura, 64, said, “This project is ridiculous because of the adverse health effects that will happen to the people there.”

Over the past decade, Yoshimura has grown various fruit on an 8-acre farm at the Kahuku Ag Park such as mango, soursop, star apple, tamarind and coconut.

Na Pua Makani initially was proposed by Oregon-­based West Wind Works in 2006 and was later transferred to a second company and then AES, operating in Hawaii as Na Pua Makani Power Partners.

The project involves eight turbines generating up to 25 megawatts of electricity daily, or enough to power about 16,000 homes and at half the cost of burning oil.

AES reduced the number of turbines from an initial 13 but increased the size of the turbines. Some Kahuku residents supported the plan, but others have raised concerns about what would be a third wind farm on the North Shore.

One of the main complaints is that AES has positioned its turbines too close to homes, farms and Kahuku Elementary School.

Star-Advertiser reporter Leila Fujimori contributed to this report.