Report Title:

Deep Ocean CO2 Sequestration

WHEREAS, The Pacific International Center for High Technology, in conjunction with the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization of Japan and the Research Council of Norway have undertaken preliminary steps to obtain permit waivers from the Hawaii Department of Health which would allow them to deposit carbon dioxide converted into a liquid phase called clathrate hydrate on the ocean floor off Keahole Point; and

WHEREAS, the amount of this discharge is to be 63 tons of material deposited over a two week period; and

WHEREAS, the presence of ocean currents in the area in excess of 1.6 knots makes it improbable that the material will stay on the seabed at 2600 feet within the confines of the NELHA research corridor where it is deposited; and

WHEREAS, carbon dioxide is highly reactive to seawater and would acidify the ocean and create a sterile seabed in close proximity to a productive fishing ground and a National Whale Sanctuary; and

WHEREAS, the potential impacts of ocean sequestration of carbon dioxide on deep ocean ecosystems are almost entirely uninvestigated; and

WHEREAS, the large volume of published material speaking against this experiment indicates strong community feelings that this experiment is unwise, ill-considered, and unwanted; and

WHEREAS, the Board of Directors of NELHA voted on February 20, 2001 to reject the use of the experimental corridor proposed by the Pacific International Center for High Technology; and

WHEREAS, in situ experiments of carbon injection into oceans have shed considerable doubt on the possibility of "permanent" carbon sequestration, as conditions for hydrate stability are extremely difficult to maintain and carbon plumes would be released into the upper ocean and subjected to its currents resulting in direct toxicity of high CO2 concentrations to marine life; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-first Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2001, that the Department of Health is requested to deny to the Pacific International Center for High Technology a waiver of National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit which allows a discharge of pollutants such as CO2 and would be necessary to complete this experiment; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the Director of the Department of Health.