(BIVN) – A lawsuit filed over a recently accepted environmental study is seeking a “permanent injunction on any further Puna Geothermal Venture expansion”. 

Plaintiff Sara Steiner, a vocal opponent of geothermal expansion in the Puna area, is suing the County of Hawaiʻi Planning Department, Zendo Kern in his official capacity as Planning Director, and Puna Geothermal Venture (PGV).

The Planning Department accepted the Final Environmental Impact Statement for the Puna Geothermal Venture Repower Project on January 22, 2024. 

PGV is proposing to “replace the current 12 operating power-generating units with up to four energy converters,” in an attempt to increase the production of renewable energy at the existing facility. PGV says the project would increase power production from 38 to 46 megawatts in Phase 1 and further increase production to 60 megawatts in Phase 2.

Aerial view of Puna Geothermal Ventures taken in August 2018 (U.S Air National Guard Photo by Tech. Sgt. Andrew Jackson)

However, Steiner says the EIS is incomplete.

“After two rounds of comments in an 18-month time period, the Defendant Puna Geothermal Venture’s Final EIS failed to reply substantively relating to Plaintiff’s environmental concerns,” the lawsuit claims.

“Defendant PGV’s FEIS has not provided complete disclosure of PGV’s harmful environmental impacts to government agencies needed to make an informed decision,” the complaint states, “therefore Defendants PLANNING DEPARTMENT and KERN cannot be fully aware of the harm that will be caused by 35 more years of unmonitored impacts on our community.”

The lawsuit contains written declarations from a number of people in support of Steiner’s complaint, including Robert Petricci, former president of the Puna Pono Alliance before it disbanded in 2023. Petricci noted his written comments on the Draft EIS were not included, or responded to, in the Final EIS.

photo courtesy Puna Geothermal Venture

“I firmly believe PGV is a danger to my community and their Final EIS does not disclose their true impacts on the environment, humans or Hawaiian Culture, nor the great lengths the community has gone through to try and gain protections as I detailed in Exhibit “1” and that is why my comments were not included,” Petricci wrote in his declaration. “I firmly believe PGV is a nuisance to the surrounding neighbors and is not properly monitored for Hydrogen Sulfide gas or induced seismicity on an active volcano.”