I support the following additions and revisions to the proposed Maui County bill:
1. Ban the use of all aerosol sunscreen products at public beaches, pools and parks and include a fine for violations. The spray drift from aerosol sunscreen products reaches not only the person applying the product, but exposes other individuals nearby, creating a potential and needless risk to public health. In addition, the spray drift settles on the sand and gets washed into the ocean at high tide or during rain events. A County ordinance would make it possible for signs to be posted at our public beaches, pools, municipal golf courses and parks (similar to the signs banning cigarette smoking).

2. Permit only zinc oxide and titanium oxide as the active ingredients in sunscreens sold or used in Maui County. This would effectively ban the use and sale of all other chemicals, such as avobenzene and octocrylene, which are recognized by Dr. Craig Downs of Haereticus Environmental Labs as harmful to coral reefs. It would also prevent the sunscreen industry from working with chemists to make slight changes to their harmful sunscreen ingredients and give them new names to skirt the law. As mentioned earlier, a County ordinance would make it possible for signs to be posted at our public beaches and County facilities.

3. Direct the County of Maui Department of Environmental Management to create an enforcement plan and budget for the County sunscreen law.

Thank you for your work on this important issue.

Please protect our environment for the future generations, the corals, our oceans, wildlife and the list goes on. It makes no sense to pollute or contaminant our environment. Please consider this ordinance and pass it...

Please stop spraying chemicals on the island. I garden and Freedive, plants don’t need chemical fertilizers and pesticides & the corals can’t live with those things. Please get rid of monsanto (bayer) as well!

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council is submitting our testimony in support of the draft proposed bill entitled “A bill for an ordinance to prohibit the sale, use, or distribution of sunscreen containing oxybenzone and octinoxate” with a few suggested revisions.

As an organization working for healthy coral reefs, clean ocean water and a restoration of our native fish populations, Maui Nui Marine Resource Council supported the passage of Hawaii’s current state law, which bans the sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, two ingredients known to harm and kill coral reefs and fish.

We are actively working to educate the public – both visitors and residents – about the adverse impacts of sunscreen on our reefs and coastal waters, and about the existence of Hawaii’s state law -- through beach signage, airport displays, an educational webpage, radio ads and public service announcements, educational outreach events, articles and ads in print publications, and social media and digital display advertising targeted at visitors who are on Maui.

Maui Nui Marine Resource Council is working in partnership with the County of Maui Office of the Mayor to implement a citizens’ reporting system where individual community members can report suspected retailer violations of the current State sunscreen law and provide photos documenting the products being sold via COMConnect. Follow-up will include letters to the retailer and a confirmation of this followup to the community member who provided the report. This system will make it possible to gather data on the number of retail violations that are occurring.

We suggest the following additions and revisions to the proposed Maui County bill:
1. Ban the use of all aerosol sunscreen products at public beaches, pools and parks and include a fine for violations. The spray drift from aerosol sunscreen products reaches not only the person applying the product, but exposes other individuals nearby, creating a potential and needless risk to public health. In addition, the spray drift settles on the sand and gets washed into the ocean at high tide or during rain events. A County ordinance would make it possible for signs to be posted at our public beaches, pools, municipal golf courses and parks (similar to the signs banning cigarette smoking).

2. Permit only zinc oxide and titanium oxide as the active ingredients in sunscreens sold or used in Maui County. This would effectively ban the use and sale of all other chemicals, such as avobenzene and octocrylene, which are recognized by Dr. Craig Downs of Haereticus Environmental Labs as harmful to coral reefs. It would also prevent the sunscreen industry from working with chemists to make slight changes to their harmful sunscreen ingredients and give them new names to skirt the law. As mentioned earlier, a County ordinance would make it possible for signs to be posted at our public beaches and County facilities.

3. Direct the County of Maui Department of Environmental Management to create an enforcement plan and budget for the County sunscreen law.

Thank you for your work on this important issue. Our staff and board at Maui Nui Marine Resource Council are available to participate in any meetings or planning sessions regarding this proposed bill and a plan for its implementation and enforcement.

I strongly support to NOT use any chemical fertilizers and pesticides on county properties anymore, due to the scientific evidence (and common sense ) of environmental damage and people and all wildlife/ microbes and our beloved ocean and all the creatures that live in it. Mahalo for your Conciousness and striving for the best for All

Kia Ora,

Dr Charmaine Marie Gallagher
Resident Lahaina
Resident New Zealand

Volunteer Malama Maui Nui
Volunteer Hui o Ka Wai Ola
Volunteer Coral Reef Alliance

I wish to encourage the careful distribution of pesticides, herbicides, fertilizers, horse manure and growth enhancers in coastal watersheds, catchments and any parks that adjoin steams that run to the sea.

At present, Maui is working diligently to address legacy agriculture runoff and poisons to reefs.

Please consider mechanical and community supported alternatives to the fouling of Maui Streams

Aloha,
Please consider and pass this most important long term legislation for our sea life and all our island microorganisms that support life in our beautiful parks and beaches. The unseen and sometimes unknown toxins we as humans bring to the flora and fauna have had devastating effects over the years and have physically changed all forms of life on our beaches. As we all know, what had been a thriving shoreline can now be saved from known toxins! Please, it is the right thing to do for all!
Mahalo,
Longtime kupuna resident for the past 22 years of the west-side

Please eliminate harmful pest hey are not environmentally friendly and do damage to wildlife and people.

It is distressing to see spraying along the roadside adjacent the Maui coastline knowing that all the chemicals will be running downhill and end up on our most valued coral reefs, habitat to so many sea creatures and fish species that are endemic and endangered. I support this bill with absolute enthusiasm! Our shoreline is our economy, our recreation, and our food source, it is of the upmost importance to protect it.

I support the bill to stop using pesticides and fertilizer on County land and roadways. These products are not just harmful to the environment and the public, but also the County workers that have to use them. Please take into accord that there ARE alternatives that can be used in their place, which are safe for Maui, the community, and the County workers. I urge the committee to weigh heavily on this decision that will impact not just today or tomorrow, but our future generations. Mahalo!

As I read the comments of others, Overwhelming support …
For most of my 38 years of permanent residency, I have disgustedly witnessed repeated ‘overwhelming support’ of environmental issues being ignored. Can Maui’s governance really change, let’s Hope.

Paradise is under stress.  Please pass the bill to ban pesticides on beach and park county properties.  For all the right reasons. Herbicides inhibit photosynthesis which leads to lower fish food production, less fish and less oxygen in the ocean promoting decline of our best resources.  Dis-regulation of reproduction happens to the corals and to humans.....  Please preserve beautiful Maui!!!!!

Too many of our roadways and publicly sprayed byways are adjacent to areas highly trafficked by children, including schools — it is imperative we cease the use of chemical agents and pesticides that are scientifically proven to destroy health and cause cancer in humans and animals of all ages. There are healthy and affordable alternatives to leverage, and we must. Today.

I rather have weeds than cancer. Our keiki deserve safe places to travel and play outside. Stop poisoning out ʻāina when there are pono ways to mālama our land without making people sick. Care for our land and care for our people and make it a law to stop spraying pesticides. You can do it. I have to believe you know better and will do better for the life of our land and people.

Nutrient and chemical pollution is putting unsustainable stresses on our reefs. This is doubly unfortunate in that the products in question do their intended job so poorly. As documented by Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics, less than 1/10 of 1 percent of pesticides reach their target pests. Meanwhile, the collateral damage to other wildlife takes the form of massive endocrine disruption, reproductive effects, neurotoxicity, kidney/liver damage, birth/developmental effects. In the reefs, the damages includes photosynthesis inhibition, a decrease in phytoplankton (the base of the food chain) biomass, and a decrease in oxygen production--because the toxic chemicals are not captured or broken down in the soil but flow directly into the ocean. As far back as 2004, the journal Pacific Science valued Hawai’i’s coral reefs at $10 billion, based on the finding that “Hawai’i’s nearshore reefs annually generate about $800 million in gross revenues." For $10 billion in 2004, read nearly $15 billion today. Our coral reefs benefit us by providing a coastal buffer to wave action/erosion, a major source of food and resources, tourism and recreation, Hawaiian culture preservation, and habitat for marine organisms. It's our kuleana to protect the reefs in every way possible. Flooding them with toxic chemicals in not the way.

I am a property owner in the Kapalua area. I have watched our near shore ocean water environment deteriorate over the years. The problem has many well known and oft discussed causes. One of those well known causes is irrigation and storm water run off which carries with it pesticides and chemical fertilizers. This contaminated water finds its way to the ocean the primary tourist asset that all Hawaii must treasure and preserve. CARE-23 CC is a major step and a very visible public statement that the County cares about improving the quality of our ocean waters. Please support the passage of CARE 23 CC.

Shel Milligan

Please pass legislation restricting the use of landscaping chemicals that are harmful to people, the land and our water. There are viable alternatives, and I applaud the efforts the county has made to date in training staff and piloted the use of integrated management approaches. Let's make this progress permanent.

Please put an end to poisoning our island. Let's be an example for the world to know we can grow clean food and thrive in a clean world.

From: syl <sylviacabralmaui@gmail.com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 20, 2021 9:20 AM
To: CARE Committee <CARE.Committee@mauicounty.us>
Subject: Testimony re climate actions

If Hawaii truly wants to change the eco system environments for good, besides banning all plastic
(there are plenty recyclables to use instead), I suggest banning all pesticides. Remove Monsanto, Bayer and all others like them who pollute the environment. The small acreages they have on Maui pollute your children, your islands and the corn goes to India, Africa or somewhere else. Have them grow on those continents.
Walter Ritte did it on Molokai. One Man Great Change

There are environmentally responsible alternatives to harmful pesticides that contain glyphosate and other chemicals that have not been fully tested for their impacts on the environment. It is time to start with our PUBLIC lands such as public golf courses, rights of way, county parks, municipal grounds and set the example and start the movement toward organic products. We need to do what is best for the "aina, We need to step up and heal our island, our soils, our plants, and protect the insects, wildlife and people that both call Maui home and their chosen destination. I wholeheartedly support this bill.