My apologies, the position button was selected automatically from my phone in my prior testimony. I am opposed to the current hemp farm operations and support better practices for the good of the neighborhood. Many apologies.
I was born and raised on Piliwale Road, and it used to be a place where you could sit outside and enjoy the beauty that is Maui and Kula Country. Now, due to the hemp farm up the street, we cannot do that sometimes, because the hemp stench is so strong outside. And we live over half a mile away.
I empathize with my neighbors who live closer to the farm and have to deal with the sounds and stink everyday. I am opposed to the continued cannabis operation without the implementation of more appropriate and adequate solutions to solve the problems of disturbing noise levels from equipment and workers and unbearable smells. Hemp farms should not be allowed to operate in such close proximity to other properties, they should be setting up shop on properties that are far away from existing homes.
We all understand that Omaopio is ag zoning, but that shouldn't give farms in ag zones a free pass to do whatever they want with chemicals, excessive noise, etc. This ag area is also a residential neighborhood filled with local, hardworking families, so if there is a farm creating problems for an entire neighborhood, that farm should be willing to do what is pono and work with neighbors to adjust their farming practices to best accommodate those who live here and came before them, not the other way around.
Aloha Council Members,
Your attention to this ongoing horrible problem is appreciated! We have endured the excessive noise disturbing this wonderful farming community for over a year and a half now. What this business has done, and how they have treated our neighborhood is far from "pono".
The noise itself is bad enough, with fans, industrial vacuums/blowers, LOUD music, people yelling to each other, etc.... but the vibrations from these fans are also an underlying problem causing unknow health issues. I have had constant ringing in my ears for over a year now. Is it caused by these fans? We may never know, but I have to think it is possible as I didn't have this condition prior to those fans running constantly 24/7, 7 days a week for over 6 months.
Speeding on our small road is also a problem. I have been passed by tailgating speeders who pull into the hemp farm, literally passing me when they are mere yards from their destination! I have seen several of my neighbor's cats and chickens dead on the road along with the considerable increase in fast moving traffic on Piliwale. There are small children living along that road, and I worry for them as well. Please help us in returning our community to the peaceful, happy, safe place it was.
Thank you for your time.
Lisa Shenfield
I am the homeowner at 310 Piliwale in which is located behind the hemp operation. I am writing to you concerning the ongoing horrible strong atrocious marijuana odor , not to mention the huge loud rumbling fans that run constantly 24/7!
The smell is so strong that it wakes us up during the night and makes us nauseous therefore we cannot go back asleep and are sleep deprived.
We have packed up and temporary relocated on the mainland because of this horrible situation!
Pleas help our us and our once peaceful quiet Kula neighborhood!
By mistake, we chose the incorrect position above. We are definitely opposed to the continued cannabis operation and the resulting noise and stink. We should have chosen "support" instead of oppose. Bill and Judy Bisgard
Dear Council members,
We live directly above the cannibis operation and have lived here for almost 50 years. We are used to the normal agricultural noises and smells that come with rural living. But the smell from this new industrial operation is often overwhelming. Have you a remedy for this situation?
Bill and Judy Bisgard
I am a small farm, goat dairy owner that lives just off Piliwale Rd. I urge you to require special use permits for cannabis and other controlled substances commercially grown on Maui. I have been witness to the transformation of a small agricultural community into a toxic, obnoxiously loud and mentally and physically damaging nightmare. The industrial noise, vibrations and smells are unparalleled and no residents should be subject to this intentional harm by a commercial cannabis operation that sprung up out of a quiet nursery within feet of existing residential homes. The strong smells make it to my house and we are subject to headaches and nausea. I cannot imagine how devastating this is to the direct neighbours and the affects on young children forced to endure the vibrations and smells. As a farmer on Maui I understand that agriculture isn't always viewed as the best neighbour but commercial cannabis and other controlled substance farming is a whole different league. I urge you to consider special use permits for any "farmer" of this nature.
Growing practices of Cannabis have already created huge problems in California and Colorado and should not be allowed within small communities. Cannabis farms should not be classified as conventional farming but rather be in a special category for producing controlled substances.
My wife and I are neighbors of the South Maui Gardens hemp factory in Piliwale Road.
Since they began the hemp growing, my life has been severely impacted by the noise from their operations.
Two huge (six foot diameter) industrial fans were installed not 75’ from my bedroom. The noise and heavy low-frequency hum from theses fans is terrible and incessant, impacting my health through lack of sleep and increased stress.
I am a former teacher here on Maui, retired with a disability that keeps me home-bound and I am unable to escape the nose. My peaceful retirement in the country has me feeling like I am in Manhattan. The fans are so loud that on a daily basis the employees play music (loudly so they can hear it over the fans) and thus their conversations are shouted to each other; a cacophony ensues.
The area has many farms that make agricultural noises and we are used to that - we regularly hear cows and goats and tractors and trucks with no real issues. In contrast, this industrial 24/7 operation is far from traditional agriculture, and should not be allowed to shatter the peace of our neighborhood for mainland profits.
Aloha Council members,
I’m writing to ask for your help in our neighborhood’s situation with the South Maui Gardens hemp farm that has been causing lots of trouble for all of us surrounding their property for almost 2 years now. The stink and the noise from the fans and mostly the nonstop vibrations caused by the pig barn fans they decided to use right in the middle of a residential neighborhood is unlivable. There should be new rules to prevent hemp farms from messing up the lives and businesses of all the small farms surrounding them like ours.
Mahalo,
Emma Fay
For many years I have been spending the winter months in my cottage at 312 Piliwale Rd in Kula. The last time I was there in 2020 the disgusting stink from the neighboring hemp farm along with the nonstop vibrations shaking the house forced me to leave earlier than I had planned. Since I heard the problem has only gotten worse, I did not returned to my Maui home last winter and probably not for this upcoming winter. Please help rid our neighborhood of this problem anyway you can. I miss my Maui ohana.
Aloha GREAT Chairman Molina and Committee Members,
My name is Elisabeth Bluml. I live with my 14-year-old daughter on my organic farm on Omaopio Rd. in Kula.
Our property is directly above a new commercial Hemp grower, which started operations 1 1/2 years ago.
I have a small successful farm that I have worked on for over 23 years. Most of my neighbors have been here for over 20 years, with some here for several generations. As a community, we have always found ways to get along. I want to say up front that I support farming. I know that people benefit from CBD products and other hemp products. My concern is what has happened in my neighborhood.
My land, after decades of care and work, is finally producing well and I have regular customers.
You can say ' I brought the land ‘back to life’.
I am writing today to share our daily ongoing experience living next to a big hemp operation with massive fans used to air the greenhouses.
These huge fans are designed for poultry and swine farming and create extensive noise and penetrating low frequencies, which makes our home vibrate at any time during day and night.
I had to rent a room in Makawao for over half a year just to be able to sleep and to protect my daughter and me from these health-damaging vibrations.
I since have invested in building a large 4-foot-thick boulder rock wall in trying to ease the vibrations and to make our home livable again, but unfortunately with no success.
Also, the daily smell/ odor coming from the hemp operation is continuous and sometimes overwhelmingly strong, which has caused me nausea, and dizziness along with the stress of marijuana smells all day long. I have no idea of the long-term effect of these compounds, with all the different unknown components of the plant vapors, on my or my daughter’s health. I can tell you it is nauseating.
This operation is negatively affecting 40+ people in this well-established agricultural neighborhood.
My question to you is – how can you as our council protect our farm neighborhood from people using the existing laws to place commercially produced, questionable substances like plants containing THC in an environment that impacts 40+ people so dramatically?
I am asking you to please help this community so we can keep and enjoy our lifestyle of farming in Kula.
Aloha Maui County Council,
I’m writing as spokesman for the Omaopio Piliwale Ohana which is a group of neighbors surrounding the hemp farm owned by South Maui Gardens at 248 Piliwale Road in Kula. In February, 2020, SMG started running their first gigantic industrial fans in their first greenhouse which caused all sorts of noise and low frequency vibration and grow lights running at night and stench of marijuana (hemps smells and looks just like marijuana) problems. Immediately after the fan(s) began to run the neighbors started to go to SMG and ask what was going on. Shortly after that SMG realized the extent of the problems they were causing for the neighborhood and refused to interact or communicate with any of us. To try to combat the problems we formed our Ohana. We worked with the legislature and that summer the final Hemp bill (ACT 14, 2020) was passed that included language to protect the rest of Hawaii’s residential neighborhoods from the abuse we were suffering from any future licensed hemp farms. But, unfortunately for us, the legislation exempted hemp farms operating under the Hemp Pilot Program law so SMG was free to continue torturing us without consequence. We then tried to work with the Department of Ag which in the end resulted in nothing other than the suggestion that we try to work locally with the County Council to solve the continued abuse of our neighborhood by just one irresponsible hemp farmer.
I emailed all of you who were in office back in June, 2020, and many of you emailed me back and made note of our neighborhood’s problems. In the past couple weeks, we have meet with most of you current council members via Zoom or Bluejeans to update you on our current situation that is worse than ever. Mahalo to all of you who made time to hear us out and for all your suggestions. We continue to suffer from 24 hours a day noise from the fans, 24 hours a day low frequency vibrations that shake our houses like you are living next to an airport where there is always a plane running down the runway, and from the disgusting stench of thousands of hemp plants that blanket the neighborhood like a fog and permeant every room of our houses. Imagine having to explain to your kids what that smell is and having to explain to their teachers why their clothes stink like marijuana. The closest neighbors can no longer live in their houses due to the health damaging vibrations. This has been an absolute nightmare for our neighborhood all caused by one hemp farmer who just doesn’t give a rip about the damage they are doing to their neighbor’s health and well being.
We really need your help to solve our neighborhood’s problems.
Mahalo,
Peter Fay
312 Piliwale Rd., Kula
808-283-3072
we are writing to you in regards to our situation in Lower Kula. I had been a tenant on Piliwale Road for 19 years, and it has become increasingly difficult to live there.
Our neighbor obviously started a marijuana operation and starting Feb 15, 2020 our lives had been drastically impacted by constant, uninterrupted excessive industrial noise from his property.
Apparently, the source are two or more industrial turbines-like fans close to the property boundary and to the house, each approximately 6ft in diameter, emanating a constant, unbearable noise and hum, the ground is literally vibrating on our property as is the house.
We expected this to be only temporary due to ongoing construction, but learned after a few months that it is a permanent installation. We are in shock.
As a family with two little kids who need their sleep, we where unable to live under these circumstances. We saw adverse health effects not only to ourselves, but more prominent in our children as a result of sleep deprivation and constant noise exposure.
We tried hard and long together with our landlord to find a solution, however she said she is unable to do anything about it. We ultimately had to give up and move out to protect our children's and our health.
It is hard to believe such harmful and disrespectful and conduct could be even remotely within legal limits in the close neighborhood of Kula. It causes so much harm to the health of all neighbors I talked to and is such a loss for our upcountry community that we kindly ask you to look into this problem.
I would like to share the pain and suffering that has been caused by continuous mechanical noise and intense low frequency vibrations that we have endured since February 2020.
The adjoining hemp farm installed and started up huge industrial fans in February 2020 to aerate their hemp/Cannabis plants.Some of these huge fans are approximately 40 feet from our house.
As of April 2020 these fans started running day and night.
Our house became completely unlivable for us. Any rest or sleep became impossible.We were even more affected during Covid lockdown as we weren't able to escape the noise assault for weeks.
We build a little noise insulated shelter furthers away from these industrial fans.The vibrations however are still felt anywhere on our property.
Our health has been affected due to sleep deprivation, inability to rest and the constant need to leave the property to get relief from the noise. We are exhausted and severely saddened over this tragedy.
I am completely devastated as it took us 22 years to build up our little 3 acre farm with now 150 mature fruit trees. We respect our farming community and are completely shocked how someone could harm any of us living here for decades and some for generations and not even try to address the problems.
We support laws to give control to the county to regulate Agricultural operations that produce controlled substances as those operations should not be classified as traditional farming. We fully support Agriculture but this operation has a completely industrial character.
Please help our neighborhood return to the farming community that it used to be.
My apologies, the position button was selected automatically from my phone in my prior testimony. I am opposed to the current hemp farm operations and support better practices for the good of the neighborhood. Many apologies.
T. Silva
I was born and raised on Piliwale Road, and it used to be a place where you could sit outside and enjoy the beauty that is Maui and Kula Country. Now, due to the hemp farm up the street, we cannot do that sometimes, because the hemp stench is so strong outside. And we live over half a mile away.
I empathize with my neighbors who live closer to the farm and have to deal with the sounds and stink everyday. I am opposed to the continued cannabis operation without the implementation of more appropriate and adequate solutions to solve the problems of disturbing noise levels from equipment and workers and unbearable smells. Hemp farms should not be allowed to operate in such close proximity to other properties, they should be setting up shop on properties that are far away from existing homes.
We all understand that Omaopio is ag zoning, but that shouldn't give farms in ag zones a free pass to do whatever they want with chemicals, excessive noise, etc. This ag area is also a residential neighborhood filled with local, hardworking families, so if there is a farm creating problems for an entire neighborhood, that farm should be willing to do what is pono and work with neighbors to adjust their farming practices to best accommodate those who live here and came before them, not the other way around.
T. Silva
Testimony attached
see Attachment
Aloha Council Members,
Your attention to this ongoing horrible problem is appreciated! We have endured the excessive noise disturbing this wonderful farming community for over a year and a half now. What this business has done, and how they have treated our neighborhood is far from "pono".
The noise itself is bad enough, with fans, industrial vacuums/blowers, LOUD music, people yelling to each other, etc.... but the vibrations from these fans are also an underlying problem causing unknow health issues. I have had constant ringing in my ears for over a year now. Is it caused by these fans? We may never know, but I have to think it is possible as I didn't have this condition prior to those fans running constantly 24/7, 7 days a week for over 6 months.
Speeding on our small road is also a problem. I have been passed by tailgating speeders who pull into the hemp farm, literally passing me when they are mere yards from their destination! I have seen several of my neighbor's cats and chickens dead on the road along with the considerable increase in fast moving traffic on Piliwale. There are small children living along that road, and I worry for them as well. Please help us in returning our community to the peaceful, happy, safe place it was.
Thank you for your time.
Lisa Shenfield
Dear Counsel Members
I am the homeowner at 310 Piliwale in which is located behind the hemp operation. I am writing to you concerning the ongoing horrible strong atrocious marijuana odor , not to mention the huge loud rumbling fans that run constantly 24/7!
The smell is so strong that it wakes us up during the night and makes us nauseous therefore we cannot go back asleep and are sleep deprived.
We have packed up and temporary relocated on the mainland because of this horrible situation!
Pleas help our us and our once peaceful quiet Kula neighborhood!
Candace Keiser
By mistake, we chose the incorrect position above. We are definitely opposed to the continued cannabis operation and the resulting noise and stink. We should have chosen "support" instead of oppose. Bill and Judy Bisgard
Dear Council members,
We live directly above the cannibis operation and have lived here for almost 50 years. We are used to the normal agricultural noises and smells that come with rural living. But the smell from this new industrial operation is often overwhelming. Have you a remedy for this situation?
Bill and Judy Bisgard
Aloha,
I am a small farm, goat dairy owner that lives just off Piliwale Rd. I urge you to require special use permits for cannabis and other controlled substances commercially grown on Maui. I have been witness to the transformation of a small agricultural community into a toxic, obnoxiously loud and mentally and physically damaging nightmare. The industrial noise, vibrations and smells are unparalleled and no residents should be subject to this intentional harm by a commercial cannabis operation that sprung up out of a quiet nursery within feet of existing residential homes. The strong smells make it to my house and we are subject to headaches and nausea. I cannot imagine how devastating this is to the direct neighbours and the affects on young children forced to endure the vibrations and smells. As a farmer on Maui I understand that agriculture isn't always viewed as the best neighbour but commercial cannabis and other controlled substance farming is a whole different league. I urge you to consider special use permits for any "farmer" of this nature.
Growing practices of Cannabis have already created huge problems in California and Colorado and should not be allowed within small communities. Cannabis farms should not be classified as conventional farming but rather be in a special category for producing controlled substances.
Rebecca Woodburn-Rist
Haleakala Creamery
Aloha Council,
My wife and I are neighbors of the South Maui Gardens hemp factory in Piliwale Road.
Since they began the hemp growing, my life has been severely impacted by the noise from their operations.
Two huge (six foot diameter) industrial fans were installed not 75’ from my bedroom. The noise and heavy low-frequency hum from theses fans is terrible and incessant, impacting my health through lack of sleep and increased stress.
I am a former teacher here on Maui, retired with a disability that keeps me home-bound and I am unable to escape the nose. My peaceful retirement in the country has me feeling like I am in Manhattan. The fans are so loud that on a daily basis the employees play music (loudly so they can hear it over the fans) and thus their conversations are shouted to each other; a cacophony ensues.
The area has many farms that make agricultural noises and we are used to that - we regularly hear cows and goats and tractors and trucks with no real issues. In contrast, this industrial 24/7 operation is far from traditional agriculture, and should not be allowed to shatter the peace of our neighborhood for mainland profits.
Please help us!
Mahalo for your time,
Brooke and Lisa Shenfield
Aloha Council members,
I’m writing to ask for your help in our neighborhood’s situation with the South Maui Gardens hemp farm that has been causing lots of trouble for all of us surrounding their property for almost 2 years now. The stink and the noise from the fans and mostly the nonstop vibrations caused by the pig barn fans they decided to use right in the middle of a residential neighborhood is unlivable. There should be new rules to prevent hemp farms from messing up the lives and businesses of all the small farms surrounding them like ours.
Mahalo,
Emma Fay
Aloha Maui County Councilmembers,
For many years I have been spending the winter months in my cottage at 312 Piliwale Rd in Kula. The last time I was there in 2020 the disgusting stink from the neighboring hemp farm along with the nonstop vibrations shaking the house forced me to leave earlier than I had planned. Since I heard the problem has only gotten worse, I did not returned to my Maui home last winter and probably not for this upcoming winter. Please help rid our neighborhood of this problem anyway you can. I miss my Maui ohana.
Mahalo,
Chuck Fay
Aloha GREAT Chairman Molina and Committee Members,
My name is Elisabeth Bluml. I live with my 14-year-old daughter on my organic farm on Omaopio Rd. in Kula.
Our property is directly above a new commercial Hemp grower, which started operations 1 1/2 years ago.
I have a small successful farm that I have worked on for over 23 years. Most of my neighbors have been here for over 20 years, with some here for several generations. As a community, we have always found ways to get along. I want to say up front that I support farming. I know that people benefit from CBD products and other hemp products. My concern is what has happened in my neighborhood.
My land, after decades of care and work, is finally producing well and I have regular customers.
You can say ' I brought the land ‘back to life’.
I am writing today to share our daily ongoing experience living next to a big hemp operation with massive fans used to air the greenhouses.
These huge fans are designed for poultry and swine farming and create extensive noise and penetrating low frequencies, which makes our home vibrate at any time during day and night.
I had to rent a room in Makawao for over half a year just to be able to sleep and to protect my daughter and me from these health-damaging vibrations.
I since have invested in building a large 4-foot-thick boulder rock wall in trying to ease the vibrations and to make our home livable again, but unfortunately with no success.
Also, the daily smell/ odor coming from the hemp operation is continuous and sometimes overwhelmingly strong, which has caused me nausea, and dizziness along with the stress of marijuana smells all day long. I have no idea of the long-term effect of these compounds, with all the different unknown components of the plant vapors, on my or my daughter’s health. I can tell you it is nauseating.
This operation is negatively affecting 40+ people in this well-established agricultural neighborhood.
My question to you is – how can you as our council protect our farm neighborhood from people using the existing laws to place commercially produced, questionable substances like plants containing THC in an environment that impacts 40+ people so dramatically?
I am asking you to please help this community so we can keep and enjoy our lifestyle of farming in Kula.
Sincerely,
Elisabeth Bluml
Owner, Khandro Farm
(808)280-1556
Aloha Maui County Council,
I’m writing as spokesman for the Omaopio Piliwale Ohana which is a group of neighbors surrounding the hemp farm owned by South Maui Gardens at 248 Piliwale Road in Kula. In February, 2020, SMG started running their first gigantic industrial fans in their first greenhouse which caused all sorts of noise and low frequency vibration and grow lights running at night and stench of marijuana (hemps smells and looks just like marijuana) problems. Immediately after the fan(s) began to run the neighbors started to go to SMG and ask what was going on. Shortly after that SMG realized the extent of the problems they were causing for the neighborhood and refused to interact or communicate with any of us. To try to combat the problems we formed our Ohana. We worked with the legislature and that summer the final Hemp bill (ACT 14, 2020) was passed that included language to protect the rest of Hawaii’s residential neighborhoods from the abuse we were suffering from any future licensed hemp farms. But, unfortunately for us, the legislation exempted hemp farms operating under the Hemp Pilot Program law so SMG was free to continue torturing us without consequence. We then tried to work with the Department of Ag which in the end resulted in nothing other than the suggestion that we try to work locally with the County Council to solve the continued abuse of our neighborhood by just one irresponsible hemp farmer.
I emailed all of you who were in office back in June, 2020, and many of you emailed me back and made note of our neighborhood’s problems. In the past couple weeks, we have meet with most of you current council members via Zoom or Bluejeans to update you on our current situation that is worse than ever. Mahalo to all of you who made time to hear us out and for all your suggestions. We continue to suffer from 24 hours a day noise from the fans, 24 hours a day low frequency vibrations that shake our houses like you are living next to an airport where there is always a plane running down the runway, and from the disgusting stench of thousands of hemp plants that blanket the neighborhood like a fog and permeant every room of our houses. Imagine having to explain to your kids what that smell is and having to explain to their teachers why their clothes stink like marijuana. The closest neighbors can no longer live in their houses due to the health damaging vibrations. This has been an absolute nightmare for our neighborhood all caused by one hemp farmer who just doesn’t give a rip about the damage they are doing to their neighbor’s health and well being.
We really need your help to solve our neighborhood’s problems.
Mahalo,
Peter Fay
312 Piliwale Rd., Kula
808-283-3072
Dear Members of the Committee,
we are writing to you in regards to our situation in Lower Kula. I had been a tenant on Piliwale Road for 19 years, and it has become increasingly difficult to live there.
Our neighbor obviously started a marijuana operation and starting Feb 15, 2020 our lives had been drastically impacted by constant, uninterrupted excessive industrial noise from his property.
Apparently, the source are two or more industrial turbines-like fans close to the property boundary and to the house, each approximately 6ft in diameter, emanating a constant, unbearable noise and hum, the ground is literally vibrating on our property as is the house.
We expected this to be only temporary due to ongoing construction, but learned after a few months that it is a permanent installation. We are in shock.
As a family with two little kids who need their sleep, we where unable to live under these circumstances. We saw adverse health effects not only to ourselves, but more prominent in our children as a result of sleep deprivation and constant noise exposure.
We tried hard and long together with our landlord to find a solution, however she said she is unable to do anything about it. We ultimately had to give up and move out to protect our children's and our health.
It is hard to believe such harmful and disrespectful and conduct could be even remotely within legal limits in the close neighborhood of Kula. It causes so much harm to the health of all neighbors I talked to and is such a loss for our upcountry community that we kindly ask you to look into this problem.
With best regards
Ralf Simon
808 445-9694
Testimony in regards to Hemp / Cannabis farms
Dear council members
I would like to share the pain and suffering that has been caused by continuous mechanical noise and intense low frequency vibrations that we have endured since February 2020.
The adjoining hemp farm installed and started up huge industrial fans in February 2020 to aerate their hemp/Cannabis plants.Some of these huge fans are approximately 40 feet from our house.
As of April 2020 these fans started running day and night.
Our house became completely unlivable for us. Any rest or sleep became impossible.We were even more affected during Covid lockdown as we weren't able to escape the noise assault for weeks.
We build a little noise insulated shelter furthers away from these industrial fans.The vibrations however are still felt anywhere on our property.
Our health has been affected due to sleep deprivation, inability to rest and the constant need to leave the property to get relief from the noise. We are exhausted and severely saddened over this tragedy.
I am completely devastated as it took us 22 years to build up our little 3 acre farm with now 150 mature fruit trees. We respect our farming community and are completely shocked how someone could harm any of us living here for decades and some for generations and not even try to address the problems.
We support laws to give control to the county to regulate Agricultural operations that produce controlled substances as those operations should not be classified as traditional farming. We fully support Agriculture but this operation has a completely industrial character.
Please help our neighborhood return to the farming community that it used to be.
Aloha & Mahalo
Jutta Mueller and Edward Shepherd
Plumeria Plantation Ag Enterprise LLC
266 Piliwale Rd.
Kula
808-276-7716