We REMAIN OPPOSED to the toxic waste dump at OLOWALU
Experts in the shipping industry are now being brought into this matter; and need at least a few more weeks for their evaluation on what can be done to break up the debris, and ship it to a toxic site in California. Toxic sites in California are WILLING to accept this debris.
Proposals are being prepared to submit to the mayor. Proposals are quicker than the current plan for Olowalu, and less costly.
testimony for
Maui County Disaster, Resilience, International Affairs, and Planning Committee
1:30 PM Wednesday, January 10, 2024
re. Alternative 2023 Wildfire Debris Processing Solutions (DRIP-2(14))
from Cory Harden, Hilo
Aloha Maui Council members,
Based on our experience with Brittany Zimmerman on Hawai’i Island, I urge you to have nothing to do with her. There are many red flags.
• Observers have noted that CEOs of large companies with actual financial backers don’t spend months travelling to different islands chasing funding, never mentioning a physical corporate headquarters.
• Yummet, Zimmerman’s company, required the director of Hawai’i County Research and Development to sign a non-disclosure agreement. So the director took a taxpayer-funded trip to see a Yummet project in Minnesota, but cannot tell taxpayers what he learned.
I spoke with Zimmerman at a Hilo event and asked if Yummet had any actual projects up and running. She said there were five in several states, but that to get information, I would also have to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
• The website for Yummet, Zimmerman’s company, says
"Our concrete is certified and showcased in the Department of Transportation MnRoad Facility."
https://www.yummet.com/green-concrete
But I am unable to find any mention of Yummet on the MnRoad website.
• Zimmerman claimed "each of our facilities can scale very large...we [looked at implementation] for example, in Savannah, Georgia, and that can scale to remove a billion tons of carbon dioxide directly from the environment annually."
*somewhat unintelligible
Zoom meeting with Sustainable Energy Hawai’i, July 29, 2022,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQOVKWCs2vg
at 17:17 minutes
But the 15 facilities worldwide now doing direct air capture remove fewer than 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.
“Direct air capture removes carbon dioxide from the air by passing it through liquid chemical solutions or by chemically binding it with solid filters. However, the 15 facilities currently in operation globally capture only 9,900 tons of carbon dioxide each year.”
UCLA Institute of the Environmental and Sustainabilty, April 1, 2021
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/article/carbon-sequestration-a-critical-but-less-understood-piece-of-the-climate-puzzle/
And it takes all the world's forests to remove 16 billion tons a year.
“The world’s forests currently absorb around 16 gigatons [16 billion tons] of CO2 each year.”
https://www.edf.org/article/carbon-capture-fight-climate-change-stop-climate-pollution
Spring 2022 issue of EDF’s Solutions magazine
• Resident Michele Mitsumori [in testimony to the Hawai'i County Environmental Management Commission] noted that Yummet was said to be “establishing” a production facility. “Does this mean a working facility with a track record of success and safety does not yet exist?” she asked.
“I am concerned that Yummet Earth Solution’s founder/CEO’s online bio lists impressive accomplishments as an astronaut and space professional, but apparently none related to biochar production or production facilities management,” she said.
Brittany Zimmerman Sells Her Vision To Hawaiʻi County – But Is It For Real? Environment Hawai'i, August 2023, https://www.environment-hawaii.org/?p=15279
• Zimmerman holds three patents, but all are held jointly, and apply to space, not Earth.
https://patents.justia.com/inventor/brittany-lynn-zimmerman
• Was Zimmerman six years old when she started working on her skills?
In 2021 she said she'd been in the "20 under 35 cohort of 2020".
So by 2021 she couldn't be older than 36.
Then she "spent 30 years" working on skills.
36 minus 30 equals 6.
"Brittany has spent 30 years working on expanding her breadth of skills...Brittany is a member of the 20 Under 35 cohort of 2020"
bio from Thesis Defense by Brittany Zimmerman on April 30, 2021
https://blogs.und.edu/jdosas/2021/04/thesis-defense-by-brittany-zimmerman-on-april-30th/
• Zimmerman cited nuclear energy as “renewable”.
Zoom meeting with Sustainable Energy Hawai’i, July 29, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQOVKWCs2vg
at 26:50 minutes
We REMAIN OPPOSED to the toxic waste dump at OLOWALU
Experts in the shipping industry are now being brought into this matter; and need at least a few more weeks for their evaluation on what can be done to break up the debris, and ship it to a toxic site in California. Toxic sites in California are WILLING to accept this debris.
Proposals are being prepared to submit to the mayor. Proposals are quicker than the current plan for Olowalu, and less costly.
Olowalu should not be used! Even as just a temporary site because it is too close to the ocean and the mother reef!
testimony for
Maui County Disaster, Resilience, International Affairs, and Planning Committee
1:30 PM Wednesday, January 10, 2024
re. Alternative 2023 Wildfire Debris Processing Solutions (DRIP-2(14))
from Cory Harden, Hilo
Aloha Maui Council members,
Based on our experience with Brittany Zimmerman on Hawai’i Island, I urge you to have nothing to do with her. There are many red flags.
• Observers have noted that CEOs of large companies with actual financial backers don’t spend months travelling to different islands chasing funding, never mentioning a physical corporate headquarters.
• Yummet, Zimmerman’s company, required the director of Hawai’i County Research and Development to sign a non-disclosure agreement. So the director took a taxpayer-funded trip to see a Yummet project in Minnesota, but cannot tell taxpayers what he learned.
I spoke with Zimmerman at a Hilo event and asked if Yummet had any actual projects up and running. She said there were five in several states, but that to get information, I would also have to sign a non-disclosure agreement.
• The website for Yummet, Zimmerman’s company, says
"Our concrete is certified and showcased in the Department of Transportation MnRoad Facility."
https://www.yummet.com/green-concrete
But I am unable to find any mention of Yummet on the MnRoad website.
• Zimmerman claimed "each of our facilities can scale very large...we [looked at implementation] for example, in Savannah, Georgia, and that can scale to remove a billion tons of carbon dioxide directly from the environment annually."
*somewhat unintelligible
Zoom meeting with Sustainable Energy Hawai’i, July 29, 2022,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQOVKWCs2vg
at 17:17 minutes
But the 15 facilities worldwide now doing direct air capture remove fewer than 10,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year.
“Direct air capture removes carbon dioxide from the air by passing it through liquid chemical solutions or by chemically binding it with solid filters. However, the 15 facilities currently in operation globally capture only 9,900 tons of carbon dioxide each year.”
UCLA Institute of the Environmental and Sustainabilty, April 1, 2021
https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/article/carbon-sequestration-a-critical-but-less-understood-piece-of-the-climate-puzzle/
And it takes all the world's forests to remove 16 billion tons a year.
“The world’s forests currently absorb around 16 gigatons [16 billion tons] of CO2 each year.”
https://www.edf.org/article/carbon-capture-fight-climate-change-stop-climate-pollution
Spring 2022 issue of EDF’s Solutions magazine
• Resident Michele Mitsumori [in testimony to the Hawai'i County Environmental Management Commission] noted that Yummet was said to be “establishing” a production facility. “Does this mean a working facility with a track record of success and safety does not yet exist?” she asked.
“I am concerned that Yummet Earth Solution’s founder/CEO’s online bio lists impressive accomplishments as an astronaut and space professional, but apparently none related to biochar production or production facilities management,” she said.
Brittany Zimmerman Sells Her Vision To Hawaiʻi County – But Is It For Real? Environment Hawai'i, August 2023, https://www.environment-hawaii.org/?p=15279
• Zimmerman holds three patents, but all are held jointly, and apply to space, not Earth.
https://patents.justia.com/inventor/brittany-lynn-zimmerman
• Was Zimmerman six years old when she started working on her skills?
In 2021 she said she'd been in the "20 under 35 cohort of 2020".
So by 2021 she couldn't be older than 36.
Then she "spent 30 years" working on skills.
36 minus 30 equals 6.
"Brittany has spent 30 years working on expanding her breadth of skills...Brittany is a member of the 20 Under 35 cohort of 2020"
bio from Thesis Defense by Brittany Zimmerman on April 30, 2021
https://blogs.und.edu/jdosas/2021/04/thesis-defense-by-brittany-zimmerman-on-april-30th/
• Zimmerman cited nuclear energy as “renewable”.
Zoom meeting with Sustainable Energy Hawai’i, July 29, 2022, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JQOVKWCs2vg
at 26:50 minutes
Councilmembers, please beware. Mahalo.
Cory Harden, Hilo