Important! Please review Draft Bill 2491

Important! Please review Draft Bill 2491 Relating To Pesticides And Genetically Modified Organisms and consider offering testimony in support.http://kauai.granicus.com/MetaViewer.php?view_id=2&event_id=27&meta_id=46503

This is scheduled for its first reading before the Kauai County Council this coming Wednesday June 26. The Council meeting starts at 9am and this item may come up as early as 10:30am. Testimony in person or via email counciltestimony@kauai.gov is welcome. Especially welcome is thoughtful and informed testimony. Please read this draft bill and seek to understand what it intends to accomplish. A copy of the agenda can be found here:

http://www.kauai.gov/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=3efudcJC9KQ%3D&tabid=617&mid=1677

The heart of the issue is the “right to know”. Kauai’s people have the right to know what pesticides and GMO’s are being used within our County, and we have the right to know what those impacts are – direct impacts, indirect and long-term cumulative impacts.

The Bill if passed into law by a majority of members of the Kauai County Council the ordinance will:
1) Require mandatory disclosure of Pesticide and GMO use by large commercial agricultural entities. It will not impact small farmers at all.
2) Require a buffer zone between school, streams etc and large Pesticide users.
3) Ban open air testing of experimental Pesticides and experimental GMO’s
4) Establish a moratorium on new or expanded GMO operations pending the results of an EIS and development of a permitting system
5) Require the County of Kauai to conduct a thorough Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the impact of the GMO industry and its related practices on Kauai County. This will include independent testing of soil, water, air and volunteer residents
6) Require the establishment of a permitting system for GMO operations.
7) Establishes penalties and a rule making process
8) Provides that the EIS and the establishment of the permitting process may be paid for through property taxes directly associated to the operations being evaluated and through permitting fees to be established.

Please offer testimony that is informed and respectful of the process and the people who will be voting on this measure. Testimony can be made at counciltestimony@kauai.gov please reference the Bill #2491

6/20/13
Gary Hooser, Councilmember
Mahalo to my co-introducer Councilmember Tim Bynum.