from Mary Maxwell, PhD, LLB, New Hampshire, United States
Anyone can offer testimony to the Maui Council and to Richard Bissen, the Mayor of Maui County, Hawaii, on the question of a proposed temporary dump for toxic waste. Four hundred thousand tons of waste are resulting from the fire of August 8, 2023. Here is my testimony.
To the Maui Council and Mayor Bissen:
I am a resident of Concord, the capital city of New Hampshire. I am an admirer of Hawaii, and have been very worried since the fire. I visited Maui in late November. Today (January 2, 2024), I have spent all day listening to the testimony at your council meeting, via YouTube. Most of the speakers are locals, or are experts on the storage of toxic waste. Among the facts presented and/or pleas made, I heard the following, much of which was delivered in emotional tones:
- Part of the ash is the remains of our family members, and must be treated with respect.
- It is not wise to build a temporary dump now and move it later. Just do it all as once, but not hurriedly.
- If poison gets into the aquifer, this will be death for all of us.
- I [John] was not notified of my rights until November 28; this is against the law.
- Whales come here to birth their young. They don’t come so close to shore anymore, owing to a sewage ejection. It will be worse if material in the toxic dump spills.
- Maui has some strong winds and, rarely, gale winds. The temporary dump will not have a cover; material will get blown away.
- Look to Johnson Atoll; they have had 70 years’ experience of controlling bio and nuclear wastes in the Pacific.
- It’s never too late to do the right thing.
- The felt liner will get torn. It isn’t a maybe; we know it will tear and harm the land.
- The voice of the community must be heard.
What can I offer that has any merit? I have read the relevant law. There have been many court cases involving EPA and eminent domain. It appears to me (and one of today’s testifiers in Maui referred to it vaguely) that after EPA does a cleanup, it can lay claim to the land.
There is mention of a land grab, in a recent book called “Burn Back Better.” On page 76, the authors, Stephanie Pierucci and Shelby Hosana, quote Governor Josh Green saying, just days after the fire: “I’m already thinking of ways for the state to acquire that land, so that we can put it into workforce housing….”
But I am not here to testify about the law of Eminent Domain. Rather, I happened to see, at the website epa.gov, that when the Environmental Protection Agency plans to do a cleanup of toxic waste, it first makes a finding as to fault — Who caused the site to be contaminated? I quote:
“Superfund enforcement: Under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA, commonly referred to as Superfund): EPA finds the companies or people responsible for contamination at a site and negotiates with or orders them to clean up the site or to pay for EPA or another party to do the cleanup work. [Emphasis added.]”
And there we have it, the real question before all Americans today: Whodunnit?
It is my guess that everyone who has looked at the photos of the fire knows full well that the fire was caused by some form of Directed Energy Weapons. Unfortunately, any person holding an official position is unlikely to make such a statement. But I have seen it said by two amateur reporters (both of whom are excellent): Michelle Melendez, a resident of Kona, and Traci Derwin, a Los Angles lady who grew up in Hawaii.
I myself do hereby state that I believe there is no other possible explanation of the fact that cars got melted while trees close by did not burn. And who am I to say so? I am a person with two eyes, two ears, and a working cerebrum. I am also a fulltime researcher since 2005, whose subject matter is often grisly. The causing of horrible destruction, such as seen in the use of DEWs in Maui, is — I hate to say it — almost par for the course in our once-wonderful nation.
There is no point in my listing other examples. I am here only to testify at your (cyber) meeting on the disposing of toxic waste from the fire. As noted above, EPA needs to pin blame. Perhaps they have already blamed Nature — I do not know. I will send EPA a Freedom of Information Act request to find out.
I also do not know the jurisprudence on this matter, but will endeavor to search it. If EPA really does have to determine blame, legally, and has not done so, the cleanup may have to be postponed. If EPA has, on its own, pinned the blame on Nature, I will oppose it. I would blame someone who owns the means of causing a DEW fire.
We seem to be living in a century where lying is the norm. I am 76 years old. Back in the 20th century, there was no such across-the-board acceptance of lying. In fact it was quite the sin. I abjure lying. I hate lies. Probably I’ll get clobbered for being so “silly” as to pursue truth, but it’s how I was raised. Hence this page of testimony.
I swear, under penalty of perjury, that I believe the August 2023 Maui fire was done by DEWs deliberately and cruelly. There is no possible way to chalk the melted cars up to a natural fire.
Signed, on January 2, 2024, with humble thanks for the opportunity to participate, and with apologies for any distress this may cause to people in Maui.
Mary Maxwell, LLB (law degree from Adelaide University, Australia).
175 Loudon Rd, Apt 6, Concord NH 03301
Email: MaxwellMaryLLB@gmail.com