Aloha mai kākou,

We are a group of neighbors in the wildfire burn area who are very concerned about our community's safety during the Phase 2 Debris Removal process. We are reaching out because, despite our best efforts and many forms of outreach, we are not seeing any real action by our officials to protect our health and safety during this process. Please continue reading, and note that we hope you will respond to this survey below promptly.

Debris clean up in Kula is going to begin very soon, possibly within the next week. The Kula ash has been found to have high levels of arsenic, lead, and other harmful matter. (Please see Hawai‘i Department of Health flyer here.) Clean up will disturb the toxic ash at the burned house sites. Mitigation measures may be taken by the contractors doing the clean up, but they might not be perfect or foolproof. According to the Department of Health, being near the debris sites "poses significant risk," and wearing proper PPE (P100 respirators, gloves, Tyvek suits) is recommended. Further, "avoiding ash disturbance will decrease your risk of exposure." 

The Department of Health has also published a “Medical Advisory” related to the toxic ash and debris. That can be found here.

We are gathering information from neighbors living near the burned house sites - we hope to use this survey to understand how to keep our community safe.

Your information will only be used to assist with keeping our community safe from potential harm, and will not be shared with other groups.

Please click the button below, or go to bit.ly/KulaDebris to complete the survey.

NOTE: Please only respond to the survey if you are living close to a burned house site, and please respond as soon as possible. Mahalo nui!