Kauai County Council members: Jay Furfaro, Chair Nadine K. Nakamura, Vice Chair Tim Bynum, Gary L. Hooser, Ross Kagawa, Mel Rapozo and JoAnn A. Yukimura.

In anticipation of a large turnout at the public hearing for Bill No. 2491, relating to Pesticides and Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), the Kauai County Council will be holding the public hearing at the Kauai Community College (KCC) Performing Arts Center on July 31, 2013 at 1:30 p.m.

Bill No. 2491 proposes to address the following:

• Establish provisions governing the use of pesticides and genetically modified organisms by requiring applicable entities to make various disclosures related to all pesticides and all genetically modified organisms;
• Require buffer zones for applicable entities; Require a temporary moratorium regarding genetically modified organisms; Address an Environmental Impact Statement, permitting, and open air testing of experimental pesticides and genetically modified organisms; Address issues incident to implementation, enforcement and applicability.
• All other business pertaining to the regularly scheduled Kauai County Council Meeting agenda will be handled in the morning at the Historic County Building, Council Chambers. The Council will recess at approximately 12:30 p.m. before commencing with the public hearing on Bill No. 2491 at 1:30 p.m. at the KCC Performing Arts Center.
• All interested persons who wish to present their comments may do so at the public hearing. Written testimony prior to the meeting is also welcome and may be hand-delivered to the Office of the County Clerk, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street, Suite 209, Lihue, Kauai, 96766, faxed to 241-6349 or emailed to counciltestimony@kauai.gov.

Please visit the County Council’s webpage at www.kauai.gov for information on submitting written testimony.

Special accommodations and sign language interpreter and interpreters for non-English speaking persons are available upon request five days prior to the meeting date, to the Office of the County Clerk.

The KCC Performing Arts Center is located at 3-1901 Kaumualii Highway, Lihue, Kauai, 96766.

For more information, please contact the Office of the County Clerk at 241-4188.

In the meantime, check out a new report by Food & Water Watch called Superweeds: How Biotech Corps Bolster The Pesticide Industry. Food & Water Watch works to ensure the food, water and fish we consume is safe, accessible and sustainably produced. So we can all enjoy and trust in what we eat and drink, we help people take charge of where their food comes from, keep clean, affordable, public tap water flowing freely to our homes, protect the environmental quality of oceans, force government to do its job protecting citizens, and educate about the importance of keeping the global commons — our shared resources — under public control.