by David Corrigan, video by Stephanie Salazar

POHOKI, Hawaii – Puna residents are saying there was another incident at Puna Geothermal Venture on Tuesday night.

Puna Pono Alliance member Bob Petricci says plant officials confirmed there was a leak at the facility.

In an email to Petricci that was shared with the community, PGV official Mike Kaleikini wrote that the company experienced a condensate pump failure at around 7 PM. “The Gasket and bolt failure resulted in geothermal condensate leak for about 15 minutes before personnel isolated the pump and stopped all leakage,” Kaleikini wrote.

We hope to have more details soon.

It was less than a month ago that a power outage caused PGV to trip offline and activate its emergency venting system.

“We were not notified by Hawaii Civil Defense or PGV,” Petricci wrote. “We only found out after the fact because the community is working together to report accidents. Except for the call from an impacted member in the community we may never have known about this.”

Petricci said that at 7:25 he got a call from a resident who smelled Hydrogen sulfide – or H2S – on Pohoiki Road. The smell is a tell tale sign that there could be a leak or a venting of some kind at the nearby geothermal plant. Petricci went on to detial his quest for answers.

Robert Petricci

“I drove up to investigate at about 7:45. I could smell H2S coming up the hill starting at Yoga Oasis and on and off for the next block. I went to the corner of Hinalo and Pohoiki rd and there was an odd smell that I did not recognize, but no H2S smell. Then I drove to the monitoring station by Aurora’s old house. There was a slight H2S odor at the bottom of the hill by her house and at the gate by the monitor. Neither one lasted very long, That was about 7:55. I tried to called Tom and Paul to get Mike K’s number. I could not reach them so I headed over to Leilani Blvd and Pohoiki (old HGP-A) and then to Luana Jones house but didn’t smell anything. Then I started back down the hill. I pulled over by Tim Courrior’s house because I smelled H2S. Paul called me back while I was stopped there and gave me Mike’s number. It was 8:15 pm when I called Mike and ask him what was going on, and if they were having trouble because I had reports of H2S. Mike told me, not that he knew of, but he would check and call me back. At 8:34 Mike called me back and told me a pump gasket had failed and there was a leak that lasted 10 to 20 minutes. He also said his guys had to put on suits or protective equipment to go in to fix the problem. I ask him to send me an email with details and he agreed.”

Petricci added that he assumed the leak “had a high potential for very dangerous levels of H2S because of the need for protective gear in the area of the leak, and the composition of the geothermal condensate.”