Air pollution caused by the operation of the sugar plantation  is seemingly the most requested topic for a public general membership meeting the past few years, but since neither the State Health Department nor the sugar company will agree to a community meeting for KCA, the requests have been for nil. However we continue to advise our membership of all relevant information we encounter, and this just released (6/23/14) state government press release announcing this large fine for a numerous violations over past few years is certainly newsworthy. It was our understanding that prior to this, DOH only cited H C & S for a single violation in past year. Of note all of these violations concern emissions from the refinery  stacks, and not from cane burning nor fugitive dust, which generate many of the community complaints we receive.                                  

Nolan Harai, DOH CAB manager