2019-11-27 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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had discussed the relevant agenda item. Ms. Kubat said she would wait, and Mr. Warren said he wanted to testify now. Jerome Warren: The Nāālehu sewer project has received another EPA deadline ʻ extension. The county government bureaucracy is getting a favor from another federal government bureaucracy, yet two District 6 private sector companies received EPA fines for not converting to septic systems. The Nāālehu project will require businesses on the highway to ʻ abandon their newly installed septic systems and hook up to the sewer line. All of this will benefit Kaū Royal Cofʻfee and Tea, which owns the land upslope from the Nāālehu water well. ʻ There is also a bypass easement which will be blocked by the sewer project. The director’s $75 million wastewater utopia will be installed downslope from the development. It will go next to the well and on top of the highway bypass easement. The fortunate investors will have a plant built by the county and paid for by the people who live on the Big Island. This is how the rich get richer—by making average people poorer. The government’s ability to tax its citizens is the most powerful force in the world. Director Kucharski is abusing his power by endorsing this wastewater utopia. (Chair Bennett told Mr. Warren that his comments should be directed to the commission.) Mr. Warren said the commissioners are condemning future generations to unnecessary debt by condoning this boondoggle going in behind the Nāālehu ʻHongwanji, that the Buddhist philosophy is to see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, and that interrupting a testifier is terrible. 4. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Commissioner Gaffney’s report on his communications with Councilmembers Richards and Eoff regarding delays in the State Historic Preservation Division’s cultural review process. Commissioner Gaffney said his report is disappointing, as he has not been able to get Councilmember Richards to respond to the EMC’s suggestion. He therefore spoke yesterday with Councilmember Eoff, who previously told him she would pick up the ball if Councilmember Richards did not. The good news is that Council Chair Chung is meeting with the entire legislative delegation next week, and Councilmember Eoff has assured him she will put this matter on the agenda so it can be discussed with all the legislators. However, the request he made to Councilmember Richards to create a resolution asking the legislature to take up the issue has so far fallen on deaf ears. The supposedly secret back doors he was informed about have not worked. He will continue to follow up. Chair Bennett asked Director Kucharski if there was any update with SHPD on the R-1 project. Director Kucharski said he did not hear back from SHPD yet and will be reporting on this during his Director’s Informational Report. b. Continued discussion on waste to energy proposals or alternative uses for waste, and a discussion of recommendations. 2