2020-01-22 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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got to do it” attitude. Over time and inside of the constraints of budget and staff, that attitude has been understandably tempered, and he beseeched Director Kucharski to find that attitude again wherever he can. Since the 1970s, the Pentagon has drained $20 trillion out of taxpayer funds. When that kind of money is taken out of the public coffers, infrastructure at the county level suffers. The county has to pick up crumbs wherever they can be found. This leaves the county unable to serve the people’s infrastructure needs and the ʻāina in a way that is righteous. The burden is being shifted to our children and grandchildren. Since 2017, the way the EMC works has changed dramatically. The commissioners do not just show up and comment on matters. They have made their own agendas, they have questioned past practices and assumptions, and they have made recommendations for improved wastewater management. They have always focused on the environment and public health. They have recommended complete wastewater irrigation reuse to create something useful, they have raised scientific questions about the appropriateness of a SAT system in Kona’s lava plains, and they have pushed for zero waste recycling. Commissioners took on special projects and invested their own time. This kind of homework outside of meetings is essential for effective leadership. The EMC has been able to attract new and talented people with great experience to serve on the Commission. He is very proud of how they work together and strive for consensus. They see the common good, and the civility they practice has been sterling. It saddens and frustrates his aging activist soul that the sump in Kealakehe, which has conveyed tons of nutrients into the coastal waters, will continue. He is not proud that the county remains, for 27 years, the single largest source of nutrient pollution on the Kona Coast. No matter what the Supreme Court decides in the Maui injection well case, we must find a way to clean up our act, because it is the right thing to do. Leaky sewers and a myriad of cesspits degrade our ecosystem daily. He prays that sewer service will be extended to all Aliʻi Drive and that the waste of the hundreds of homes in that area will be captured. Chair Bennett implored the commissioners to not let the balkanization of departments interfere with being forward-looking. Department lines need to be cut across and water issues addressed as a whole. Water connects us all. Integrated, holistic solutions need to be looked at. Commissioners should go to their councilpersons and have them ask the EMC to make policy recommendations. On a personal note, he said it was an honor to be their chair and that he hopes he served them well. His last meeting will be in March, but he is stepping down as chair today. He will be going back to the scientist advocacy life, and he will become chair of the Kona chapter of Waterkeepers, which is an international organization. He will continue to press on as long as his aging body will let him.