2020-06-24 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Commissioner Cardwell said she wanted to hear from the director on this. Director Kucharski said that when the county creates R-1 water, they will be required by the rules to obtain a discharge permit, whether they discharge one drop or 3 million gallons per day. The question is what the discharge standards will be and whether an NPDES permit will be required. Also, from the reports he has read, there is no unequivocal data showing that the county’s discharge is going into the harbor. He would remind everyone that 25 million gallons per day are discharged throughout the island, and the county’s discharge is approximately 4 to 5 million gallons per day. There is no background data showing the nutrients come from a waste treatment facility and not cesspools. The tracer study being done is to determine that. He is at a loss as to how to deal with the argument that the county should not be discharging, but at the same time is supposed to have R-1 water. The best scenario for the R-1 water is that 100% of it gets used, but that would still not obviate the requirement to have a permit in case they do have to discharge. Dr. Bennett spoke on land use, cesspits and septic systems, the amount of water that flows into the harbor, and why he feels it is not likely to be coming from mauka cesspits. The county should do the right thing with the data that exists and agree the sump is probably draining into the coast and harbor and remediate the situation. It has been going on for 25 years, and it is time to say enough is known and act in the best interest of the resource, as the state constitution requires. Commissioner Adams said the goal of environmental regulations is to deal with the worst case and avoid it if possible, which is why a permit is needed to deal with failure of the system. DEM has to go through hoops which cannot be waived away. The most the commission can do is keep pushing and looking for alternatives on how to reuse the water, not lose it as a resource, and certainly not pollute. However, they also have to be practical and realistic. They need to be encouraging and help find solutions. Beating up on DEM is not a solution. Commissioner Burns agreed. DEM is stuck between a rock and a hard place if an NPDES permit is required in order to have R-1. It is important to be aware rather than frustrated that in the gray space, the best case scenario for the permit is using the parameters that are approved. It is an imperfect system for our waters, but it is what the EPA approved. It is important to be pragmatic, patient, wait for the results of the tracer studies, and then make the best decisions possible given what is known. He apologized that he had to leave the meeting for another meeting he could not miss. Commissioner Gaffney wanted to make two points for the record. First, it is important to remember that when Honokōhau Harbor was built and completed in 1970, the waters were Class AA, the highest quality standard for ocean waters. Over the years they have become impaired, likely from many sources of pollution, but the decline since the sump started being used is notable and obvious. Attention needs to be maximized on eliminating the discharge. Second, regarding R-1, an alternative to discharging is holding. Lined pods could be used instead of expensive tanks. There is a lot of space, ways, and advantages to making this 7