21-04-28 EMC minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

essentially flowing intotheocean because of antiquated sewer systems and antiquated sewage management systems failing regularly. There are a combination of cesspools, injection wells, and septic systems at harbor. None of them is connected to the others. There is also a membrane bioreactor that was required to be put in by the state. We have a new District Manager for the Boating Division, who is very positively disposed to getting the harbor sewered. The Vice Chair also sitson a H2050 Commission, and we have made that our first priority, that we sewer all of , connect at the highway, and also that we are ready to receive R-1 water when it is ready for irrigation. Chair Adams told Vice Chair Gaffney to let her know when these proposals are ready for proposed action, and then we can discuss it on an agenda item. Commissioner McIntosh o DEM to re- identify more reasonable cost solutions (No report) Commissioner Olson o Champion cross-agency and multiple stakeholder engagement in addressing life cycle issues of waste and wastewater management. Have joint commissions meeting(s). Request presentations by other departments (e.g. HDOH, HDOT). (Co-lead Adams) o Enhance solid waste and wastewater infrastructure, given expected population growth in the Puna district. o Review and support sufficient funding and creative cost reductions recommended by DEM. Commissioner Olson addressed the abandoned vehicle removal process. Puna in the early 1990swas the dumping ground for unwanted cars and his group got together and decided we were going to work on that issue. Part of that is the reason the Commission exists is because a couple dozen of them got together and got it on the ballot. This was not an idea that came from government. The car issue continues to be a sore point with us here, and it’s probably going to be a sore point until we deal with the funding issue.The funding is not being dealt with because basically all of our funding for these programs comes from the County coffers, which is based primarily on property taxes. There is a total disconnect between the people who bring the cars to the island, and then dispose of them, and the disposal process. We need to get to the point where we have collected the money for the disposal of the vehicle and anything else that we will need to dispose of, or remanufacture and reuse,is collected at the point of purchase. The bottle bill has been a fairly successful program. We certainly do not have the problem we used to have before the program was implemented. And it is by and large self-funding. And we need to check the boxes, up and down the line, for anything that comes on to the island if it has a disposal component. We need to have the money in the bank to deal with it when it shows up, either to remove or reutilize it here. He had spent the last couple of months talking this up with everyone who would listen to him. Probably the most challenging part is going to be setting up the programs themselves, and the fact that everything that comes in has a bar code already on it. His question now is, how we get from where we are to where we want to be on that. He was one of the people involved in the design committee that created the first recycling center, the 8