2021-08-25 EMC testimony - (08-23) Demoruelle, Sandra - DEM EPA Response May 2021

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deadline of June 28, 2021 to March 28, 2022 because the County "cannot anticipate if there will be any delays" in completing the friendly condemnation proceedings that are required for the County to procure a portion of Tax Map Key (3) 9-6-002:018 from the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Estate Trust for the proposed Pahala WWTF. Regarding the County's request to extend the compliance provision deadline that is listed in Paragraph 29(f) of the AOC, the County is requesting an extension of the revised deadline of July 24, 2021 to July 24, 2022' because Hawai`i's State Historic Preservation Division ("SHPD") notified the County on February 20, 2020 that it needed to prepare an archeological monitoring plan prior to conducting the geotechnical feasibility investigations to determine whether the preferred land parcel could support the proposed WWTF. The County's archeological monitoring plan was approved by SHPD on November 4, 2020.'` According to the County, this pushed back the timing of preparing the design plans, as the drafting of the plan could only be initiated after SHPD's approval of the project. The County has also informed EPA that while it is committed to properly closing the Pahala LCCs, it is no longer planning to construct the WWTF that was selected in the Environmental Assessment and will be submitting a new proposal for addressing the LCCS.3 EPA has determined that approving the requested extensions on the respective project milestones is not warranted at this time because it is not yet clear how the County intends to meet the remaining AOC compliance provisions, including the provision to complete closure of the Pahala LCCs by no later than April 18, 2023. Property acquisition is necessary for construction of the WWTF that was selected by the County in the Environmental Assessment. The County asserts that property acquisition will take an unknown length of time but has not presented a compelling explanation of why property acquisition has taken longer than expected or how the delay in property acquisition will affect compliance with the remaining AOC provisions. Additionally, it is also not clear to EPA what type of WWTF the County intends to design or how the proposed 12-month extension for completing design of the Pahala WWTF will affect the County's ability to meet the remaining AOC compliance provisions. As the design requirement is only one small component of meeting the overall compliance deadline for the AOC, it is not possible to extend it without clarification or understanding as to the overall nature of the WWTF. Therefore, the June 28, 2021 compliance provision deadline to acquire land for the proposed Pahala WWTF and the July 24, 2021 compliance provision deadline to complete design of the proposed Pahala WWTF remain in effect and are enforceable by EPA. However, please note that while EPA has determined that extensions on the respective project milestones are not warranted at this time, nothing in this letter precludes the County from submitting its updated plans for coming into compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act and its LCC closure requirements for EPA's consideration. Furthermore, EPA continues to urge the County to pursue compliance with the AOC deadlines as expeditiously as possible, whether or not project milestones have been missed. 1 While the County's May 24, 2021 letter used July 28, 2021 as the required date of compliance for the milestone listed in Paragraph 29(f), the actual date of compliance is July 24, 2021, which is the date that is 15 months after the date the County completed the historic preservation consultation process. z See SHPD's November 4, 2020 acceptance letter of the County's Archeological Monitoring Plan. s On January 15 and January 22, 2021, the County informed EPA that instead of pursuing the selected alternative that was identified in the final Environmental Assessment, it intends to investigate alternative wastewater options to replace the two (2) large multi -residential LCCs plus 65 small capacity cesspools serving the Pahala community. 2