21-07-28 EMC minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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presentation. Because she is working with the national caucus, she might be able to answer questions. Chair Adams agreed to work with Vice Chair Gaffney to invite Rep. Lowen to the August meeting. Chair Adams also had a question about the fish processing. Is there any function or a role for the EMC relative to that? The Vice Chair said he brought it up for "general awareness." He said we need to watch the process, and it's not anything that the Commission needs to do at this time. One of the realities is that fish waste turning into compost does not smell particularly nice. If we are going to prevent that, the solution is to filter the air from an enclosed building, but that's a little ridiculous considering we have sun for free, and that is an important part of the process. So likely it should be done where smell is not going to be an issue. The door has been opened and we have a good citizen who is very, very interested in sustainable infrastructure and is willing to provide the equipment to process this fish waste, and to turn it into what we need. Chair Adams encouraged the Commission to continue to be vigilant for similar issues in which EMC can step in. • Commissioner Fulton, after first thanking the Vice Chair for his work on those three fronts, said that her District 7 had a couple of significant rain events, followed quickly by Brown water advisories from the Department of Health — on June 21 in Kailua Bay, and June 29 in Holualoa Bay. Of course Kailua Bay is a favorite for locals and Native Hawaiians. It's upsetting when she sees these things happening and she thinks about the impact to the coral. She started some investigations and reached out to the Three Mountain Alliance. They pointed her to Erica Perez, senior program manager with the Coral Reef Alliance, who does water quality testing. The bottom line is she would like to find out why we are having these brown water events. She suspects it's a combination of farming practices, residential development, pig and goat activity. Because we don't know what is generating the problem, we cannot begin to speculate about solutions. But it is something of interest to her because it looks like a preventable problem and she would like to continue working on that. Commissioner Fulton also mentioned she had a question about chloride levels, that's on her priority list, but will circle back to it for the Director's Report. Vice Chair Gaffney wanted to bring up one more issue to the Commission's attention. The restroom facility in Miloli'i is going to be replaced by the County, and unfortunately the wastewater system at that facility is very close to the ocean. And the proposal for the upgrade is to continue the use of a septic system. The apparent thinking of the planners is that there's a whole bunch of cesspools along the shoreline there anyway, so why can't we us the old technology at the restroom? That thinking has to stop. He wants commissioners to be aware there are still people in County government who think it's OK to do things like restroom upgrades and not do the right thing with the wastewater systems. There is a proposal that has been made to use the technology that has been 4