21-10-27 EMC minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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I just talked with them this morning. It’s 2023, not 2027, like your Director is telling you. So, is it 2023 or 2027? Your Director’s Report is not clear. Your funding source is not clear either. Your Director’s Report no longer says anything about water shutoff for nonpayment of sewer bills. Has this issue been settled? It was on previous reports, now it is missing. How can the sewer department shut somebody’s drinking water off? My sewer bill is for an illegal gang cesspool. Wil you shut my water off? All of your sewer problems in Ka‘ could have been solved back in the Obama administration. But wastewater scientists abandoned a simple solution in favor of an experiment. They are still getting paid to set up their experiment. The District 6 former commissioner is a scientist, yet he obfuscated my concerns at previous commission meetings. It is the ivory tower syndrome. This former commissioner is now lobbying you. Is he registered? Do you hold him to three minutes? Money will not solve the sewer problem in N‘lehu. Hawai‘i Island does not have enough tradespeople to do the construction. Big Island tradespeople need to work on failing infrastructure in Hilo and Kona, not a wastewater utopia in N‘lehu. And how will this project affect the town’s bypass route? This dotted line, the bypass easement, is on theplat maps, but not on your plan map. The community has no opportunity to learn anything about this project. Mahalo. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Status report and motions for action on 2021 EMC Priorities – Each lead commissioner to provide brief report on assigned priorities (priorities are listed in the May 2021 meeting minutes) and make motions as applicable. Chair Adams reminded Commissioners that they were to come up with some individual priorities they were going to work on, and they had the opportunity to give updates. And if you have enough together and are ready to get it on a meeting agenda, we are more than happy to discuss it. The Chair started with her own project: Sanne Berrig and the Chairare working with a contractor to do a life cycle assessment of our different recycling streams, and we have been figuring out what data sets to use with the consultant. It is not ready for a prime time presentation just yet. Chair Adamsalso was involved in a conference call brainstorm with Council Member Heather Kimball, who is working on EPR and recycling initiatives, and we were brainstorming different items. 1 Vice Chair Gaffney requested Commissioners read the paper that he submitted to the Commission. It does provide alternative approaches to what seems to be our biggest issue. With regard to priorities, one of the things we are learning with regard to sewering Honokhau Small Boat Harbor, which should be done by the State, is just how difficult it is to do something like that. Even though there’s all this talk about trillions of dollars of federal money being available, the truth is that if you actually begin to pursue some of those dollars from the EPA, EDA, DOA, and so on, it quickly becomes extremely difficult because of the information that is 1 “Identifying wastewater management tradeoffs, Costs, nearshore water quality, and implications for marine coastal ecosystems in Kona, Hawai‘i” http://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=112850 3