2022-02-16 EMC minutes draft - Laserfiche WebLink

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project. We're trying to find the funding, try to work with people, trying to get that project going as soon as possible. Chair Adams reiterated that we each individually can provide testimony. HB 2399 was recently approved by the House Committee on Consumer Protection and Commerce. It's going to be quite a bear to work out the details of that legislation, she said. And that it is a large pain to have to deal with the states and maybe counties with different laws, and she is worried as a consumer about what's going to be blocked from sale in Hawai‘i because we've got some extraordinary regulations. There will be a lot of details that need to be worked out with multiple stakeholders. She asked if any commissioners felt the need for EMC to provide testimony or whether we just stand behind the Director and say, good luck. Director Mansour said any support that EMC gives DEM is very greatly appreciated. If you feel there are any other bills that DEM has overlooked, please let us know as well so we could be on the same page in supporting what you guys wanted to achieve. Vice Chair Gaffney asked to give a clarification. He didn't mean to demean the R-1 upgrade at the plant, saying: I have been working from when I first came on the EMC to get a transmission line planned into the extension of Ane Keohokālole Highway because that's the logical place to run that R-1 line, and also a sewer line from the bottom of Palisades and Kona Acres and all of those subdivisions that eventually need to be sewered. So what I meant to relate there was that in talking to (Deputy Managing Director) Bobby Command, I've learned that Ane Keohokālole is no longer the priority that it once was and as a result, it's not shovel-ready and therefore it's not likely to be able to access federal funding, which is a disappointment because it had been my hope all along that that's where the logical place to install the sewer line while the extension was being installed. So I don't have a problem with what DEM is doing with the R- 1 upgrade at the plant. My concern is making sure that we have customers for that R-1 water. And the logical customers in my mind are the ag-zoned lands at the end of Ane Keohokālole. Director Mansour replied that he just had a Zoom meeting yesterday with Parks and Recreation because we're only going to be generating 1.0-1.8 million gallons per day (MGD). As you know, that's not a lot of R-1 water to go around. The idea is when they were talking about the regional park across the street from the treatment plant where the current sump is, to use that R-1 water for the regional park. The idea is we have some certain amount of money that was set aside through SRF funding to do the design of that dual piping system going across the street. We're going to try to encumber that this year. Our Wastewater Division is working on securing those funds to do the design of the R-1 dual pipe system across the street to go to the regional park, or do it to the north. That is being worked on. And I think they estimated that they're probably looking at 1 MGD for that regional park. We don't have the commitment. Unfortunately, we don't have enough customers that connect to our either the west side facility or the east side facility. This is unsustainable. We need to find a way. We need to work with you and the Administration to find ways to start increasing the amount of customers, because that means in return, we have better revenue to do our Operations and Maintenance projects. With that said, even with that, that means we will increase the amount of our R-1 6