2023_07_18 Game Management Advisory Commission Minutes

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and we run things like the lead exposure program for children – I don’t know if anybody is familiar with that – we also have a fleet on unseen coordinators, and they respond anywhere in the state where there is an ongoing release or an emergency of hazardous materials. We work closely with all of the fire departments and the LEPCs on site, the Navy, Coast Guard and others to make sure that we can mitigate or stem the – and then I specifically work for the ESTAR Group – sorry about the alphabet soup that we used but that’s site discovery and remediation. So, I am the regulator after everything’s done that comes in and oversees the cleanup and the restoration to make things safe going forward. I have a quick presentation and it includes my contact information should anybody want to contact me and have any other discussion, ah, besides what I’m gonna talk about today with the Hakalau Gulch project, we oversee a variety of other things that hit close to home – I don’t know if anybody’s familiar with the Waikoloa Maneuver Area – the huge area on the Big Island where unexploded ordinance still is being located and found. So we are the regulator – we work closely with the Army Corps of Engineers and oversee their clean up and it’s this constant struggle that we have with them – they’ll use the language – we feel that’s it a degree of safety that’s acceptable and my co-workers and I think, no, that’s not acceptable because if one kid finds one unexploded hand grenade it’s not so – it’s just ongoing battle and it takes a lot of time for them to comb through the area – get right- of-entry permissions from landowners – do a lot of those things and go search and then clean up and that’s just one of the things we do. So going ahead – the Hakalau Stream Gulch is in a public comment period right now and I think that’s how you all found me through a public notice in the newspaper, otherwise we’re pretty well hidden. The bridge was originally built in the 1900s that crosses the gulch, and it was railroad bridge to haul cane. The bridge was painted with lead paint for years and years and years – which works quite well but it also causes and environmental issue as the paint decays and flakes down and goes to the ground below. So, this is a 1936, 1925 photo that we found, and it shows the bridge, the sugar mill and the flume that was there to help carry product. And they were all painted with lead paint that over the years weathers, gets repainted and then just flakes down and creates snow in the environment. The bridge was cleaned and de-scaled of lead paint in 2000 and then going forward there were some studies done that. Our limit, that is for exposure for people to be in is roughly 200 milligrams per kilogram. And that’s a lead concentration or some people might use the term “parts per million.” And that is safe for even kids to go out and play in and you know kids dropping skittles and picking and then eating and, and that is still safe for them at 200. There’s portions of the park that have been sampled that exceed 1,000 parts per million or 1,000 milligrams per kilogram. And some areas that are even really concentrated – my guess is the people – somebody probably spilled paint during some of the painting processes that came down. So, the lead is a hazard – outlawed in paint in the 1970s – we still find a lot of old buildings and things that pose a hazard. Direct exposure is one hazard – people can have it on their skin and absorb it. Tentatively what you get is an inhalation hazard whether dust or someone not wearing a dust mask. If they’re scraping lead based paint or working in it and it can be inhaled it can also be ingested and that’s probably the most thing that we’re concerned about with children is their desire to put everything in their mouth or to drop things and pick them up – we’re all heard that 3 second rule and pick it up and it’s good and, and for someone that be of my age you could expose me with all the lead you want and it’s really no risk to me – but someone who’s developing those neurological systems – it’s a huge neuron-toxin for children and that’s really what our primary concern is with a lead exposure. So, in 2017 the park was closed to the public, similar to how Hakalau Park was closed to the public because of the high, elevated concentrations of lead in the soil. Those areas are mainly close to the bridge – here’s a graph that illustrates areas that were sampled. Green is good. 13