2024-07-29 Jeff Silva, Colony 1 Testimony

Home

The Association was unaware of this transaction until approximately November of 2021 through some oversight during the PUC process. The Association and others relying on the water systems were not notified of the pending transaction and therefore could not express their or our concerns. Upon learning of the change in ownership the Association began expressing our concerns with PWS through various means including personal interaction with multiple people, zoom meetings, public meetings, and directly with the owner and persons of authority at PWS including their contract operators. From November 2021, when the Board first became aware of PWS's ownership, up to the present, little has been done to repair or upgrade the systems as laid out in documents submitted by PWS to the PUC. Please see the Aqua Engineers Report date July 1, 2020 attached to our petition. This Report lays out the extreme deficiencies in the systems at that time and little has been done in the intervening 4 years to improve the systems. PWS has again and again said very large "capital improvements" must be made, but the characterization that these expenses are "capital improvements" is false. In fact, it is a sustained lack of maintenance on behalf of PWS that has caused many of the issues that now seem large. PWS has failed to address backup and safety systems as well as fire suppression systems. These were supposed to be addressed in the first three years as a condition of their purchase. I draw your attention to pages 10-12 of the same report which lays out the proposed improvement plan and the reasons why the improvements were necessary back in July 2020. Most of the items listed have not been addressed in any way, most notably the last item, "Replace Wastewater Treatment Facility." Also of note is the near total lack of automation of all systems which is listed multiple times on page 10 as "Scada." The water supply has no backup well as noted under item 3 on page 3. Ninole Well B (the backup well) had been inoperable for 5 years plus and is no longer certified for potable use. On page 12, their plan states "repair or replace fire hydrants," which hasn't been done. Please see the photographs submitted clearly depicting the state of many of the hydrants, as well as the Hawaii County Fire Departments documents also submitted. In other words, we are one failure away from a major health and safety event. The Board and its representatives have repeatedly tried to spur PWS into action with little affect. You can find some examples in the documents submitted. We applaud PWS for hiring two highly qualified and competent contract operators. This occurred because Aqua Engineers discontinued their contract to Manage, Operate, and Maintain the systems sometime in late 2021 or early 2022. The current operators do not appear to have the proper support of management, advisers, and the finances normally available in a public utility of this type. The engineering work and larger improvements could be done by contract firms, but that requires a management team willing to hire and finance such things. PWS has proven unwilling. The Board would also like to draw your attention to page 8 and 9 and the "Equipment Listing, Remaining Useful Life," which gives a generalized listing of infrastructure and its anticipated lifespan based on accepted water industry standards. Note the many dashes on the right side, this means the life expectancy has been exceeded. Almost 4 years has passed since this document was filed with the PUC by the applicant professing their acknowledgment of these deficiencies and the willingness and capacity to make the improvements as spelled out in this report. The Water, Wastewater, and Fire Suppression Systems were designed and built in the mid 1970's. The infrastructure has been poorly maintained for decades including the Wastewater Treatment Facilities. The Treatment System design predates the environmental work that was done in 2006 and 1998. It would seem prudent to have more current environmental