2001-09-26 Enviromental Management Commission Minutes

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Minutes for Wednesday, September 26, 2001Page 6 of 7 DISCUSSION ON ABANDONED VEHICLE PROGRAM BY JAMES ISA, ABANDONED VEHICLE  COORDINATOR James Isa stated that in FY 2000-2001, there was a total of 1,411 abandoned vehicles reported islandwide. 771 of those were towed. The other approximately 700 cars that were not towed were because the vehicles were either removed or sometimes stolen. We can tow only vehicles that the police make reports on. We need a police report. The reason the police are involved, is to check if the vehicle is stolen. They have access to that information. He can go into public roadways, County, State and Federal Parks, and private subdivision roads (Council made an ordinance in 1994 giving jurisdiction). Vehicles on private property are reported to the Department of Health or the Planning Department. Riley stated that he has worked with Mr. Isa extensively for a number of years and commended him on his diligence and responsiveness. Jon Olson feels that the problem is police resources. There needs to be a mechanism to get the Police out of the loop. He thought there was some legislation that did that. Gerald Takase stated that by the time the vehicle is found, it has been sold 10 times since the last person bothered to register it. The law does say the owner of the vehicle is required to report when it is sold, but the courts get upset with us hauling in otherwise good citizens on these kinds of cases. It is not worth the effort to chase them down. Mike Allen suggested that we educate the public. UPDATE ON INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN  Discussed in the Director’s Report. UPDATE ON THE SOLID WASTE ADVISORY COMMITTEE AND CONSULTANTS  Discussed in the Director’s Report. SHORT-TERM CHOICES FOR EXTENDING THE HILO LANDFILL  Mike Allen stated that long-term approaches are very important, but we have a 2004 date for the Hilo Landfill closure. He has not seen anybody take the responsibility of putting together a short-term program on targeting items that are now entering the landfill that could easily be kept out and recycled. That should be critical for any decision making with the Solid Waste Management Plan because if we do not make the 2004 deadline, we are going to start hauling rubbish to Kona and people in the community will object to some of that. If the County focuses on trying to eliminate some of the items that are now entering the landfill so they won’t have to be trucked over to Kona, the general public will be much more palatable. He offered his services and expertise in hopes to successfully put together a Solid Waste Management Plan that will be successful. Hopefully it will involve and be acceptable to everybody in the community because the backing of the community is important in preventing dumping on the sides of the roads. That can be eliminated if you take a thoughtful approach on how to move forward. There is no organization of solid waste business enterprises because there has been a covert or overt effort by the County government in the past to make sure that the industry is at each other’s throats. The County needs to take a proactive approach and get the people in the industry together and show them that they are in this thing together and that they have a real opportunity to have an impact on the decisions that are going to be made in the future. It is very important that the people in the industry come together and decide what the focus is going to be and start talking together. Larry Capellas stated that there are two areas of extending the Hilo Landfill. One is a permit application for a vertical expansion which would add more capacity and has less of an impact. The other is horizontal expansion of the landfill which will require the expanded portions of the landfill to be lined and any leachate must be addressed. The end product is very expensive. Other methods available for maximizing diversion is expanding diversion credits to get most of this waste away from the landfill prior to being disposed of. This will be answered in the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan. We have added bins as a convenient means of disposal of certain materials that have file://C:\Test1\minutes092601.htm6/22/2011