2017-06-28 Environmental Management Commission Minutes

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wastewater discharge to the ground be disinfected by appropriate means. He would like this Commission to go on record and say this is the appropriate thing to do. Fortunately with the new R1 system we will be using ultraviolet which is better than using chlorine. o Dr. Bennett moved to have the Commission adopt this letter and send to Director Pressler, with a copy to Director Kucharski and the County Council. Mr. Fear seconded. Mr. Olson had a point of information and asked if we are sending this letter to the State Director of Health or are we going to send to the Mayor? Aren't we trying to get the Mayor's support for this letter? As a courtesy the Mayor should get it first. Ms. Schoen stated we had a discussion about this last time that the Commission advises the Mayor, but the Commission wanted to send the letter directly to the Director of Health. Chair Fritz agreed the letter should go to the Mayor, County Council and the Director of Health. Motion was amended to send this letter to the Mayor, County Council and Director Pressler. Motion carried unanimously. c. Presentation by Dr. Bennett on Wastewater Microbiology Monitoring Program o The Department of Health is implementing a law called the Beaches Act that State monitors beaches and post the beaches as appropriately. o The State has been testing recreational waters for at least 100 years using various methods. The one they are using now has huge limitations. o The island of Hawai`i has a lot of cesspools. Dye was put in a toilet in Puako and it showed up on the coast in a matter of hours. Given our geology, we have an unusual hydrology. Around 30 million gallons a day is being discharged in to cesspits or septic systems. The way in which these microbes die is not known. In this wastewater is about 410,000 pounds of nitrogen. The State of Hawaii, Department of Health tells everyone that when you put in a septic system, all your problems are solved. However that is not true. Septic systems are only a little better than cesspools. The wastewater drains to the sea. Our monitoring tools are underfunded and poorly staffed. We simply don't know if the water is safe. By them pronouncing the water is safe is irresponsible. o Looking at the history of measuring Fecal Indicator Bacteria (FIB); back in the 1800s a standard was formed in New York City but had to drop it because it measure too much of everything. Then came up with a similar test but with a higher incubation temperature where you could grow these things. But this too had the same problem. Then Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) comes along with a thing called enterococci. EPA regulations requires them to have a precise test and attribute risk to that test. Enterococci is an environmental bacteria that can be found growing in swamps and rivers. There are over 50 species but only 2 species associated with humans. It grows in clusters or chains so makes it difficult to count. It doesn't correlate with the presence of fecal viruses which is the leading reason why people get sick from being in the water. Over the last 100 years we did a good job with cleaning up surface water. Enterococci is measured using the most probably number method, which is a range not an actual count. Results are available within 24 hours and is an estimation at best. EPA is the least pleased with this test because it's such a big range. If the test shows the most probable number is 35, the State will continue sampling. If the number jumps to 130 then they need to post signs at the beach. The State plays some funny games with the arithmetic. State takes the arithmetic mean of the numbers, but EPA says since bacteria is not in a linear distribution but in a logarithmic distribution, statistically it's more appropriate to do a geometric mean. Therefore very few of our beaches have been listed as impaired due to bacteria. Whenever the State says the levels are less than one, it's actually 2.3. o Study shows surfers ingest about 170m1 of water per day. They are 5.91 times more likely to get skin infections. 3