2017-10-25 Environmental Management Commission Minutes

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Director Kucharski pointed the commissioners to the last page of his report, which had an information sheet entitled “Abandoned Vehicle Removal Procedures.” The information is also available on the website address listed. Other questions, which did not make it into his written report, were: ▪ When did Kealakehe start discharging into the sump? Director Kucharski said that to the best of their knowledge, it was 1994. They have gone back and looked at the records, and that is the best date they can give. Commissioner Olson said he believes it was prior to then, but Director Kucharski said 1994 was the best date they could come up with, as the construction of the facility was started in 1990. ▪ Can private sewers discharge into a County facility and a County line? Director Kucharski said the answer is yes and no. If a private sewer is up to the County Code standards and they want to turn it over to the county, they can connect. If they do that, then everyone adjacent to that line is therefore required to connect to the sewer. If it is private and the county sewer is more than 300 feet away from the property, there is no direct connection; and by Code they cannot force the private entity to connect to the county sewer line. They will be researching whether they can require homeowners to connect to a private sewer line, if there is one available. It would allow some public/private cooperative agreements to be made. At this point in time, however, people can connect—but they cannot be forced to connect—to a private line. Commissioner Olson said he had a bunch of questions on how could they help people do the right thing, in terms of funding issues and using the auspices of government. EPA has grants that government agencies are eligible for, and he would like them to be passed on to the private sector, the homeowners, so it would be possible and feasible for them to connect. Director Kucharski said they cannot expend monies on private property without special approval by the County Council. In Nāālehu, they do have ʻthe approval to pay for the connection fees to the homes and to have that construction occur. Commissioner Olson said it would be good to check on grants, where the homeowners could pay them back over a period of 20 years or so. Director Kucharski said there is some legislation towards that in the books, but it requires the applicant to have been turned down for every other form of financing they tried for. There are many ideas on ways the system could be improved and made easier and less expensive. In talking about sewering the island, just to sewer Kona would cost approximately a billion dollars. 10:50 a.m.: Commissioner Neff said she had to leave the meeting and would see them next year. 11