2018-03-28 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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Vote: Commissioner Fritz stated there is an amended motion and second on the floor, and asked who is in favor of adopting the resolution as amended. All commissioners voted aye. 5. NEW BUSINESS a. Discuss the need for scientific monitoring data on sodium chloride in the sewage influent as well as the targets for nutrient reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus for the proposed Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant R-1 water upgrade. Propose an advisory statement and letter to the Department of Environmental Management. Chair Bennett explained there is raw sewage influent into the treatment plant with a fair amount of sodium chloride in it, and it is probably coming from salty groundwater and infiltrating into sewer pipes. Sewer pipe infiltration is a given. He would like to know how significant the problem is, where it is happening, and if remediation is possible. He has seen data that showed discrete places along Aliʻi Drive towards the north end where some leakage was going on. It may have been repaired, but he would like to know the status of the salt water intrusion. It is important because as water gets increasingly salty, it decreases in irrigation value. The scope of agricultural landscape operations narrows if the water is salty, which means customer use and reuse narrows, and that increases the need for disposal to some entity. Every entity has to have a secondary disposal mechanism should the first one fail. The goal is to reclaim water, and he wants the record to be very clear that he is a staunch proponent of water reclamation. Humans excrete nitrogen and phosphorous, which are fertilizers. If the water is to go back into the environment, realistic targets are needed for the reduction of these fertilizers. It would be good to do a nutrient budget, showing how much nutrients are coming in, being treated, and going back out. The nutrient load that goes back out joins the rest of the nutrients that are flowing from individual waste systems. Once they have commingled, it is additive, and the effects are cumulative. It is in the EMC’s interest to know what the nutrient reduction targets are and how they will be achieved and monitored. He does not know if a nutrient budgeting approach is in the EIS for the upgrade. As chair, he is raising the issue to formalize a request to better understand how the nutrients and sodium chloride are being managed. Vice Chair Olson said the first step is to contain the elements in the outgoing tide. A side issue is the upcoming rise in the sea level and how much money will be thrown into an area that will eventually be under water. A lot of king tides have also been happening, and they have been higher than predicted. It is relevant to know if money will be spent on something that won’t be here for the life cycle it should be. Money should not be wasted on preserving something that is not preservable. Commissioner Fritz asked how high the ponds at Kealakehe are and whether they are above sea level. Director Kucharski said he believes they’re at least 50 feet above sea level, but he can check on that. There has been no intrusion into the ponds, which are about 30 feet deep. Chair Bennett said Commissioner Olson’s concerns are significant, but they raise the question as to what extent the County is prepared to deal with the rise in sea level. Vice Chair Olson said if they were talking about raising money to enhance facilities, the cost benefit should 5