2018-06-27 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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Farias, the complex superintendent for the Kaū Distʻrict, ________, and he was aware of this but very upset and concerned about it. So I guess I’m very concerned about this initial part of soliciting comments that has been communicated, because based on what was expressed to us at the last meeting, what we’ve heard from the public, and my research, because obviously this is like probably the first time I’ve gotten really upset about an issue in all these years, in being by a school, it doesn’t sit right. So I did go out and do some investigation and discussions, and the fact that the complex superintendent is absolutely—he just felt like he didn’t understand the process to communicate, he was vehemently opposed to this project, and I see here that it sounds like there’s a recent press release, so there’s going to be other opportunity. Maybe you could outline this, a second round of community outreach. Director Kucharski: The EA process has many different legs. The first is to communicate with the local affected community and solicit comments from them as to what is on the table as a real preliminary draft issue. What are the thoughts? That’s what occurred. I will say that the AOC, the public notice of the AOC, including the school location, was placed out for review and comment over a year ago. Comments were received from the community, addressed from the EPA, and the EPA said one thing that is very clear, that the location that was in the AOC is a preliminary thing that cannot be approved until an EA is completed. We have not started to write the EA. Therefore, we cannot come in and say that any site is chosen. Sites are being reviewed. That is the process. Commissioner Neff: Is that why there is no EIS? It’s part of that process? Director Kucharski: This is part of the process. And if you do an EA or EIS, you need to come in and say this is what we’re going to put in, this is the facility. The facility design is going to be essentially the same wherever it’s located. And that’s part of the process, that we identify what kind of treatment we’re proposing. Where it goes is to be determined, and it cannot be determined—the County can’t purchase property, they can’t lease property, until such time as an EA is completed that justifies the use of that property for the intended purpose. That has not occurred, and so we’re sitting here in the start of the process. Why are we doing this? Because the EPA has come in and said we need to close the large capacity cesspools. That is not an option, it is a law. We are in the process of doing that. How we do that is left to us by EPA. The original large capacity septic tank alternative would just barely cover the amount of people that were in there, and the initial site location was subsequently determined to be technically not feasible. In the initial stages, the option was thought to be acceptable, however when they did their final testing, the technical evaluation determined that this is not an acceptable site. We cannot construct this facility here. So we are left with an initial okay, let’s try and do this. But then technically, it doesn’t work. Okay? And so we are back to the drawing board. We’re in that situation now. We know the technology. Where we’re going to put it is not yet determined. We’ve looked at over 30 sites in Nāālehu aloʻne. Pāhala, once again, there