2018-06-27 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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was always going to be a separate treatment system for Pāhala. There was never going to be one that would take both communities. Ms. Demoruelle: There has never been—what he’s talking about is site selection from something that has never been reviewed. There has never been an EIS on the treatment system. He said—it’s like me when I said to my daughter when she was little, do you want to wear the blue dress or the red dress? He’s saying do you want the sewage system treatment plant beside your school, or do you want it somewhere else? He’s not allowing us a review of the sewage treatment system. They went from the LCC conversion to septic, and then all of a sudden, with no—just because they said it’s not suitable for the site that they were going to put the septic—they just suddenly went to two new, new build wastewater treatment plants. And that’s what Mr. Kucharski hasn’t addressed, is when are you going to do the EIS on these projects themselves? Not the siting of the project, but the project itself? Commissioner Fritz: If I could say, government doesn’t move fast. You have to have some patience. Ms. Demoruelle: Well, we have a lawsuit that will be having—the lawsuit is moving along. There will be a motion for summary judgment filed. On the 16 of July we have a scheduling conference, which means that I get to talk to the judge and the judge will tell us when we’ll be having hearings. In the meantime, I will move in with a motion for summary judgment on July 17th, filing it. So then within 60 days there will be a hearing on it. And the judge will either say Sandy’s right, you do need to do an EIS on this project, or the judge will say no, she’s not right, and they can continue moving along as they are. You don’t do EAs after the thing. I can cite you the law. EISs are done early in the process, early. And the decision not to do an EIS on these two projects was made in the wastewater treatment department. Dora Beck, who is not here to discuss this with us today, as to why she changed from having the simple project, the sewage septic conversion, which may or may not, because they will not—they will not share with me the actual results of their studies. They won’t give us the studies, put them in our library so we can review them ourselves. He’s just saying trust me, we really do need two sewage treatment plants in Kaū. And I’m saying I really do not trust that. I have an FEA in front of me that shows ʻ that the sewage, septic, was going to be fine. So why—somewhere show me the paperwork that shows that we do need two sewage treatment plants. Chair Bennett: Do any commissioners have any further questions? Commissioner Osborne: My further question is how does somebody like the complex superintendent of the Department of Education provide comment to Caldwell or whoever these guys are? Is it too late, they’ve done their public input and— Ms. Demoruelle: There has never been a public announcement. In order to do an EA, you have to have public announcements--