2018-10-24 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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Motion and second: Commissioner Gaffney moved that the EMC recommend to the county that it move forward aggressively to create public-private partnerships to take people off cesspools and get them into sewered situations, to existing and proposed private sewage treatment plants. Commissioner Fritz seconded the motion. Vice Chair Olson said another factor is the commercial availability. Nāālehu and ʻ Pāhala, for example, have no business communities and it is difficult to build anything new. The idea that we are on an island and all in this together is a concept that some people have difficulty perceiving. We are all in this together, and it will cost all of us one way or another. Director Kucharski pointed out that an issue they are facing in Nāālehu and Pāhala ʻ is that the cost for a regular person to connect to the sewer is significant, and there is no mechanism for the county to provide direct financial support for this. There is a ban on spending county funds on private property. It can cost as much as $10,000 to $20,000 or higher just to get a pipe from a house to the sewerline. The County is looking at ways to get money, but even the USDA does not allow for private property expenditures. The closure of cesspools will come to about a half a billion dollars for our island. If the county were to sewer the entire island and make everyone accessible, the cost to the residents would be about the same. He is in full support of following through on ensuring our island and its sensitive eco-system gets the best kind of system it can, but it needs to be recognized there will be a major cost impact to everyone and not everyone can afford it. Most people cannot come up with $20,000. This is a long-term issue that will impact almost everybody on the island. The short-term impact will not be positive because of the money that will need to come out of people’s pockets, but the long-term impact will be positive in that near shore waters will be cleaner and drinking water sources will stop getting polluted. For the record, he wants to make the point that this is not something that will be without a significant amount of pain to a lot of people. Vice Chair Olson commented that our communities survive by the visitor industry. Tourists have money to spend and are happy to spend it. However, we need to provide restrooms and other facilities so that they’ll get out of their cars to do so. Chair Bennett called for a vote. Vote: All commissioners voted aye. Regarding improvement districts, Commissioner Gaffney described a situation in Kona where 1.8 million gallons per day of treated sewage goes into a lava tube. If that water could be treated to an appropriate level and moved from where it is being dumped to the state ag park and adjacent power plant off Kaiminani, both of which need a lot of water, it would be a win-win situation. It would be like a specialized reclaimed water district. If a pipe were run, the water would become accessible to everyone between where it is currently being dumped and Kaiminani. New developers could be asked or required to run