2019-03-27 Meeting Minutes (EMC)

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not sewered, and Keauhou Bay may have the poorest circulation of any coastal lands on the island. This item is on the agenda so they can start a conversation about options, such as public-private partnerships and improvement districts. There are hurdles, but they can be overcome. Commissioner Gaffney said there is community support moving forward to protect Kahaluʻu Bay. The majority of the unsewered facilities are mauka of it, and the bay has been dramatically impacted. The Kohala Center is getting involved, and the door has been opened to the creation of an improvement district for all those homes. Meetings are being scheduled, and the first is in two weeks with Roy Takemoto from the Mayor’s Office and Councilmember Villegas. Discussion has also begun with the private operator of the Heʻeia plant for Kamehameha Schools, as it makes more sense to go to the closest sewage treatment plant than to move the sewage from the 350-odd homes all the way to Kealakehe. A discussion point was raised on the possibility of initiating a new sewage treatment plant halfway between the Heʻeia plant and the Kealakehe plant. Chair Bennett said he has been working with the Kohala Center’s Kahaluʻu Bay Education Center, which has been collecting data for a decade. The data shows there is as much as 500 pounds of actual nitrogen per month that flows into the bay in the subterranean estuary. The bay got closed about a month ago due to a bacterial warning, and it turns out Hanauma Bay and another Oahu beach were closed at the same time. He researched all the data the education center had collected and discovered that when there is a big tidal flux, the underground estuary starts flowing up through the sand and conveys the bacteria growing in the sand up into the water column. The bacteria in these bays is not caused by a sewage spill. Ocean hydrologists have known of this phenomena since 2006. He just wanted to share with the commissioners the fact that these violation levels of indicator bacteria have nothing to do with sewage. It is just an organism growing in the sand that is being swept up. 7. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Commissioner Fritz asked Director Kucharski whether there were plans for the Puʻuanahulu land?ill to have recycling for tires, oil, vehicles, and scrap metal. Director Kucharski said there are plans to generate a large transfer station there so recycling can be done, though used motor oil is generally accepted at alternate locations. Abandoned vehicles are processed on the contractor’s property, and the material is shipped off-island for reuse. The other scrap metal, including white goods, is collected by a contractor who will sort it as necessary, compress it, and it ship off-island. DEM does have plans to put in a large transfer station at Puʻuanahulu which will take multiple materials. It will probably have a $2 million to $3 million development cost which will need to go into their CIP budget. The soonest it could happen would be in two to three years. Commissioner Fritz suggested a public-private partnership to manage things, and Director Kucharski explained that due to the Konno court decision, the state and all the counties cannot contract out services that are normally and customarily done by government workers. 11