Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN AWEEMC 2020/10/20 2018-2020 Committee on Agriculture, Water, Energy, and Environmental Management 20th Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawai i October 20, 2020 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Agriculture, Water, Energy, ORDER: and Environmental Management was called to order at 3:05 p.m., in the Council Chambers, Hilo, by Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Chair Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Vice Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member (via videoconference from Kona) Ms. Karen Eoff, Member (via videoconference from Kona) Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member (via videoconference from Kona) Absent& Excused: Ms. Valerie T. Poindexter, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: (There were none.) CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. We will close public testimony, and one thing I did not mention, please turn off your personal communication devices or put them on stun. Going forward, Clerk, please read in Communication 1096. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 Comm. 1096: REQUESTS A DISCUSSION WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT REGARDING THE STATUS OF THE PROPOSED COMPOSTING FACILITY IN KEA`AU From Council Member Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, dated September 16, 2020. Postponed: October 6, 2020 (Note: There is a motion by Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, seconded by Ms. Lee Loy, to close file on Comm. 1096.) CHR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Clerk. So do we need to bring it back, or is it already on the table? MR. BROWN: You can already go into discussion. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you, Chair. In chambers we have Director Kucharski, Bill could you come to the table please? Bill, thanks for being here. The question was posed for an update on the Kea`au composting facility, and what was going on. Two weeks ago when we had our committee meeting, you were not in attendance. And we were told we had no information, so it was postponed at that time. You are now here. Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder I'd like to turn it over to you, as this is what you bought forth. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, sir. I appreciate it, Chair. Thank you for joining us today, Bill. Welcome back. (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director William Kucharski came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. KUCHARSKI: It's good to be here. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Feeling okay? MR. KUCHARSKI: Council for the record,this is Bill Kucharski Director of DEM (Depart of Environmental Management). And I'm here today to discuss Communication 1096. First, I regret that I was not able to be here on the 6h for that update, but I am here today to provide an update on the compost project and to answer any questions I can from the Council. And in April of this year, a contract uncontrollable circumstance letter,that is an act of God within the compost contract was sent to HER (Hawaiian Earth Recycling) under my signature. In that, because of the impact that COVID had on not only Department of Health, but on the Department and everything we claimed a six month extension for the compost contract. Now for me that's the good news. The bad news is, when that letter was sent, I did not inform the Mayor, I Page 2 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 did not inform the Council. And for that, I have to take full responsibility for that failure to communicate. This is also absolutely really embarrassing for me, because one of my main tenets in management is, "Never surprise your boss." And I failed in that. And so I come to you now saying that this was my fault in not communicating to anyone on this. There is a joint statement that will be published tomorrow, going to the community. And wanted to take this opportunity, held off publishing that statement until I had an opportunity to discuss it with Council. And the county and HER, have been in significant discussion since June of this year. And in addition to Department of Health not being able to address some of the permit conditions, other things came up that have sort of changed the parameters, and COVID is somewhat part of that. First is that our mulch has been—essentially a 100 percent of that mulch that is prepared is being used as being taken. It's not every day, it's not every week, but in general a 100 percent. If you come into Hilo on the one day when the mulch is given out, you will be in line and if you're lucky you'll get some. And so we're stuck with this situation where we had the precursor for another product that we cannot make enough of. And so that's something that we have to sit down and really think about. The other is that part of this program was designed to be able to utilize food waste. And the easiest and the cleanest and the most accessible food waste are coming from the hotels, from the restaurants, from the schools. Now two things happened, the restaurants, the hotels, and the schools have not been operating for now almost six months. And so even if we had that food supply, it would not exist. And when you come in and you take a look at that food product, we have examined and discovered that the majority of this food waste is already taken up by small business, the piggery, and hog farmers. They have contracts and they have agreements with the hotels, restaurants, and some schools, to take essentially—or take every food product they can give. So if we went in and said, alright we're going to do this we're going to be then removing that food supply from these small business people. And that's something that we really have to consider. What was agreed upon, and I will sort of read the statement. Is that the county and HER jointly and together have come to the conclusion, that they should suspend phase two, which is building the compost facility, until such time as we can resolve some of the issues, like the food waste and coming in on—and the over demand we have just for the mulch. I do want to state unequivocally, that the county and HER are not rejecting composting. What they're doing is questioning what path do we take to compost, and not necessarily a path from compost. But this is not as simple and straight forward as it appears, because we're really not—it's not just about having a product, making a product. When the precursor material has higher demand than we have supply, and we don't have Page 3 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 the other critical ingredient. We have to take a very close look at, is this the right way to do it? In addition to that, had a recent discussions with USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) and the Kona Soil Conservation District. And it was pointed out to me something that I was unaware of, but USDA has a requirement for small farmers that have loans or grants from them. And they require them to use mulch in their farming. And so we're going to have meetings saying, how can we try and get more mulch for the farmers to deal with this? So if all the mulch goes into use,then we don't have two of the products that we need. We wouldn't have mulch, and we wouldn't have food waste. So when we look at this, we can come in and say, "Look this should have been obvious," and probably is was. But when you're digging down in the details, sometimes the most obvious things are invisible until that"ah-ha" moment. And COVID gave us an opportunity to sit down and look at some of these things and say, "I don't know how we're going to get out of this and how we're going to deal with this." The other thing that we really do need to look at is how efficient is it to have one location that we want to be using throughout the entire island. And there are studies and there are a lot of folks that are saying if you're going to compost, having a number of small compost facilities will be better. Not only from a cost perspective, but also from transportation and greenhouse gas production. And so when we look at this, we say this is another thing we have to do. Should we be concentrating on one large, or should we have three or four smaller facilities around? But again, in order to do that, we're going to have to have both of the precursors. Now we can come in, and the county can come in and do things like collect food waste. We can do that, but we're going to have to have an entirely new delivery system, for that material. And this is going to be very expensive. And right now today the greenwaste program, is about I I percent of the entire budget for solid waste. And on recycling, it's 60 percent of the budget. And so there are things that we can do, but we can't do everything. And we need to be taking a look at this, and this gives us the opportunity to do that. Now the statement that is coming out says, this is the statement regarding the status of the county mulching operations and what direction the county and HER are going to take. Present status, there continues to be high demand for mulch products produced East Hawaii Organic Facility and West and at the Kealakehe recycling transfer station. As a result of this high demand, there's by the end of the day zero supply remaining at these facilities. And I would remind, this is a joint statement from HER and the county it's not the county saying this, it's both. The service provider, and the county. Organic food waste,the COVID pandemic, and it's effects on the community resulted in disrupting the amount of available Page 4 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 waste made available from the resort industries, schools, and restaurants. And with minimum food waste supply, the hog farmers have a contract directly with the suppliers to take this. They're hurting now because of this closure. The Mayor says, the primary goal the compost facility project is a good and worthy one. That is to obtain higher valued product, and make that product available. Organic composting, could be an important part of our county's environment responsibility to advance sustainability, and a good example of putting our waste to good use. However the county and HER have agreed, this is not the Mayor's this is continuing on the statement. However the county and HER have agreed to suspend phase two. And I'll emphasize, suspend it is not cancel. It is to suspend phase two development for the designing construction of the compost facility until disruption and the following issues can be resolved. And the county and HER have mutually agreed the delay the finial implementation of the composting plan. There are good reasons for this. And the three main reasons are food waste stabilization for hog farmers, if we take that what do these small businesses do? Sufficient food waste supply for the mulch to produce the higher value compost. Where and how sufficient food waste is to be obtained, is a continuing discussion. And if hotels and restaurants have already allocated their material, we have to come in, the county will have to modify its entire solid waste collection and disposal structure before a stable supply of food waste, could be guaranteed. And local use, the availability to the compost to the public as to amount and cost. And the organic waste situation is studied thoroughly, and a comprehensive plan is developed for collection and transportation to maximize county participation. That's essentially it. I don't know what else to say, other than this is the statement, this is the plan just to spend until such time as we can get a stable economy, and we can answer some of these questions before we move forward again. Thank you for listening to my reading. CHR. RICHARDS: Thanks, Bill. Matt you still have the floor. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Sir. Just to check, what was phase one? MR. KUCHARSKI: Phase one is the enhanced mulching that we're doing, that's exactly what we're doing right now. We were taking the mulch, curing it up to 130 degrees, there by killing all of the vectors; coqui frogs, eggs, fire ants, and will even deal with `ohi`a, rapid `ohi`a virus. And so we have that to ensure that the mulch that we provided was not going to spread vectors to locations that well we don't want then anywhere, but to new locations. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: We've been doing phase one for a long time then? Page 5 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 MR. KUCHARSKI: It's been now, well yeah, about two years. Given the start and the breakup, and the restart. Right now it's two years, yes Sir. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: HER holds that contract currently with the county? MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes, it does. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Is it $14 million a year, does that sound right to you? MR. KUCHARSKI: The compost is about $3.8 million a year,just for the compost. That does not include our labor and equipment for transporting the greenwaste from the transfer stations. But just the raw cost of payments to HER is right about$3.8 million a year. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Three point eight million a year, okay. And then mulch is free, it's been that way since I've ever picked it up from MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes, it's my understanding is that HER is charging if you want your vehicle loaded. I think its $10 a yard to load the mulch if you need it loaded. You can load your own vehicle for free, is my understanding. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. And then phase two is actually going to be construction with the new facility? MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes. And just a little bit on that. What happened is that the design went in, and then DOH had to shut down. They had their noncritical workers, which are the permit reviewers and everything. That all shut down for a few months, until they reopened some of those positions. It's not DOH fault. There's a lot of back and forth that has to occur, and if that doesn't happen the permit can take a long time. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: When was phase two started? MR. KUCHARSKI: Phase two was scheduled, to start on July 1 of this year. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I think we had a discussion on this, supposed to be projected completed as of July. MR. KUCHARSKI: We were supposed to be producing compost on the first of July, of 2020. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So phase two couldn't of started July then. So phase two would have started? Page 6 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 MR. KUCHARSKI: We called a force majeure act of god six month extension, so that the actual new contract date having the county calling that would be one January of this year. But in that interim negotiations started and these issues came up, and it was decided it's probably better to hold it longer than that. And besides we still don't have the permit from DOH. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's what I'm getting at. Did this start before COVID happened, that this was already known this wasn't going to happen? MR. KUCHARSKI: Well MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Timeline wise in my brain, I mean knowing how long things take. This must started before March of this year. MR. KUCHARSKI: It did start before March. There was concern that we were behind, but there was never a concern that we would not be able to complete the project. If it were late, that's something that's not good, but that's something that we felt was manageable. And yes, Iagainst one of my lapses was continuing to push to get this completed even if it was late. Rather than coming in and saying, "Hey this is going to be late." Again, that's on me for not being transparent and not stepping up. I can apologize for that, but it doesn't change what I didn't do. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: I appreciate you saying that, not every director comes forward is actually willing to take the blame for whatever happens. Thank you for being that kind of a person. One thing that came up in our last meeting was DPW's (Department of Public Works) mulch. Does it go to the landfill, sorry, does it go to the recycling area for the greenwaste? MR. KUCHARSKI: All of—any department in the county's greenwaste, is required by code to go to the greenwaste facility. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: From any department? MR. KUCHARSKI: Any department. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Specifically by Highways, DPW, that kind of thing? MR. KUCHARSKI: That's correct. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And does it currently? MR. KUCHARSKI: I only know what comes in, I don't know what doesn't come in. I can't answer that. Page 7 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So a plan going forward? MR. KUCHARSKI: Is to continue negotiations with HER, take a look at the food waste issue, take a look what the cost issues are, take a look at the whole compost program. Compost is an endpoint for greenwaste, and if nobody wants mulch that is a better and higher use of that greenwaste. If however that precursor, that mulch has a higher demand than we have supply taking that away from people that wanted to make another product, is something that we need to discuss conceptually. Conceptually it makes no sense to me, but for somebody that really wants compost, it doesn't make sense not to make it. So there needs to be some balance. But these are the kinds of points that are going to be discussed between HER, and county in the coming months. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And just on a related but different note. We have switched almost a completely take out economy right now. MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And part of this was also to break down all the compostable ware that we required by use for all the restaurants and everybody else. So that really to me hasn'tI think it lessens, but at the same time I'm hearing from some of the distributors that they're still selling a huge amount of takeout ware because we shifted to that. MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes. And whether that material is composted in a facility, or breaks down more rapidly in a landfill. When there are other issues that are coming up on some of the compostable products PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances) and some of those, micro-plastics that are part of that. I'm not saying that the compostable materials are not a good idea, I'm just saying that there are a lot of factors that go into this. It appears when we talk about these things that they're very simple. I found that very few of these things are actually as simple as they appear. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I thinkI just to know this project has some history, and you walked into it from what I'm getting, and then to see it get so close, and then to kind of falter the last step is to me. Especially when you tie it into everything else, this is supposed to incorporate. Our takeouts and our compostables, and helping farmers. And Puna relies on this, because we have no soil in Puna it's all rock. Not all parts of Puna, but most of Puna. But it's just disappointing to say that we're going to let this project kind of linger. Who's taking it into the next Administration? MR. KUCHARSKI: Whoever is probably sitting in my seat? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Page 8 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 MR. KUCHARSKI: That's all I can say. Somebody I know once said, you know, "I've given up making predictions, especially about the future." MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Well I don't have any further questions. I am interested in seeing small—and what was brought up in the EMC (Environmental Management Commission) meeting was smaller plants scattered across the island verses, one central plant to do composting. I think that has some merit. But I'm going to yield for now. Thank you, Bill, for being here today. MR. KUCHARSKI: Thanks for the communication, it gave a forum to get this out. It's appreciated. Thank you. CHR. RICHARDS: Thanks Matt. Okay, seeing no lights on here, I'm going to, oh, Chair Chung. MR. CHUNG: Yeah. You know Bill, I cannot speak for people in Ka`u, but for me you're an awfully difficult guy to get angry at, okay. You know, you have a nice demeanor. MR. KUCHARSKI: Thank you, Chair. MR. CHUNG: Because you know, I was really angry the last time, I don't know if you know. I mean before the meeting today, Ms. Lee Loy asked me, "Hey you not going flip out or anything today." I said, "No, no, no." And you've given a really good explanation. I guess what made me hot the last time, was nobody would answer anything. You know, I wasn't too sure if they were instructed not to answer or they just didn't know. And both of which are not good, in my opinion. I know you weren't available, but we had three people from the department and none of them would say anything. No sense they even come, right. So you know, that kind of got me a little hot. But you know, what we've going through, right. I'm going to give you guys another history lesson on this thing, okay, if you don't mind, so that you guys understand where I'm coming from and why I got a little annoyed the last time. This thing, and correct me if I'm wrong, Bill. And you weren't actually here at the beginning. But in 2016 this thing came up actually as an experimental, it was a resolution an experimental project, okay. Margaret Wille turned that into a resolution with 10-year project, with a 10 year option. We all supported it. Matt wasn't here, Tim wasn't here, Sue wasn't here and you weren't here. Okay, so only Karen, Maile, myself, and Val. And you know, because it was unanimously supported by the Council, you know, there's some issues where you know, the Council is divided. But this one the Council was unanimously in support of the idea. So we rallied behind it and you know, when you have that kind of support on the Council, you've got to own it already, right. And I was kind of on the peripheral of all of this, and really the champion that kept this alive Page 9 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 when Mayor Kim came in and wanted to cancel the contract was Eileen O'Hara. She was putting you guys to task, and then we rallied around her on that matter. And then she left. And so I guess it was left to me, right. And so I know I politely asked you and Greg Goodale, you know, for occasional updates. I think it was very polite. And you guys assured me it was coming along, it was coming along. And it's not like I was, you know, asking you every month or anything, you know, I think it was every quarter at best. And it was coming along. I would ask Joe Kamelamela, because the whole contract needed to be redone. Because it went from a design-build, to something else. And you got to bear in mind now, the guys who put this contract together I think they got paid like a $100,000 or something. These are experts in the area. These are like fantastic legal minds, where it's specializing in this kinds of contracts. So they put it together, but then Corp. Counsel now had to redo it. So they started working on it, and I'm not taking anything away from Corp. Counsel. But that's not their line of work, really. So just the contract itself, took a long time to redo. And so you know, we went on and on, and on. And it finally got to a point where you recall Bill, I asked you and this is the first contact I had with HER. Up until that time Ms. O'Hara had been talking with them. So I reached out to them and you guys, and we had a meeting right here. Just so that we could clear the air. And everybody on that table knew what they had to do, what their roles and responsibilities were, so that there's no miscommunication. And I didn't take any sides, I think you would agree with that, right. Sometimes I would, you know, look at things from HER's perspective, but I also tried to urge HER to look at it from the county's perspective. And I thought it was a very balanced discussion, and when everybody left I thought we're ready to go now. And that was I think, over a year ago, right. MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes, Sir, it was. MR. CHUNG: Yeah. So I know there were issues regarding the site and all of these things and then now as good an explanation as you've given Bill. You know, all of these things about the food waste, about what else do you have here, well and COVID. But COVID came around as act of God, so cannot help. But food waste, and something else, yeah, the mulch. All of those things were, I mean we should have known those things. This was four years ago, so I'm just thinking, you know, how can anyone do business with the county if things keep shifting like this? And second, what kinds of expectations should the public have, because as Mr. Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder said, there's so much good applications that could be had with the compost. And that was one of the selling points of this, and really came to bear when we had that lava disaster. And you know, some of us were actually telling people in Puna that—well I can't say not to worry—but we do have a compost facility that's coming in online, and Page 10 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 this can provide gold to the people who need to kick start their agriculture in that area. But then it never came, it was like Waiting for Godot, it just never came, right. So that's why I just wanted to give that backdrop, because that's why I was so frustrated. And the tipping point was, when nobody would answer anything. We just want a straight answer. In life that's all we ever want,just give us a straight answer and then we can kind of figure out from there, right. I got share with you guys this one thing, and I got to give him a plug. You guys remember Dwight Takamine? Yeah, legislator long time ago. CHR. RICHARDS: Chair, moment please. Kona, I think one of your mics are open if you'd turn it off please. Chair, go ahead. MR. CHUNG: One of the reasons why Dwight Takamine was such a respected legislator in my estimation, is that he would always give the straight scoop. Maybe not in public. But you know, when you meet with him he will tell you straight, it's not going to pass because of this, this, and this. So now you don't have to waste time on stuff already, right. Why be wasting time if there's no chance,just give us the straight scoop that's all we ever expect, right. And so I just felt we weren't getting—something wasn't adding up. But what you said today makes sense. It's not the best practices, but a least it's a good explanation. And the most important thing to me, is that you're not cancelling it. I mean is that your word, you're not cancelling this thing, right? It's just pending phase two. MR. KUCHARSKI: That's the information I have in the negotiations, yes, Sir. MR. CHUNG: I mean because you would know if the Administration—because you are the point man for all of this. You would know if you guys were trying to cancel this thing again, right? MR. KUCHARSKI: Yeah. The statement says that it would be a suspension. And that is a joint statement from HER and the county. I take that as a commitment from both parties. MR. CHUNG: Alright. And so we're going to leave it maybe to the next Administration to decide whether to move forward or not, right? It's suspended, it's not cancelled though. MR. KUCHARSKI: It's simply suspended. MR. CHUNG: Okay. And then you know, with regard to this mulch situation. You know, when I hear it, I mean I know you guys look at it a certain way. But when I look at it, it's almost where HER is a victim of its own success. Because first you had regular mulch, right. And then you had enhanced mulch that got rid of all these little critters, right. And that's really popular. But now because of that, that is serving as one of the reasons why you can'tI mean well, some people might have reservations about the compost because you need the mulch for Page 11 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 USDA requirements, and things like that. But now Matt asked a real good question, again. And it had to do with DPW's involvement in this greenwaste. The delivery of the greenwaste to HER, for the production of the mulch. So you guys aren't involved in that? MR. KUCHARSKI: No, Sir not at all. MR. CHUNG: Okay. Because I'm thinking, and maybe this is only from rumors. They are not being delivered, the necessary greenwaste that they're supposed to be getting. So maybe somebody going to have to look into that, okay. And I don't know if it's some insidious plot, I hope it's not. You already dismissed the possibility that it's from you guys. But you know, if they're not getting what their supposed to be getting, then it kind of flies in the face of this whole mulch argument, yeah. We got to let them to be able to produce the amount that they're capable of producing, because it's good for the community again. MR. KUCHARSKI: Right. And particularly on the east side, where you look at the lines and you know that it's going to go. MR. CHUNG: Yeah. MR. KUCHARSKI: So as much as we can produce here the better. And there'sI don't know what to say other than if we had more we could get more out into Puna and the communities. MR. CHUNG: Yeah, okay. But to me the bottom line is that it's suspended, it's not cancelled. And that's all that matters to me, right now. But I just had to explain why I was so angry the last time. Okay, thank you, Bill. MR. KUCHARSKI: Understand. One point on the compost. Up until COVID, we had problems getting rid of mulch on the west side. I never understood why. We come here we have a wet climate, we have more than enough water and we can't keep mulch. You go on the west side and you have a dry climate, where water retention should be at one of the top priorities and we had a hard time giving it away. But during COVID some switch clicked and the public comes in and has been using more, and more, and more, of the west side mulch. So I'm really happy about that. I mean this maybe lemonade but we've sure got a lot of lemons. MR. CHUNG: And is that being produced by HER too? MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes, Sir. MR. CHUNG: Yeah, okay, alright. And maybe now that Matt has taken this on, I can kind of relax. Because I had just gotten the handoff from Eileen O'Hara. Page 12 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 MR. KUCHARSKI: I'll support you on that, Sir. MR. CHUNG: Thank you. CHR. RICHARDS: Chair, pau? Okay, thanks, Chair. I'm going to go to Kona. Kona, is there anybody there who has questions for the Director? MS. EOFF: Hi, Mr. Chair. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, Karen, go ahead. MS. EOFF: Okay. Thank you for your explanation, Director. I can't remember if Chair Chung mentioned Danny Paleka in that whole history he provided. But I vaguelyI'm trying now to remember. But I remember Danny advocating for in-vessel composting, and he had some experience in Germany with that operation. So I don't even remember you mentioning Danny, but I just wanted to add his name to list of people who were supportive from beyond. And hopefully maybe this opportunity going forward, we will look into the smaller facilities in different districts. Because I think that probably would work better. Hopefully we can figure that out. I yield. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. Anybody else in Kona? MS. DAVID: Chair,just really want this is Maile. Just one really quick question for Director. Hi Director Kucharski. My question is, this matter or this suspension of this, is there a timeframe for that, or suspended indefinitely until somebody decides to unsuspend it? Is there a timeframe on the suspension? MR. KUCHARSKI: Thank you, Council Member David. The statement simply states that until the three primary issues that is the food waste is not going to go to the hog farmers or piggery, how is that going to be stabilized? And if it continues going there, how do we come in and provide that food? And the third is, how can we get a distribution system together that makes sense for the island? And I hope I'm looking at you, Council Member. Because your video is there, but I think the cameras are here. But when those three items at least are resolved to the satisfaction of the county and to HER,then we would move forward into phase two. That's my understanding of this timeframe, there's no specific timeframe within the statement. And I'm not aware of any. MS. DAVID: Right. And I just wanted to confirm that, because it seems to me that unless and until someone decides to address these three things or has the passion to get this to work on this, this might just be suspended until then. Whenever. That was my question. I'm just kind of confirming what the thoughts in my own mind. It's suspended, but if we don't get the people that are responsible for addressing these three things, then is probably going to be suspended forever. So just wanted to confirm that. And really thank you for all Page 13 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 that you've done, and for your bravery and humbleness in your statement earlier. So I thank you for that, and glad to see you back. Mahalo. MR. KUCHARSKI: Thank you, Council Member. CHR. RICHARDS: Maile, pau? MS. DAVID: I'm sorry, I yield. MS. VILLEGAS: Mr. Richards? CHR. RICHARDS: Yeah, hang on Rebecca, let me—do you want to make a comment? Okay, go ahead Rebecca. MS. VILLEGAS: Sure, okay. Mr. Kucharski, welcome back. Nice to see you. Thanks for your humility and your gracious heart in, you know stepping forward and sharing the complications that occurred and the slip up. I think that is one of the greatest characteristics of a leader, is admitting when we miss a mark a little bit. Thank you for your update today, on what's going on. I just really still want to put it out there, that perhaps this is happening for a reason. Because as you mentioned or someone else mentioned, I question the wisdom of creating one large composting facility. Where things have to be trucked around the island, verses smaller composting potential projects or equipment closer to the source, and then where also the finished product could be disseminated to the people in that area. I'm hopeful that somewhere in this disappointment, there will become an opportunity for improvement on the project. And hopefully there will be projects and protocols. Because the science and the technology in the industry, and the infrastructure and the equipment it's evolving and becoming available it's moving so rapidly. I just am really hopeful that the stars will align, and we will be able to implement a composting facility that will be able to—I know especially for myself I have concerns. Because when you're utilizing to-go ware that's quote unquote, biodegradable, it needs an industrial composter many times in order to actually biodegradable compost that. Anyway I'm just going to hang on to a glimmer and hold out for the sliver of hope. And the silver lining from COVID, that maybe protecting us from something that wouldn't in the long run be the best outcome. And that we will at some time in the near future be able to connect with the most appropriate technologies, in order to utilize the science and the resources the best way possible for our island. Thank you. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Kucharski, for being here. Really owning it,just bonus points for that. I do have a question though, around Page 14 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 the Department of Health contract or the permit. Because I know those things take a long time to get, but I also know that they have expiration dates. So as we hit the suspend or pause button, on the HER contract with the department, what is the status of the Department of Health permit, and is that clock still ticking, and has that been considered in this suspension, as we hit the pause the button everything is being paused? MR. KUCHARSKI: Thank you, Council Member. We have actually just renewed our solid waste permit, at west Hawai`i. We did have a design for a receiving facility there. And HER was putting in that permit, when we ran into snags. We redid our permit for that full operation over there, and since there would be no changes on east Hawaii since that is a separate, and was never going to be anything but potentially abandoned, that's still on line to my knowledge. I'm not aware that the permit for the east Hawaii facility is near renewal, it was on west side and the county has submitted the permit for that. MS. LEE LOY: Okay, so I'll ask this. For that DOH permit is it with the county or with HER? Because I know they can transfer it. MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes. My understanding is that our permits tend to be joint permits that the county being the owner of the facility itself, cannot get away from responsibility for that. And for instance the compost facility the west Hawaii receiving facility, had to be submitted by contract by HER. But we were still subject to that permit, as the owner of this site. MS. LEE LOY: Great. Because I also know a lot times when the Department of Health issue these permits, there's things you need to comply with. MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes. MS. LEE LOY: And so are we in compliance and again, if there are some compliance issues with the Department of Health permit. Have we hit the pause button on those compliance with the Department of Health permit? MR. KUCHARSKI: I'm not aware of any Department of Health issues, with our current operations. And given that, if we got a notice of violation, I'd be aware of it. I have not heard of that, so if there is one I'm not aware of it. That's all I can say. HER has complied generally with the composting, and receiving it's a volume issue. You can't have more than a certain number of thousand cubic yards at the facility. We had issues in West Hawaii, we've never had the issue in East Hawaii because it flew out the door. MS. LEE LOY: Great. Really thank you, for just sharing with us. And being very transparent about, you know, where the buck stops. So thank you so much for that. If I could suggest, you know, of the three items that's kind of on suspension. If we could also just keep the temperature of that Department of Page 15 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 Health permit, because if it is, and I just know if suspended I think those permits are good for 10 years or something along those lines. And if that's unknown, we could have an Administration come and go. And that Department of Health permit, the timeline is still ticking while we're hitting the suspend button. MR. KUCHARSKI: The permit was never issued for the compost facility, that's part of the delay issues. They were not able to process that, and HER and DOH had to work things out together and that was not happening. And on the west side, that permit has been renewed. So I don't expect that there's going to be a DOH issue, and we can get those issues prior to any expiration date. We monitor that pretty closely. MS. LEE LOY: Great. Thank you so much. Chair, I yield. CHR. RICHARDS: Thank you. Ms. Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair. Thanks Bill, for being here. I have more of a fiscal question. A fiscal question. MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: So a couple of years ago, the county had contract with HER for composting facility. That got cancelled so we ended up paying $277,000-ish in legal fees to them. I'm just wondering, are there any penalties that we need to pay per this contract to hit the pause button? MR. KUCHARSKI: I'm not aware of any. So I can't give you an answer, because I don't know. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. How much has been invested in the composting facility project thus far? I also know that we're supposed to be fronting the bill $500,000,to do some design work for the facility. Has that contract already been initiated? MR. KUCHARSKI: Yeah. The design isgenerally you come in with a design, and you have about 10 percent of the construction cost. That's usually your design fee. We set that initially, and I think it was $250,000 to $300,000 if these numbers are off by $100,000 or so, I apologize. But that part has been done. HER has been paid for the design work that they've done, and there's a 60 percent design that was submitted to DOH for approval. So that has been up and paid, and I think it's a little bit more than we originally contracted for. But I have to check those specific numbers, and if I've been misleading it's not intentional it's ignorance. Page 16 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay, Bill. And so the design that's already been developed for the facility, it could be adjusted in the event that we want to have more smaller composting facility around the island. MR. KUCHARSKI: Design doesn't work like that, specifically. Design is for a specific location, existing topography. You have water, you have power, where is the drop off, where you're going to load, where you're not going to load. You move that facility, and you move the design. That was part of the issue, was moving the original facility from Pana`ewa, over to the other side down into Ka`u. So it doesn't MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Ka`u or Kea`au? I'm sorry, I thought it was Shipman. MR. KUCHARSKI: Kea`au. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Kea`au. Okay. MR KUCHARSKI: I'm sorry. But when you do that, if you go to another location there'll be a new design. Some of these elements may still be useable if we have the same size and same scope. But generally when you move to a new location, and you're making the system smaller you just don't shrink the drawings. You have to come in and redesign for that type of facility. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Now I'm getting a little bit upset, because I feel like we've just continuously been burning time and taxpayer money. And still no compost facility. I mean this is just a message to the next Administration, be on it and make sure you do better, yeah. Anyway thanks Bill. I appreciate your honesty and candor, and for being here with so much humility to, you know, take responsibility for the situation. Not an easy situation you're in. MR. KUCHARSKI: No comment. MR. KIERKIEWICZ: Chair, I yield. Thank you. CHR. RICHARDS: Thank you. Okay, so everybody's had a comment. Matt, you got something else? MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. So what we do for greenwaste is considered recycling? MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes, Sir. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So all recycling ties into the same idea, like it's all the same? Page 17 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 MR. KUCHARSKI: Recycling is tied together, when you reduce the amount of material that goes into the landfill. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Interesting. MR. KUCHARSKI: And if you take that material that you used to go into the landfill, and you have a positive use for it then that is by definition recycling. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: So metal? MR. KUCHARSKI: Well metal that's part of it, glass. Well we can't put tires in since it's illegal to put tires in the landfill, we can't claim that as a reduction. But you get any of the electronics, paper, if we recycle that, that would normally go in. Those are all the recycling parameters. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And you have a specific line item for recycling in DEM's budget? MR. KUCHARSKI: We have specific line items for each of those tasks within the budget. We do not have one budget that says, all recycling goes here. That's something that I want move towards. And part of the issues with that is, like when we stop collecting greenwaste at a facility because we don't have a driver or the truck is broken down, those cost for the driver and truck are not in the recycling budget, they're in the solid waste budget. So if we add all of those other things together, the cost is going to be higher than what we have as our budget, because we're using the solid waste drivers, for recycling function. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay, thank you. Appreciate it Bill. MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes, Sir. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, so everybody's had comments. I'll take one quick check. Kona any final questions for director? MS. EOFF: No, we don't. Thank you. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. So I'll close this out. First of all Bill, thank you very much for coming before us. And answering the questions that were posed,putting it on the table as I think Councilman Lee Loy said, buck stops here. And appreciate the explanation. It is rare to have someone come before us and do that, so thank you. To the point and for this composting, we're using up all of our mulch, our enhanced mulch. So that poses a big question. And the food needed to truly compost, the food component for the composting, that poses an issue because the hog farmers are struggling right now. And so I think that's a very large unanswered question of how we go forward. We can put that food Page 18 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 waste into our composting, and then screw up the hog farmer. And so I don't think that's the correct solution going forward. Hitting the pause button I think is extremely appropriate right now. And I'm not going to reiterate everything that's been said. Bill, in previous conversation we've talked about 50 percent of the solid waste going to landfill is biological. Potentially compostable all of that, or mulching, is that correct? Or can you give us a number of about what percentage? MR. KUCHARSKI: Excuse me, I have to try and dredge up, unlike some who have infallible memories. That's one box I've not checked yet. I believe the food waste is in the area of 30 to 40 percent. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay. MR. KUCHARSKI: And the problem with that is in order to get at that, you need to go through the entire waste stream and when you have a facility that does that, that's called a MRF (Material Recycling Facility)no Val, it's like Slavic. When you come in and you're dealing with this, and you're trying to get this material separated you get a lot of benefit. You get the glass that's thrown away, you get the paper that's thrown away; you get the metal that's thrown away. And you can separate out, but then that becomes another extreme cost and excessive cost I think, for what we wind up getting. It's going to be something that we can do, and with enough money you can do almost anything. But I don't think we're going to run into excess budgets here in the next few years. So that's something that I think we'd have to take long and hard, is how we would get to that food waste. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. Well I appreciate that, Bill, and thanks for articulating that. Sounds like we're setting up for that resolution we've passed last year and looking for the answer coming forward. Because that sounds like that be part of the conversation. No reason to belabor this any further. Bill thank you so much for coming before us. We have a motion on the floor to close file, all signify by saying "aye." Vote on Comm. 1096: The motion to close file on Comm. 1096 was carried by the Filed following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Richards —8 Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Poindexter— 1. Excused: None. Page 19 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 CHR. RICHARDS: Director thank you very much, and don't run off. Clerk, Bill 216, please. ORDER OF The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, RESOLUTIONS: Order of Resolutions. (There were none.) BILLS FOR The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, ORDINANCES: Bills for Ordinances. Bill 216: AN ORDINANCE RELATING TO WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT IN THE COUNTY OF HAWAII, THAT AMENDS THE FOLLOWING PROVISIONS OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED): 1) CHAPTER 2, ARTICLE 40 (DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT); 2) CHAPTER 21, (SEWERS-RENAMED "WASTEWATERMANAGEMENT") Reorganizes and restructures provisions of the Hawaii County Code that apply to the Department of Environmental Management, updates certain provisions to remove the enforcement and penalties from Chapter 2 to Chapter 21, and renames Chapter 21 to Wastewater Management. Reference: Comm. 1119 Intr. by: Mr. Richards Motion to Approve: Ms. Lee Loy moved to recommend passage of Bill 216. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. CHR. RICHARDS: Relating to this ordinance, and director if you could come back up to the table, please. We had this in our last committee, and essentially it's a housekeeping bill to change sewers into wastewater management. But in addition to that, there's some other things that are going forward with that. It's my understanding, and Director if you can help us out here. That this does authorize the county to mandate that people using the sewers must service and maintain their laterals feeding into the sewer. And as well one of probably the good things, or best things is that it precludes the director from exempting people from hooking up to the sewers. So with that, Director, I'd like to turn this over to you and make any comments about that. Then I'll open it up to the floor. (Note: At this time, Environmental Management Director, William Kucharski came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes. For the record Bill Kucharski, Director DEM. Yes one of the things we've found when we got in here four years ago, is that there was a lack of general cohesiveness within the code. And there were issues with Page 20 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 the administrative rules as to how you were going to apply this to a situations out in the real world. On this we've consolidated sections of wastewater that were in various parts, enforcement. We did the same thing with Solid Waste. But I would point out, before I go into what we did, one thing that was not done in this, was when we did the solid waste changes we pulled from the Council or from the code the rates and the tipping fees. We have not removed the sewer rates from the code. And so if the Council would like, we can amend this and remove those and just have them done by administrative rule. But I just wanted to point out that while we did this for solid waste, we did not pull them out for wastewater. As we said, the reason we have removed the ability of the director to exempt connections, is that we just finished Lono Kona. And I was getting request for exemptions, and in the code there are some standard criteria for under what conditions you could exempt. So I said, where are the rules that explain how this is going to be. If it says you can't afford it, what does that mean? It doesn't have to be 10 percent of the house value? Is it, you know, is it something that's based on your personal income not the value? And we didn't have any rules. And as we were going through trying to establish them. We took a look at some of the administrative code from the Department of Health. And in there the state said, and they amended this I think in 2009 which was before this was written, it indicated that individual household treatment systems, wastewater systems were by nature temporary. And that if a home or property was accessible to a sewer, it's says they shall connect. And when we saw that, I said, "I can't exempt." And so that was the bases for pulling out the ability to exempt. One of the issues that we're going to have to deal with, is what do we do with those people that already have exemptions. And we're looking into that. Are they grandfathered, can we grandfather them? I don't know. The state regulations are very specific. And you don't use shall in anything, unless you mean it. And so we're going to be looking into that. But that's one of the areas that we've pulled. One of the other big things we had was in the wastewater rules, there was called a sewer connection fund that was in there. And it reads very well, it's just totally unusable. No one has ever qualified to use that fund, and what it does in fact is make the county a bank. It talks about going in and being able to collect, foreclose, and that's not what the county ought to be doing in this kind of situation. So that whole section has been deleted. Again, because it's never been used. If there are added questions on that, maybe if this passes and goes to a reading Finance can address the non-usability of these sections. The other is just two years ago the state granted the counties the ability to manage laterals, which are on private property that could affect the sewers, which are on public property. And so the first step is to add this to our code, which we're doing. And we have in the regulations that we're going to put out in the Administrative Code, we're going follow the procedures on this. This is Page 21 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 important for areas like Downtown, and Alii Drive in Kona. Where we have a lot of infiltration, and we're making our own water. This is something that is not ignorable. And so that's where we've done that. And those are the major issues on these changes. The majority of these are just moving things around, changing the names. There is the ability to put a connection permit fee. I think it's set now at$50. There was no fee. Just to put some of this into perspective. My understanding in Oahu a connection fee, is $9,000 to connect to a sewer. And we don't have that, and this is not a connection fee this is a permit fee. There may be some antics, but its $50 and it's something that will be in the administrative rules. And reviewable again, if we come in and ever want to change that. But I'm open for questions. These are the main issues. If I've missed some I can address them for you. CHR. RICHARDS: Thanks, Bill. Open up, I have Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Bill, for this comprehensive overhaul of, you know, our wastewater. I just had a question, and it's about the applicability, how we run it through. And so I know many years back, and maybe it wasn't that far back. The Department of Hawaiian Homelands joined in the county to redo their sewer systems, but then our beneficiaries, right leasehold they didn't want to participate although their homes were counted in building this system. So my question is centered around one, leasehold. How are we going to use this new bill under the administrative portions on leasehold property, specifically Hawaiian Homes? And then two, I know in parallel with this work, is work being done with the Department of Water Supply for payment of the water bill? Because we know you don't wastewater, unless you have water. And so sometimes they don't pay their wastewater bill, and then their water bill becomes this issue of water shut off. But then it becomes a public health and safety issue because of the wastewater piece. Can you expand a little bit on that or are we going to be looking at other legislations to tie all these things together? MR. KUCHARSKI: Thank you for the question. Bill Kucharski, again. In case you didn't notice the voice changed. The ability and water shutoff rules, have been in the code for several years that is not new. What is new is that we have an agreement with Water Supply, and our regulations that Administrative Code that are going to be coming out, an update, will have the process for water shutoff. This is a very difficult issue, it's very hard to come in and tell somebody you're going to shut off their water. We're just sort of stymied this to how to manage this kind of issue. We have some folks that have nonpayment, that is in four digits. Some five, no, I don't know of any five. Yeah, there may be some five digit, and that's to the left of the decimal point. Page 22 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 And so how do you come in and enforce this, is a question. And we're hopeful that we never have to put in and have a water shutoff, because of nonpayment. And this is something that we're dealing with, within our rules. But the code part has not changed, that has been here for many years. And as far as coming in on like Hawaiian Homelands, we're currently working with them in Keaukaha and dealing with them on attempts to help the lease holders face the 2050 cesspool closure. And so we're working very cooperatively with DHHL (Department of Hawaiian Home Lands) on that, and I don't know what to say other than that it's always a work in progress. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, again, for being a real straight shooter. Chair, I yield. CHR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. I'll go to Kona. Kona, you have any questions for the director? Hearing nothing, I'm going to say, no. MS. EOFF: No. CHR. RICHARDS: Alright. Coming back here, Chair Chung. MR. CHUNG: Yeah. You know, I mean when I looked this thing over, and the explanations from—in agreement with all but one. I mean most of these are housekeeping matters, right. And then the sewer loan program that was kind of ridiculous to begin with, I think. But deleting your authority to grant variances, or exemptions. I understand that it's in keeping with the Department of Health, the rules or regulations or even some laws. But, you know, there's some situations where these hookups are so cost prohibitive, that it could really wreak havoc on a person's personal finances. And you know, Hilo is pretty much built out already, yeah. I mean, I wish that you guys would actually extend the sewer line a bit more. But, you know, I got a call from this lady in Kona, and I'm sure Kona people did too. And it's kind of gut wrenching situation there. So I'm going to vote in favor of this today, but I reserve the right to vote "no" at some point, yeah. That's all I just wanted to make that comment. Sewers has been a very difficult matter. And then, you know, now if we are embarking on this plan to get sewer systems up and running in Ka`u, and in Puna. There it's going to be rough. Anyway, okay. Thank you. CHR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. Go ahead, Bill. MR. KUCHARSKI: Chair Chung,just talking about that,the county has just received $2.3 million grant from Economic Development. And we're going to be doing a problematic EA or EIS, we're not sure which with that money to take a look at alternatives for coming in and sewer-ing in Puna and/or Kea`au. I have to check which. Those areas are together pretty much in my mind. But coming up and dealing with Planning, for how could we do this, what should we do, how big Page 23 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 should it be, what will the cost be, where would we locate facilities? All of these questions are going to be moving forward on that particular area. But as far as the exemptions, I totally agree with you. I am in a position of saying, I don't know what I can do. But when the regulations say, you can't do this however I feel about it, I'm obligated to follow that. And so that was the basis for coming in and pulling that exemption. It was not something that was done because didn't want to grant them. But it's that I wouldn't be allowed to grant them under the state rules. MR. CHUNG: And you know, I guess the philosophical question is this—or issue. It's that okay, first of all sewer systems are intended to protect the environment, right? So the people who are on sewer systems and are protecting the environment have to pay to protect the environment. And those that are not on the sewer systems, don't have to pay anything. So it's like, something is wrong with this picture, yeah. But anyway I just had to make that comment. Thank you. CHR. RICHARDS: Alright, is there any other questions? Kona, last chance. Okay. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. No,thank you. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, so let's finish this up. Appreciate the comments. And Bill, again, appreciate the presentation, and the conversation. I hear what you're saying, but also what Chair Chung pointed out from the financial side of dealing with the sewer hookup. I think you and I have had this conversation. We had something like 15 percent of our island on sewage treatment. Which, how we're going to hit that 2050 goal line of being on sewers and off all cesspool and going to septic systems. So that's going to be the tough one coming forth. I don't disagree with Chair, of having some latitude and making some of those exemptions and maybe that's something we should have a conversation over the next little bit of time. So again, I appreciate what you're saying. I think generally speaking this is good, we're cleaning things up and moving forward. So with that we have a motion on the table to send Bill 216 to the Council with a positive recommendation, all signify by saying "aye." Page 24 AWEEMC-20 October 20,2020 Vote on Bill 216: The motion to recommend passage of Bill 216, on first (Approved) reading was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Richards —8 Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Poindexter— 1. Excused: None. Vote on Motion Ms. Lee Loy moved to refer Bill 216 to the Environmental to Refer: Management Director and the Environmental Management (Approved) Commissions pursuant to Section 2-216, Hawaii County Code. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz. Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Richards —8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Poindexter— 1. Excused: None. CHR. RICHARDS: We have eight ayes, to refer this and per a previous legislation, this can run concurrently. We do not take a final vote until we have a report back from Environmental Management Commission. So with that, Clerk, that brings us to the end of our docket. ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 4:25 p.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to MENT: adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Ms. Kierkiewicz and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Chair Richards —8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Poindexter— 1. Excused: None. Page 25 AWEEMC-20 CHR. RICHARDS: We stand adjourned. Thank you. Approved: �f Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Chair Agriculture, Water, Energy and Environmental Management Committee HR/rk (Date) October 20, 2020 Page 26