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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN RAWEEMC 2021/08/03 2020-2022Committee on Regenerative Agriculture, Water, Energy, And Environmental Management Stn Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawai i August 3, 2021 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Regenerative Agriculture, Water, ORDER: Energy and Environmental Management was called to order at 3:31 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. Holeka Goro Inaba, Vice Chair Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Member Absent & Excused: STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. (There were none.) CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you so much. Moving on Communication 330, please Clerk. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 330: REQUESTS DISCUSSION WITH THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER SUPPLY REGARDING THE CURRENT STATUS AND PROGRESS OF REVISIONS TO THE HAWAII COUNTY WATER USE AND DEVELOPMENT PLAN From Council Members Holeka Goro Inaba and Rebecca Villegas, dated July 12, 2021. Motion to Close File: Mr. Inaba moved to close file on Comm. 330. Seconded by Ms. Lee Loy. CHR. RICHARDS: Mr. Inaba, go ahead. RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair. This communication is requesting the presentation. Some of you were on this Council when this Water Use Development Plan was brought forth in 2017, and there were some issues and it wasn't approved. So we are just seeking to get the update as to where we are with this plan, and when we might see it back before us. And I want to thank Mr. Uyehara, Inaba, and Okamoto for being here today and working with us to give us this quick overview as to where we are. And I'll kind of hand it over to them for the presentation, unless Council Member Villegas has anything. CHR. RICHARDS: Ms. Villegas, are we good? Alright, so I'm going to turn it over to Director and let's get rolling. (Note: At this time, Manager Chief Engineer of Department of Water Keith Okamoto came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. OKAMOTO: It's okay if I take off my mask? Okay. Yeah, thank you. Good afternoon, sorry I have to put on my eyes. Thank you, Council Member Inaba that sounded like either a consulting firm or a law firm. But anyway good afternoon Chair Richards, Vice Chair Inaba, Members of the County Council Committee on probably the longest committee name ever. I don't know, was that on purpose I'm not sure. Anyway Keith Okamoto, Manager/Chief Engineer Department of Water Supply. Thank you guys for the opportunity, Mr. Inaba, Ms. Villegas, for this opportunity to provide an update. I know you gave me 30, hopefully I'll just take 10 and then leave the rest open for questions, yeah. So to establish some context I'd like to give you folks a brief background on how this works, and why we do a Water Use and Development Plan. Basically it's part of the State Water Code, and that was established back in `87 I believe. And part of the Water Code is a Hawaii Water Plan, which has essentially five components. A Water Use and Development Plan by all the counties, a Water Resource Protection Plan by the State Water Commission, a Water Quality Plan by DOH (Department of Health), a State Water Projects Plan by the DLNR (Department of Land and Natural Resources), and an Agricultural Water Use and Development Plan by Department of Ag. Okay, so for the county's Water Use and Development Plan, basically the purpose of that plan is to inventory all the projected water needs in a region. And basically compare that to sustainable yield numbers for the aquifer systems. To make sure essentially that the water needs projected down the road, we're going to be good as a county. So the sustainable yield is basically established by the State Water Commission, and that's kind of like the benchmark, right, do not go above this number, because then we're going to probably affect the resource in a bad way. So basically that's the nuts and bolts behind this Water Use and Development Plan. Page 2 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 So initially we did a plan back in 1990, couple years after the water code went into effect. And then we updated it in 2010, and that update was island -wide. And it took an ultraconservative approach, where it basically took all the developable parcels on the island based on its zoning. If everything was developed and assigned some water demand to it, what would that picture look like? The good news for our island is that for pretty much all the island, you know, even with that unrealistic scenario of having every piece of property developed the water needs can be met. But what it did find was there's two aquifer systems that should be looked at a little closer, one was Waimea and the other the Keauhou aquifer. So this update is really specifically for Keauhou, and basically that's what this update is. It's not an update for the entire island, it's specifically for Keauhou aquifer. The other impetus, I guess to do the study was back in late 2013 there was a petition to designate that Keauhou aquifer as a ground water management area. So throughout that process that kind of triggered us to do this Keauhou update as well. So besides our 2010 Water Use and Development Plan that particular effort, also contributed to us updating the Keauhou aquifer system area. So as Mr. Inaba mentioned, we finished it in 2017, we took it to the Council—in fact I think it was still Tim's committee back then—and there was some concerns, and I think we addressed some of them. How this kind of works too, is the scope of our study is not really just dictated by us. It's got to go through the State Water Commission, go through their body for approval. So basically they kind of tell us what the content of the plan is going to be. And part of that content was again based on that designation process. So anyway what we probably intend to do is if there's major concerns we can deal with them on a case by case basis, but at this point it's really hard to go back and really revamp the scope of the plan at this point, without having to go back and start that whole process again, with the State Water Commission. So I just wanted to get that out there, so you folks have that awareness. Let's see. And part of the reason why we also took a pause after 2017 was we found out that all those other components of the Hawai` i Water Plan were being updated. And the other four components are basically under State kuleana, right. The Water Resource Protection Plan, that's the big one, that's the one actually done by the State Water Commission, and that re-establishes all the sustainable yield figures for the whole island. So that's the key one, right? If those numbers change, basically the findings of our report would really need to be modified. The other big one was State Water Projects Plan. Basically what that attempt is, is to kind of compile all the projected water needs for State projects, you know, the various State agencies. So that was updated in 2019 as well. Then there's a Water Quality Plan by Department of Health, now that's again, part of a State agency and that's more geared towards the actual quality, protecting the quality of the water. Page 3 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 And lastly the Agricultural Water Use and Development Plan by Department of Ag was also updated recently. So all of those four feed information into ours, but we kind of had to rush and do ours in 2017 because of that designation process. But we thought would it make sense to bring that four formal action by the Council, and then have all these updates come in and basically two years later our plan is no longer valid. So that was the main reason for our pause after 2017. The good news is after initial review by our consultants and staff, it looks like our findings of our report is still valid. The numbers it changed a little bit as far as anticipated demand down the road, but essentially the findings are still the same as they were in 2017. So it's still valid, we can proceed now. Before I forget, with me I have our Deputy Kawika Uyehara, and our engineering Division Head Kurt Inaba so they're actually the smart guys. Any misstatements is mine and any corrections, they'll probably let me know. So anyway that's where we're at now. For everybody's information so what we're looking at is what we're calling anticipated water demand. So 38 MGD Million Gallons per Day is the sustainable yield for the aquifer. One trigger for designation is if you hit 90 percent of that, right? You don't want to get to the point where you're at, or exceeding. And so we're looking at anticipated water demand. So what we try to do is look at any parcels or properties that have some level of entitlement, or some level of approval through either county or State land use processes. We incorporated Kona development CDP (Community Development Plans) information, the updated general plan information. So we looked at all that and basically added them all up to see what everything that we know of on the books that has some level of entitlement or approval, what would that water demand look like? You know, should it happen at some point. Nobody knows when that timeframe actually is, but that's one of the criteria for this evaluation. So that number is about 28 MGD. So compared to the sustainable yield of 38, we're roughly 74 to 75 percent. If everything that has some level of entitlement or approval gets built, and uses all the water that they need. The other thing we looked at was projections based on growth rate, population growth projections. And so that's you know, dependent on time. And even with that our latest update indicates that 20 years from now, we're looking at still less than 20 million gallons per day. So for the long-term and foreseeable future, I guess the bottom line is we're looking okay. If everything gets fully built out, you know, we'll be at 75 percent of the sustainable yield. One thing that I did want to mention though, that Water Resource and Protection Plan that's done by the State Water Commission, their update actually came up with another number, which was closer to 80 million gallons per day for that aquifer system. But I think out of abundance of caution, or to be conservative they're going with their previous number which is a lower number of 38. You know, with that in Page 4 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 mind from our side, from our perspective we're looking like we're in decent shape. So again, I guess bottom line is this plan provides us a guide for us to follow to basically ensure that the long-term fresh water security in the region, is not compromised, that we're in a good place. It doesn't get into some of the specifics like by particular parcel to that degree, it's more like a planning document that we'll rely on to guide us. Whether it be source development strategies, where do we put new wells, where do we invest in infrastructure to get water from certain places in the region to where it's needed. Things like that? We also added within the scope of this plan, which is over and beyond what the statue requires. You know, considerations for, you know, the T&C Traditional and Cultural components and concerns. And that's really a tough one to really pin down, specific criteria. Because I don't know if there's really specific criteria when it relates to groundwater, you know, surface water more so, right? In stream flow standards, what stays in the stream verses what gets diverted. A lot more is needed for ground water, basically I think there's a general understanding that we really need a lot more information all across the board when it comes to that. But what we are doing is, for every well development project, part of our environmental consultation process is to reach out to an organization called Aha Moku. And they're supposed to be the liaison between the actual practitioners in the region of the particular well. And you know, kind of compile their concerns or their information and add it into the environmental review process. So that's what we're trying to do as far as that's concerned. But yeah, I think that's about it, as far as the update that I have. If there's any particular questions that you folks have, we'll be happy to answer. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you, Director. Go ahead, Mr. Inaba. MR. INABA: Thank you. So when do we plan to come back for it to be approved? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, so I guess that's where we're waiting on our consultant to kind of take a look at the updated information, and they've done a preliminary look at it. I'd like them to really double check their numbers, what we don't want to do is double count or over count. Because there's a lot of information, right? zoning, CDP (Community Development Plans), Hawaiian Homes Reservations and things like that, so we don't' want to miscount or over count things. So with that in mind, I think October, November timeframe is what we're looking at to bring it before Council. Part of what the State statute requires is that Council adopts it by ordinance, this plan, and then it goes back to the State Water Commission for final adoption. Page 5 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MR. INABA: Okay, thank you. And then for the issues that were brought up the last time it was before Council, I think there's eight of them if I'm looking at it correctly. How many of those have been addressed or have been changed since you folks were before Council last? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, sorry, I don't have those eight in front of me. MR. INABA: Well, based on what you know for the issues that were brought up. MR. OKAMOTO: Okay. Thank you for having this, okay. MR. INABA: So just yeah, where are we in terms of addressing issues that were brought up the last time? MR. OKAMOTO: I think we're in a good place actually, seeing our very lengthy response. So what I can do, I can double check on some of these and see where we are actually today in 2021. Yeah, it looks like all the concerns, you know, we're taking it in as valid and that there's some method for us to be incorporated into whatever processes that we have, whether it be environmental assessments or well permit applications and things like that, to be able to response to specific concerns or questions as it relates maybe particular well development, things like that. MR. INABA: Okay, for those wells on the horizon, how does that play into, you know, the sustainable yields? And I mean those projections, but do those projections kind of account for those wells? Because there's a couple wells being talked about in Kona right now. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. So again, so those wells are basically needed to provide some of that anticipated water demands for development such as HHFDC (Hawai`i Housing Finance and Development Corporation) development, NELHA (Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority) development, mostly State projects. But we're also looking for affordable housing, I think from the county side and we're looking at also our own wells. So some of our own wells is basically to provide additional redundancy within our system, as well add capacity. So as you know sometimes the wells go down, you know, they stop working and they're 1,600 feet down, and that's like dropping a Ferrari down in the hole they don't keep them on the shelf. So moving forward our strategy to be better at this was to kind of put F -150's down the hole instead. More work horses that we kind of maybe standardize a little bit better, maybe possibly interchange motor's here and there. The challenge is it's pumping at different heights, so the pumps got to be different. Page 6 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 But anyway so we're moving forward with that better strategies. So one of our wells is really to add that redundancy. We had one well in Waiaha that was a two million gallons a day well, so we'd rather have two one million gallon a day wells than one two million gallon a day well, right? Because if that one two mil goes, you got two mil deficit. But if one of the two one million gallon wells go down then you still got the other one, yeah. So we're getting smarter, slowly but surely. So that's part of it. So it's not really to add a whole bunch of system capacity, but our second well that we're looking at is there's a unique resource apparently in that region. It's kind of that submerged aquifer kind of stuck between two confining layers. And that is something that was discovered by the State, and so we're also investing to see if that's a resource that we could tap into to see what the, I guess the available quantity is. We know the quality is really good, now it's the matter of determining the quantity the sustainable quantity, yeah. MR. INABA: Okay, thank you very much again, for the answers and for the presentation. Chair, I yield. CHR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Mr. Inaba. Other questions, I'm going to open it up to the rest of the committee. Ms. Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Yes, please. Thank you for being here today, and your flexibility in navigating how your presentation was going to be based on in the amount of time and what not. So I have some questions that I'm hoping you can help me with. One of my first questions because it relates to some of the things we talked about today, was how does the zoning changes that we often are presented with, let's say for Ag lands to residential or commercial or it doesn't usually go the other way. But how do those impact what you're looking at as projected water usage? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, that's a great question. So overall, you know, we cannot really incorporate every single one of those zoning changes into this plan, so we took that really broad look at whatever the zoning was at that time and used comparable. So for example if there was like a senior housing happening somewhere, we took what existing water usages from a senior housing in the area and applied to something that wasn't developed but probably could be used for something like that, if that makes sense. So we tried to do a forecast based on zoning as well, but it's not going to be exact it's going to have some changes. But the good news again, is that we have that buffer even if taking that zoning evaluation it still 75 percent of sustainable yield. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. So how would you define sustainable yield, and how it's calculated? Page 7 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. That's actually the responsibility of the State Water Commission, and my understanding is they develop a sustainable yield really based on the recharge, the rainfall in the area. So they take a percentage of that. It's kind of simplistic to tell you the truth, and the challenge especially in this area. So what we're trying to do is utilize more of the high level sources above Mamalahoa Highway, because that's better quality. So there's geographic features in the aquifer itself. Even something confining that high level water. There's that newly discovered midlevel confined aquifer. MS. VILLEGAS: Where's that? MR. OKAMOTO: That we're looking to find kind of in that ahupua`a, is it Keopu? One of those. MS. VILLEGAS: Keopu mauka, like Holualoa MR. OKAMOTO: Keopu, that whole ahupua`a—yeah. Basically around the elevation of (Hinaloli-Kahului Road about 800 foot elevation kind of mauka of, what is a good landmark. MS. VILLEGAS: Above Kailua View Estates? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. MS. VILLEGAS: Got you. MR. OKAMOTO: But it stretches like north to south for a bit. Looks like the northern, so you know, whatever holes they drilled so far, they're kind of using to get information. It doesn't go too far north, so it kind of looks like it might be limited as far as north/south direction. So yeah, anyway we're trying to see what and where we can tap into that. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. So still don't have a real good understanding of what and how sustainable yield is calculated. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. So again, that's not our calculation. That is the State, and that's basically adopted by them and that's what we have to fall within. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, they set that standard. And they also have mechanisms, where if you're approaching that threshold there's different mechanisms they can invoke if they think you're not or we're in danger of, you know, adversely impacting the aquifer. Page 8 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MS. VILLEGAS: So we don't have a capacity or the ability, to kind of evaluate that sustainable yield or the calculation process that they utilize? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, not really. I mean if there's additional input that we can provide for them to do their evaluation, we give them whatever information we have, and then internally they have their system. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. Now I did mention something that youI heard you say something about the projections on the growth rate are kind of things you provide to them, and then they utilize that to calculate sustainable yield. MR. OKAMOTO: No, I don't think they use that information at all. We used it in our study, this Water Use and Development Plan, because that's our growth rate for this island. So basically we want to make sure that, you know, we're looking at several things, if we build out everything what is that number going to look like? If we look at it from a growth -rate standpoint, that actually is time depended right, it's not going to happen overnight. We have a projection for 20 years down the road, if the population grows at a certain rate what is the anticipated water needs at that point? So that's really for our use, yeah. MS. VILLEGAS: Is climate change included in that equation? MR. OKAMOTO: Not really in ours. So again, that's similar questions that we had for the State, does that factor into the sustainable yield calculation. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. I guess I'm still really curious about what that equation that they utilize is, because if it's a simple calculation then it seems like there should be a, you know, A plus B equals MR. OKAMOTO: It is almost as simple as that, right? Yeah. MS. VILLEGAS: And does that fully incorporate the wai on the surface verses, you know, below ground waters is I guess one of my questions as well. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. Again, I don't want to speak for the State. But our understanding is for example, say there's a 100 million gallons per day of recharge in that aquifer system, one of the methods is sustainable yields is 44 percent of that, yeah. So 44 percent, would be 44 million gallons per day. So I guess what they're saying is by allowing 56 million gallons per day to remain in its natural state, you're in a sustainable situation. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. But it's still a moving target, because we have climate change and we have they're not necessarily including the projected growth rate for our community. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, and not to establish the sustainable yield. Page 9 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. One of the other questions that I have has to do with—now we're operating on the assumption that we have basal aquifers, correct? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. So again, they just look at that aquifer system as a whole, and regardless if there's different types of geographical features within that aquifer. They kind of look at it as like a simple aquifer, and just say's 38 million gallons per day is the number for the whole thing regardless of where we're actually pumping from. MS. VILLEGAS: Right, because that was one of my things. Okay, so if we build another pump over here, it's all going into the same aquifer, correct? MR. OKAMOTO: Right. And it still counts against the 38. MS. VILLEGAS: Right, exactly, which was one of my concerns because as we all know the stories and the things that we hear, there were concerns about the Waimea area and it's aquifer and it being potentially at 90 percent already. And so needing some designation, and it's my understanding that based on this plan it's really the Keauhou aquifer and the Waimea aquifer that are being looked at with a potential need for designation. MR. OKAMOTO: So again, this plan that we're going to bring before Council in the next few months is just for Keauhou. We haven't approached Waimea yet, because there was some activity on the State Water Commission side. Talking about maybe moving boundaries of the aquifer, or maybe removing boundaries of aquifer. So again, well we haven't touched that one yet. MS. VILLEGAS: Got you. And maybe CHR. RICHARDS: Ms. Villegas, I just want to be mindful of time, because there's other members of the committee. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you for your extra consideration. I have some questions about water credits, and the availability of them. I know it's something that's come to me from different land owners that had water credits but didn't need them. How many are there; how many unused water credits exist; where are they going; how can they be allocated to other projects besides Pacific Developments; and public repurposing. I have a bunch of documentations in front of me from the Hui O Ka Wai Ola and their concerns that Kaloko-Honokohau National Park with the fish pond there, and wanting to make sure that enough freshwater is being taken into consideration and allocated so it doesn't—we don't accidently in our mathematically equations leave out the need based on the Pa`akai decision. Especially to take into consideration, water is a public trust, and the priorities to serve cultural practices and such. Page 10 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MR. OKAMOTO: Okay, so I'm not sure exactly which question you want me to answer. Water credit's, yeah, basically they're tied to property parcels, so we can't move them around. MS. VILLEGAS: I understand. But who decides them, and why do they get so many or so little? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. We have an internal process, depending on what our system can sustain at the time the request is made. Usually it happens after a land use application is filed, either change of zone, subdivisions things like that. Or some larger developers will actually develop wells for their development needs, and from that water credits are assigned to their development properties. So you cannot move water credits around, we don't want water credits to turn into a commodity that can be bought and sold. MS. VILLEGAS: Yeah, because that was mentioned in a land use thing earlier today, about them buying another water credit in order to MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. So we really don't want that to happen, especially with the public trust doctrine and things like that. What people also need to know is that drinking water, our use for drinking water to serve the municipal purposes is part of the public trust right? MS. VILLEGAS: Yes. MR. OKAMOTO: And going back to the Kaloko-Honokohau, that whole designation process was initiated by them. The findings of that, was that designation wasn't warranted at this time. And part of the findings from our Water Use and Development Plan included source development strategy, so that we would develop new sources south of the park, not directly mauka of them for their concerns. And again, the big question is nobody can really say how much freshwater is needed to not have an impact on the near -shore groundwater dependent ecosystems. That's a tough one, right? So we have to have a balance between sensible development, because the community needs to go beyond just the National Park, right, we have affordable housing needs, we have other needs for our community. So basically our position at that time of designation was, you know, we get it, we get that you have concerns. But here's the eight criteria for designation. MS. VILLEGAS: And those are listed? MR. OKAMOTO: Not in this. Page 11 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. Sorry you said eight, and that was the eight listed in that letter from you? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, that's just coincidental, right. So there's eight criteria for designation that's in the State Water Code. And the commission itself through the years of evaluation, and getting information indicated that none of the conditions were met. So that's why it wasI guess the petition to designate was denied. But we decided to commit to say that okay, to protect you, to try and minimize whatever adverse impacts we could, we'll develop south and we'll focus development in that high level aquifer not the basal. Because I think some thought is that if you pump from the basal that's more of a direct impact to the near shore ecosystems, right. That's the water that's coming out at the ocean, at sea level. MS. VILLEGAS: But does it come from the same aquifer? MR. OKAMOTO: It comes from the same aquifer, but again, different geological features. Yeah, there's more knowledge needed to say, if you pump from that high level aquifer here what is going to be the impact at the shoreline? Nobody really knows that for sure at this point. MS. VILLEGAS: Hmm, that seems kind of intuitive to me. Just when I think of like if something's under something and you're pumping from a deeper area here it's all coming from the same aquifer. But I'll look into that. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. We can talk about this for days. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, with that, Ms. Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: Just one more second, please Mr. Richards. I had one more question about water credits. CHR. RICHARDS: Quick one. MS. VILLEGAS: How many are there, and how many are out there, and how many are still available? I mean have they all been allocated, or this is like one of amorphous things. And we all recognize that water is directly tied to any and all life, as well as future development. MR. OKAMOTO: We can get that information, I think what we can do is we can compile a report, water credits by TMK (Tax Map Key). Basically they're assigned to a TMK. So we can put that together, what's available, what hasn't been used so far, right? MS. VILLEGAS: For the island? Page 12 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MR. OKAMOTO: We can do if for—it might take us a while. MS. VILLEGAS: Okay. But then it's done by district then? Because I wouldn't want to know per piece of property, right. I know they're allocated per piece of property, but in general if the island has 5,000 water credits for the lack of a better—and then 90 percent have been allocated then I'm just looking for some numbers. Because the process of allocation and how and where, there's a lot of questions around. So I really am trying to educate myself more. MR. OKAMOTO: Okay. Yeah, definitely. I mean we can have a conversation on the side or even some meetings and things like that, to kind of show you how it is we set aside water credits for areas and things like that. Basically we have a system, yeah. MS. VILLEGAS: Thank you. I figured there had to be. So I'm trying to get a broader understanding of that. And I'll yield for now, I have a couple of other questions. But want to open it up to the rest of my colleagues. CHR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you. Do I have any other? Ms. Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Yeah, thank you. Thanks, Keith. I feel like I'm knocking off the rust from my time over at the water. MR. OKAMOTO: It's been a while. MS. LEE LOY: It's been a while, but it's all coming back. And actually Ms. Villegas mentioned something about purchasing water credits. I just need you to state very clearly for the record, doesn't work like that. We were talking about affordable housing credits, and I just want to be clear, right? You can purchase affordable housing credits, this particular zoning we had, had seven water units available when they only had six lots. And so I just wanted to state that for the record, I didn't want to muddy the waters and some confusion here. MR. OKAMOTO: Okay. MS. LEE LOY: I actually had some questions around the State Water Use Projects Plan. And I get excited about that because there's some reservations made over there, especially for our beautiful homestead communities of DHHL (Department of Hawaiian Home Lands). And so I was just wondering in that 2019 plan for the Island of Hawaii, like how many units are being reserved for our homestead community. And Keith or Kawika, if you guys don't have it right now, I'd love to hear that. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. All these plans are available online, you know, based on whose responsibility it was to update it. So I believe the State Water Project Plan is under DLNR, so I'm pretty sure they have a link for that actual report and Page 13 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 what they've reserved for Hawaiian Home Lands. In this particular Keauhou aquifer system it was 3.398 million gallons per day, so that's incorporated in our plan. MS. LEE LOY: And then you mentioned the millions per gallon, the Keauhou aquifer, we're still at 38. But you also mentioned that there's been some new information as to actually what that number may be. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. So when the Water Commission updated their Water Resource Protection Plan, which is basically where they set all those sustainable yield numbers for the different aquifer systems. I guess based on whatever information they used to establish those sustainable yield numbers, the more recent information resulted in a sustainable yield of 80-ish. I don't know the exact number, but I think out of abundance of caution they're going to stick with the prior number of 38. MS. LEE LOY: And then we're still below that which, is it 20 or 28.5? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, so 28.5 is with everything kind of built out. Yeah with everything that's got entitlement or some level of approval through County and State processes. MS. LEE LOY: So like I get it, like the magic wand it all were to happen one day, every single water unit available we would be at 28.5? MR. OKAMOTO: That's an estimate. MS. LEE LOY: And still below the threshold of the sustainable yield requirement? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. MS. LEE LOY: And then it also includes the reservations made by the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, so everybody's covered? Okay, awesome. CHR. RICHARDS: Ms. Lee Loy, I'm going to interject for a second here. I'm going to turn the meeting over to my Vice Chair, Mr. Inaba. I have a previous thing I have to attend to, I'll be back. So let the record reflect that I've turned the Chair over to Mr. Inaba. Please continue. Relinquish Chair: At this time, the Chair relinquished the chair to Vice Chair Inaba. MS. LEE LOY: Okay, thanks. And then Aha Moku, is Leimana DaMante still in charge of that or have we? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. Page 14 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MS. LEE LOY: Getting nods. MR. OKAMOTO: I'm getting nods from Kurt so I'm going to say, yes. MS. LEE LOY: Yes, okay. And it's still the same structure right, where it's with DLNR Aha Moku plugs in as that agency or body to insert that conversation about our traditional and customary rights, right? And then all the other processes still happen. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, that's my understanding. So I think even that body is refining its process with the reach outs, and who to talk to and things like that. MS. LEE LOY: Real quick and if you have it. So the four plans that have been updated, Water Resource Plan; State Water Project Plan; Water Quality Plan; and then our Agricultural Plan. MR. OKAMOTO: Yup. MS. LEE LOY: And what years are they again, Keith? MR. OKAMOTO: Pretty sure all of them were 2019 at some point, I think one of them was updated 2020. But all four were updated within 2019 and 2020. MS. LEE LOY: Okay. Tell me the HRS 174 (Hawai`i Revised Statutes). MR. OKAMOTO: 174C, is the State Water Code. MS. LEE LOY: And Keith, tell me that process again, because we get these plans, county has a chance to input their information and then we adopt by ordinance and then it goes back up to the State for their—do we have an adoption timeline? Keith, I'm going to ask because we doing that with our construction codes right now, and I just want to understand that better. MR. OKAMOTO: There's a certain place, I think within the County Code there may be some timelines where we're supposed to update our plans. But I think that's part of the process. We might ask for some relief from that because we don't change things that quickly. So we'd just be burning money to do a plan that's basically going to be the same as the last plan five years ago. But anyway so other than that in the State Water Code, there's not a timeframe that we could find that requires us to do these updates. It's kind of based on need, which is what we kind of utilized for this particular update. The need was basically on our initial 2010 update, you know, it showed that Keauhou was one of those that needed further evaluation. And then that designation process, also helped contribute to moving us forward with this particular update. Page 15 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MS. LEE LOY: That's all I had Keith. Thanks for being here. MR. OKAMOTO: Alrighty. MS. LEE LOY: I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy. Anyone else? Council Member Kimball. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Council Member Inaba. Thank you for being here. This is not my area of expertise at all, so these are just very general questions. I will go back and read the HRS. But what I'm actually curious about is the scope of the plan, not just talking about sustainable yields and then potential usage down the line. But are there other things that this plan includes such as efficiencies, reduction, and energy utilizations thinking about climate change. You know, water is a big energy hog. No offense. MR. OKAMOTO: None taken. MS. KIMBALL: And then things like cost savings redundancy. You did talk a little bit about in terms of having additional wells in areas, or looking at our equipment. This all kind of ties into what we've been speaking about recently as a Council, but understanding some of the risks that we have with infrastructure if you will. Just you know, 30,000 foot level for me, who knows nothing. Can you talk about whether or not the plan includes some of this, and if not where it does reside. MR. OKAMOTO: Okay. Well I can tell what it does include. I don't know if I could help you with if it doesn't include it where it might be. Yeah, so that's a great question. Because—so by statute the water you said development plans have to assess, you know, basically future land use and how it compares to the water needs. But beyond that our particular study also looked at resource and facility strategies, environmental and cultural issues and public input, and water shed management strategies. So resource and facility strategies kind of touch up on I think what some of things you mentioned. You know, like if there's opportunities to use recycled water. So basically the report is saying, you know, use the highest quality water for its highest intended use, right for consumption. If you're going to have potable water, use it for consumption. If there's opportunities to use other sources of water for irrigation and things like that try and explore that. So those are strategies, a lot of those are beyond our area of responsibility. But we support those strategies, because it would relieve the burden from our system to, you know, basically irrigate and things like that. Where other resources, if available could be used. So that would leave our water more available for other uses, affordable housing, you know, things that need potable water. Page 16 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 But yeah, that's basically the additional components that are particular Water Use and Development Plan addressed. We didn't really get to much into climate change, and energy -type strategies. Internally for our department, because we are kind of an energy hog, we have our own, we have an Energy Management Plan; we have an Energy Management Analyst on staff. And we're always looking at ways where we can reduce our energy needs, decrease our foot print as far as energy is concerned. Because that is probably our highest operational cost, besides personnel, yeah. So we do have that wind farm in Lalamilo, we have couple hydro generators. We have a large storage tank project that we got some State Leg funding for that we're pursuing. Basically like a water storage battery kind of thing. So things like that, but that's internal to us. Not so much for the county as a whole. MS. KIMBALL: Okay, great. Thank you for that overview. And these are things that I'm interested in pursuing with you, as we move down the line, especially around the energy. I had my staff pull out from the budget all of the money that we've spent on fuel or for power for MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, we'll be happy to talk story on energy anytime. MS. KIMBALL: Yeah, you guys definitely stand out there. So anyway, thank you for your time appreciate answering my questions. MR. OKAMOTO: Sure thing. MS. KIMBALL: Thank you, Chair. I yield. ACTING CHR. INABA: Mahalo, Ms. Kimball. Ms. Villegas. MS. VILLEGAS: I just have one more, quick question. Something that you've mentioned. So the Hawaii County Water Use and Development Plan update, which is the Keauhou aquifer system, which is what I have printed out right here was presented to Council in March of 2017. Or it was brought forward then, and then, and when it got brought to Council, it was not passed by Council, correct? MR. OKAMOTO: I think it came to committee, and then some people testified and brought up some concerns which I think was kind of the MS. VILLEGAS: Those were the mitigating measures that would be taken in order to rectify. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. Address those concerns. Page 17 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 MS. VILLEGAS: Address those concerns. But it still has not come back to Council for adoption. And it is passed by ordinance, so then it becomes binding, correct? MR. OKAMOTO: Yup. MS. VILLEGAS: I mean it's said that it's advisory, but it actually becomes binding because it's adopted. Okay, I wanted to just get clarification on that, so I can continue to educate myself for if or when the day comes if I still have the honor to play this role, then I'll be better educated to be able to navigate all these interesting issues related to our precious resource. So thank you for your patience with me today, and my questions. MR. OKAMOTO: No, thank you for the questions. MS. VILLEGAS: I look forward to connecting, and further conversations in order to get a broader understanding. MR. OKAMOTO: Sure thing. MS. VILLEGAS: Alright. Thank you so much. I yield. MR. OKAMOTO: For everybody, if you folks have any questions that may be thought of after this, send us an email and we'll be happy to respond. So yeah, anytime for sure. ACTING CHR. INABA: Thank you, Council Member Villegas. And wrapping up, just one last question. When it comes to what Sue was talking about DHHL, Sue usually does, because that's her people and we all have in our districts. But our DHHL credits or uses prioritized over other uses, like private uses or resort uses? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. So we right now don't have a mechanism in place to prioritize Hawaiian Home uses verses others. But where they do have a priority is setting aside reservations from the aquifer with the State Water Commission. We're also looking at how we would possibly be able to kind of prioritize Hawaiian Home Developments is in some areas, in some of our water systems, we surplus water available. So we have a water availability guideline per say within, you know, our department. So say we have an area that has, you know, a lot of redundancy, and wells and things like that, so we may have a water availability guideline of, you know, seven units of water can be used on each parcel if somebody wanted to. Now if Department of Hawaiian Homes said, "Hey if we want to do a housing project here," we can evaluate our system and go beyond that seven. So in other words, we'll say you know what for Hawaiian Homes our system can comfortably handle 30, let's say. Page 18 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 So in other words if you was Joe Blow private developer, you would only—we'd only be able to give you seven for your property. But Hawaiian Homes we'll see what the system can handle, and give you as much as we can if possible for your development. So that's how we're trying to prioritize their needs over other developments. ACTING CHR. INABA: Got it. Thank you so much, and mahalo again, to you all it's been a long day. MR. OKAMOTO: Thank you to you guys. ACTING CHR. INABA: And if you have no further questions, we have a motion on the floor to close file on Communication 330. All those in favor please say Ic aye. Vote on Comm. 330: The motion to close file on Comm. 330 was carried by Filed the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members David, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Acting Chair Inaba – 6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, and Richards – 3. Excused: None. 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. (There were none.) Page 19 RAWEEMC-8 August 3, 2021 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 4:23 p.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to MENT: adjourn the meeting. Seconded by Ms. Kimball and carried by the following voice vote: Approved: Ayes: Committee Members David, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Lee Loy, Villegas, and Acting Chair Inaba — 6. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Members Chung, Kdneali`i-Kleinfelder, and Richards — 3. Excused: None. ACTING CHR. INABA: Meeting adjourned at 4:23 p.m. Mahalo. Mr. Herbert M. "T in" Richards, III, Chair (Date) Regenerative Agriculture,, -Water, Energy and Environmental Management Committee HR/rk Page 20