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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN PCENRM 2025/05/06 (2024-2026)Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural Resource Management V Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii May 6, 2025 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural ORDER: Resource Management was called to order at 10:00 a.m., in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Rebecca Villegas, Chair Ms. Jenn Kagiwada, Vice Chair (via videoconference from Hilo) Ms. Michelle M. Galimba, Member Mr. James E. Hustace, Member Mr. Holeka Goro Inaba, Member Mr. Matt Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Member STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: ORDER OF RESOLUTIONS: Ms. Ashley L. Kierkiewicz, Member (via videoconference from Hilo) Ms. Heather L. Kimball, Member Mr. Dennis "Fresh" Onishi, Member The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. The following individual registered to speak and came forward when called by the Chair: Chuck Flaherty: Res. 137-25 (Comm. 233), in support. (representing Hawaii Island Group of the Sierra Club) The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, Order of Resolutions. PCENRM-1 May 6, 2025 Res. 137-25: REQUESTS THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER SUPPLY TO DEVELOP AND MAINTAIN AN ONLINE SYSTEM THAT DISPLAYS GENERAL WATER AVAILABILITY COUNTY -WIDE, INCLUDING NUMBER OF UNITS, ACTIVE COMMITMENTS, AND DEVELOPER AGREEMENTS Creates an online system hosted and maintained by the Department of Water Supply that would provide access to reliable, transparent, and up-to-date information about water availability for informed decision -making and to support the County's long-term goals for sustainable developments and water resource management. Reference: Comm.233 Intr. by: Council Member Inaba Motion to Approve: Mr. Inaba moved to recommend adoption of Res. 137-25. Seconded by Mr. Hustace. CHR. VILLEGAS: Council Member Inaba, I'll go ahead and hand the floor to you. MR. INABA: Thank you, Chair Villegas. I want to say that this resolution is pretty straight forward. We know that water really dictates where and when things can be built on our island, and understanding the need for affordable housing; things like preschools, all types of public and private projects. We really would like to see the Department of Water Supply provide water availability maps and currently, you know, we have to submit requests for individual projects. There're requests are then evaluated by the department and then a letter is returned to the inquiring party. So what this would do would provide access all the time to see where water availability is, who has commitments, and then which of those big developers have agreements that have locked in water credits to certain areas or parcels. So understanding that the Department of Water Supply is a semi -autonomous department and to address some of the questions that were brought up by the testifier, this resolution doesn't seek to address water wells, water quality, or even the private water systems. This is specific to the Department of Water Supply's systems and where they currently feed. We also want to be mindful of not overstepping the kuleana of the Water Board in this case. So if I could call on members of the Department of Water Supply, Mr. Okamoto, if you would like to chime in your mana`o on this resolution please? (Note: At this time, Water Supply Managing Chief Engineer Keith Okamoto and Deputy Director Kawika Uehara came forward to address the members of the Committee) Page 2 PCENRM-1 May 6, 2025 MR. OKAMOTO: Thank you. Mahalo, Chair Villegas. I'm Keith Okamoto, Managing Chief Engineer of Department of Water Supply. With me is our Deputy. Like Mr. Inaba mentioned, this seems to be straight forward. I think it's good for us to post this information as requested. So yeah, if there's questions of us please feel free. MR. INABA: Thank you. So in general you folks are in support of this effort? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. Yeah. MR. INABA: Alright. Awesome. I will yield the floor to any questions from the members at this time. Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Any questions from anyone? Council Member Galimba. MS. GALIMBA: Thanks. Yeah, just a quick question. You've used both surface and deep water wells, right? So I'm just wondering about like how often you would be estimating the output for the different kinds of wells like surface sources probably change quite a lot from year to year as opposed to some of the deeper sources. So just, yeah, how often do you folks evaluate yield? MR. OKAMOTO: Okay. Yeah. For ground water it's really straight forward, right. It's the capacity of the pump and motor. And you are correct, we do have surface source, but we only actually have one, which is in Waimea. We have some tunnel and spring sources in other areas that are fairly reliable even during times of drought. -It's the Waimea one that gets affected by long term dry conditions, and we're actually experiencing some of that now. How that factors into this water availability and commitment, I think it's more art than science. But whatever is out there already and committed, in other words, you know, they've gone through the process, secured commitments either by some type of agreement or a water commitment deposit. Our responsibility, our obligation is that they have those commitments. And so we need to do whatever we need to do to honor those commitments. The challenging part is that we don't have the timeline on when those will be called upon, so we always have to try and evaluate our system and provide for enough excess capacity, which is how we typically do that is when we do our CIP (Capital Improvement Project) projects. So if we were replacing a pipeline or a storage facility, we would typically upsize it to add capacity in those components. Hopefully that answers some of your questions. MS. GALIMBA: That's helpful, I guess. So is it like the timeline would be annually, do you go back and look at things or just as things happen continuously? Page 3 PCENRM-1 May 6, 2025 MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, more as things happen. Especially if there's a significantly proposed project that we're aware of, but usually the smaller ones are usually okay. MS. GALIMBA: Okay. Thanks so much. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Galimba. Council Members in Hilo? MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Yes please, Chair. Thank you. CHR. VILLEGAS: Go ahead, Council Member Kierkiewicz. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you, Chair Villegas. In full support of the resolution. Thank you, Council Member Inaba, for bringing this forward and I appreciate that this is going to be well received and executed by Department of Water Supply. Administrator Okamoto, I was wondering how long you anticipate it taking for your department to pull together this online directory of information? MR. OKAMOTO: I guess that's the money question. So I think we do have staff. Recently we've hired a few more engineers in our Planning branch within Engineering. So we're hopeful that we can create a product at least for testing within the next two months I would say. And then I'm sure some of the details would need to be worked out after, you know, people get a chance to kind of test it out moving forward. We are fortunate that our GIS (Geographic Information System) personnel is pretty —has the skillset, I think I can make this work relatively quickly. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Fantastic. That's great to hear. So maybe we'll have some data to look at by the end of this year? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. For sure before the end of this year. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Okay. Fantastic. And then I know that there is specific things that are being requested for this system; number of water units, the water commitments, and then any existing developer agreements. Are you also thinking about just general capacity of different regions within the island and then taking a look at any changes within climate environment that might affect how much water is available in an area? Just wondering if any of the, like, science and data is going to make its way into your online tracking system? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. So I think that was part of the response to Council Member Galimba's question and part of the art to it is the science part is fairly straightforward, right? We know our production capacity, we know our current consumption. What we don't really know is what's going to go where. So we do Page 4 PCENRM-1 May 6, 2025 have different water availabilities even within a single water system and that relates to, you know, storage capacity; pipeline capacity; even zoning of certain large parcels, things like that. But I guess, short answer, yes. That goes into our evaluation to determine water availability and our capacity to allow for water commitments. And as far as climate change, fortunately for us, we haven't really seen too much impacts on our ground water sources, and we don't anticipate seeing too many. It's more on the surface water source that we're anticipating some impacts due to climate change. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Thank you for that clarification. And then in terms of, you know, where developments go, we will be evaluating the General Plan, our long range development blueprint as a Council over the next year. So hopefully that's something that can be taken into consideration too, as you folks build out your online tool. MR. OKAMOTO: Yes. For sure. MS. KIERKIEWICZ: Great. Thank you, I fully support. I yield. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Kierkiewicz. Anyone else here in Kona? Okay. I'll go ahead and bring this home with a couple of comments and questions. First off, I want to thank Council Member Inaba for bringing this forward and working with you guys to establish very succinct goals for what should be included in this program. I think that it's going to be very helpful moving forward as decisions continue to be made. And, you know, we have a big push in West Hawaii as far as development and expansion, and water is something that is linked to the ability for any more building here. Second, I wanted to give another big aloha to Senator Dru Kanuha for the securing of $4 million from this last state legislature session that would be focused on and set aside for a Keauhou aquifer study, which I think is a long time coming to get more information about what's going on with that aquifer. And, you know, I don't think it was a number of years ago when I was very green in this job, maybe I'm dark green now. I'm still trying to get my bearings and you guys were very helpful in our conversation. You came and gave a presentation to Council about the water use development plan. We still haven't seen that come back. Can you answer any questions and is that going to be included in this? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. We were kind of anticipating a question like that. So yeah, thanks for that question, Chair Villegas. So to be quite blunt, yeah, we brought it I think back in 2017, and then we actually dropped the ball on seeing it across the finish line basically because other fires we had to put out. But we've basically been following the strategies that we had in our pre -final draft, which is Page 5 PCENRM-1 May 6, 2025 keeping mauka, trying to use less of the base and trying to spread out our wells more appropriately, so they're not all concentrated in one area. So right, if they all go down in one area then now we'll have probably some challenges with continuing to provide water. And then more recently we've been in communication quite regularly with the State Commission of Water Resource Management (CWRM) and their new leadership there. And we've recently found out that they're looking at changing the whole statewide framework for the Water Code and the associated plans that come with that. So we've decided to actually pause on wrapping up our water use and development plan because that's probably going to be a waste of money if we don't know what the scope the state wants us to study. And even more recently at our recent CWRM meeting, they're planning to have an adaptive management plan for the region. So even more so it's probably not prudent for us to pay a consultant to do a study that just may not be appropriate based on the changes that are happening at the state level. So as far as the water use and development plan, we took it pre -final. We're following basically our strategies that we've outlined in that plan, we've just never finalized it as the Code says we're supposed to, which is through Council and then back through CWRM. CHR. VILLEGAS: Okay. I suppose that sounds good but as long as what the state is looking at is pono in alignment and takes into consideration what the holdups were in our water use development plan. I have your outline that you guys brought to us in 2021 and, you know, the things that were missing here was, you know, issues around the Keauhou aquifer system; about Aha Moku Council; and native Hawaiian traditional and customary practices. And I just have concerns that that's never been addressed, and it continues to get kicked down the road. And I don't know that the state is going to have the connectivity to our specific issues, to our specific places here, when it comes to cultural practices and our aquifer systems as they relate to fish ponds. So those are just some of my concerns. So thank you for that. I guess I'll be hopeful that this $4 million for the Keauhou aquifer project will align some of this. And we can talk offline. But I don't know, I just feel like somewhere the actual answers succinct direction and accountability is being missed as it relates to our sacred cultural sites and how our use of water affects those directly. MR. OKAMOTO: So just for your awareness, we actually have been meeting with stakeholders and those representatives for traditional customary practices throughout all the years. And every well permit has to go through CWRM and they're requiring a Kapa`a Kai analysis for each well permit. And I think the new leadership at CWRM, again I don't want to speak on their behalf, but it's just basically from our discussions, this is what I'm kind of piecing together is they Page 6 PCENRM-1 May 6, 2025 recognize that concern as well and I think that's part of the reason to have this adaptive management plan. I've got to believe it's going to incorporate the proper stakeholders from this area and believe their plan is to look at it more reasonably, more wholistically than, you know, well by well kind of thing. CHR. VILLEGAS: Because it's all connected, right? The water is usually all connected somehow. MR. OKAMOTO: Right. So that's their plan so stay tuned. You know, we're also asking, you know, what is the framework for that plan; what's the timeframe? But we're hopeful that at least that's the step in the right direction for this region. CHR. VILLEGAS: Okay. Great. Thank you. Yeah. I've got my folder here from all the times we've talked and all the different reports and plans. You know, one of the times we talked I was asking for and I'm excited to hear that it sounds like you have GIS mapping because a few years ago when we talked to you guys were like we're still using a DOS (Disk Operating System) system. And then I was like, "Well, how do we make decisions on water allocation?" You may have the information about production and consumption, but how do we accurately, efficiently, and effectively make those decisions if we don't have a map, right? If we don't have a map when each TMK (Tax Map Key) has water units right, allocated to it, but there was no collective map. Are we closer to having something like that and what this resolution is I'm kind of requesting from you guys, will that be —in my mind I see like a digital map of the island, and we actually finally have how many TMKs are out there; how many units have been allocated; where are they allocated; and then that can be compared to sustainable yield and all that kind of stuff when we actually have accurate data. Is that what we're aiming for? MR. OKAMOTO: So I think as described in the resolution, so we'll provide what we have as far as the commitments and general water availability for those parcels that may not have water units locked in to that particular parcel. Not every parcel has a commitment. And as far as comparing it to sustainable yield, so there's other private wells out there that are also drawing from the aquifer that we don't have the responsibility for. And we don't have that information on how much they're pumping and where those are going, but we'll have ours. And what we kind of envision is kind of like a dashboard at GIS where I think you can search by parcel or you can just look, you know, look at the graphics and see and click here and there what parcel has what. That's kind of what we're thinking of using the GIS tool for. CHR. VILLEGAS: Okay. Thank you. Because I've had constituents who are of Native Hawaiian descent who are land rich, money poor, and they had large parcels that had, you know, upwards of 100 water units and they didn't ever see themselves utilizing that. So they came to me saying how can we utilize these because my neighbor needs water units, but I have the water units. And so I'm hoping that this Page 7 PCENRM-1 May 6, 2025 new resource can also educate community and public on what's available. I just want more specifics; I want like details because when people —I have a lot of different people coming to me, especially here in West Hawaii where we're getting told that, you know, Kukuiola doesn't have the water units necessary to do our new homeless shelter. Not sure it it's true or not. But once again, all the different things or —you know, they can't build here because they don't have the water units or another affordable housing project because they don't have the water units. And to not be able to answer any of those questions because I can't find the data and I'm not sure what's out there, and also recognizing at a time when water, I mean, water is always wealthy, right? When you look at our host culture, waiwai is wealth; and whoever controls water, controls development. And we have certain needs here on the west side, but also this is a priceless and precious resource and as we've seen what's happened to the water in Oahu and what's happened to their wells, and what's happened when we've had a divergence of water in Lahaina, and how that's been directly affected to the fires. So I'm just really looking for wisdom. I know you guys have that at heart to protect the resource and ensure that it's not overly commodified, manipulated, or consumed. So I am looking forward to seeing this resource and being able to answer the questions accurately with, you know, the science and the data and there it is, and so measures being taken to protect and preserve be just as viable and validated by this as measures taken to allocate units for needed workforce housing projects or homeless shelter facility. So thank you for being here today. Thank you again, Council Member Inaba. Something that's been bouncing around in my head for years and he went ahead and put it on paper, and I appreciate that. Alright. If there are no other questions —Council Member Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Mr. Inaba, for bringing this forward; for the Department of Water Supply for being here today. I like what has been said today. I wondered the same questions for years. How do you folks work with the Planning Department currently to establish future water infrastructure? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. So we've been working with them on the General Plan update. But as far as future water infrastructure, we're not developers. So our future water infrastructure really is focused on replacement of existing infrastructure. Bottom line is we don't have the capacity to extend our infrastructure into unserved areas. And the main reason for that is fiscal, right. It takes tens of millions of dollars, but we don't have the same capacity as somebody who owns the land that can subdivide it, sell off the lots, to recoup that capital investment. Our rates and our water bills are really designed to cover O&M (Operations and Maintenance) expenses with a little bit extra for capital expense, which is for repair and maintenance. Page 8 PCENRM-1 May 6, 2025 So hopefully getting back to your question, every land use application that goes in front of Planning, whether it be a subdivision application, change of zone, special permit, they send us that request and then we'll provide our comments on the capacity of our system and whether or not we can support that request. Hopefully that answers your question. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: That's an interesting answer, Keith. So what I'm hearing is one, County Water Supply is semi -autonomous. So County Council doesn't really track or maintain your budget. You have your own budget based on your fees. Two, you work with the Planning Department, but not as a developer, but more so to keep consistent water supply and safe water supply to the community. And then three, I guess the big question for me is Number 3; how do you plan for density and infill? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: If you're not thinking like a developer and you're not, I mean, not accountable. But yeah, how do you not think like a developer but plan for infill and density increase in our County? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. So any time we do a CIP project we'll kind of take a look at the service area and maybe what its zoning is, and the potential of where maybe new services might go. So we typically don't when we do a replacement project, if it's an old steel tank and replace it with a new concrete storage tank, for example. If it was like a 50,000 gallon steel tank, we won't put the same size back. We'll upsize it to at least 100,000 gallons, maybe even more. Same thing with a water line if we do booster replacements. So that's how we approach it. The challenge for us is we don't know what's going to happen during what timeframe so we kind of have to balance and not oversize our system too much when we do those CIP projects because what can also happen when you go too far as far as oversizing without the actual use is you can run into water quality stagnant water issues. So it's kind of a fine balancing act. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. Yeah, I think the beauty of what Mr. Inaba is doing is he's asking you folks to bring up and maintain an online system so that what the department is doing is visible and transparent. The two that I'm seeing and when I'm reading this resolution -is really determining feasibility of housing, infrastructure, and commercial projects in Hawaii County. But I also see that in say the Puna District for example. You have huge infill happening and it's been happening for decades. Then Kona, I mean, it was across the island you have infill and density increased. And so it's requiring almost you when I think about not only getting it to the public and the information online, but also how you're going to be improving and offering water access to individuals whether or not it's at the end of one of your guys infrastructure systems or not, or if we have a duty and responsibility to provide water to the community as a County. Page 9 PCENRM-1 May 6, 2025 MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. I think that would be all hopefully something very benefits from this product is people will get to see what hopefully some opportunities are out there and like you said, it will help us as well do some internal evaluation and considering of potential infill situations. I guess again the challenge is the timeframe. Our island is just so huge that we can't provide our infrastructure for everybody, but we try. If can, like you were mentioning, if we have a watermain but their parcel is what we call out of bounds and doesn't front it, if our system can handle, we'll allow them to get a meter. But then they'll be responsible from the meter to get it to their property. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: If you did take this on, would you try and coordinate with an existing system that the County already operates like our GIS platform or EPIC (Electronic Processing and Information Center) system. Not saying that's where you should land, just putting out there, would you try and do that or are you looking at doing a whole new water supply system for online transparency, blah, blah, blah? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. I think it'll be our own product that will be accessible to Planning. You know, nowadays we can share GIS layers and things like that. But for now, I think we're planning to host it on our website for now. But again, as this produce develops further, we're open to different options or solutions. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: And then I think you might've answered this before; what is your timeframe expected to put this up? MR. OKAMOTO: I know Council Member Kierkiewicz just said before the end of the year, so we're cool with that. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. So six to nine months. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. Hopefully sooner, but you know how things go. But yeah, hopefully in the next few months. But end of the year is very, very doable. MR. KANEALI`I-KLEINFELDER: Okay. I look forward to seeing the results and Mr. Inaba, thank you for bringing this forward. I yield, Chair. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you. Okay. No one else, I'll just bring it home really fast. Not sure if my colleagues have had the opportunity to read the article in Civil Beat that came out on April 23, 2025, entitled, "West Hawaii needs more water." But at what cost. The battle over a single Kona well site shows the tension between development and protected indigenous water rights. It's a very all-inclusive article that highlights the challenges and opportunities and the safeguards currently in place. Also, the push for water unit allocation for a development in my district. But concerns related to the authentic affordability of those units for our local people if built. So another dynamic here when allocating water units, if they're going Page 10 PCENRM-1 May 6, 2025 towards developments that our people, authentically kama`aina and maka`ainana can't afford, should we be allocating the water units to those places. So anyway, just something to take a look at. I have a copy if you'd like to see it. Council Member Hustace. MR. HUSTACE: Thanks, Chair. Appreciate that. Thanks, Chief Manager Engineer and Deputy. Appreciate your time today. Thank you, Council Member Inaba, for this. I just had a question and it's just very focused on our County systems. Would there be an opportunity down the road to incorporate some of the CWRM data and reporting data further down the road. We have these really different entities, and we have to go to each of them for their reporting data, their information; is that data, would it be available for you to incorporate into this system further down the road? MR. OKAMOTO: I think it's something for consideration. So like certain things we have available; the aquifer boundaries, their sustainable yields. I think we can incorporate that into our GIS. I think what might be sensitive that we don't have the information for is the private well pumping. I think we can post ours online. What we're very cautious also for home land security is we're going to be very reluctant to show where our sources are just due to bioterrorism threats and things like that. But I think we can somehow put information up there of, you know, pumping rates and things like that for sure. MR. HUSTACE: Thank you, Chief; thanks, Deputy. Thanks, Chair. CHR. VILLEGAS: Thank you, Council Member Hustace. If there are no other questions or comments, all those in favor of forwarding Resolution 137-25 to Council with a positive recommendation please say "aye." Vote on Res. 137-25: The motion to recommend adoption of Res. 137-25 was (Approved) carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Galimba, Hustace, Inaba, Kagiwada, Kaneali`i-Kleinfelder, Kierkiewicz, Kimball, Onishi, and Chair Villegas — 9. Noes: None. Absent: None. Excused: None. Page 11 PCENRM-1 ADJOURN- MENT: Approved: There being no further business, Chair Villegas adjourned the meeting at 10:36 a.m. MWebe'd`cdVill6gas, Chair Policy Committee on Environmental and Natural Resource Management RV/tk (Date) May 6, 2025 Page 12