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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN AWESC 2017/09/06 (2016-2018)Committee on Agriculture, Water and Energy Sustainability 7th Session Hawaii County Building 25 Aupuni Street Hilo, Hawaii September 6, 2017 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Agriculture, Water and Energy ORDER: Sustainability Committee was called to order at 12:31 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 Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Vice Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Ms. Karen Eoff, Member Mr. Dru Mamo Kanuha, Member Ms. Susan. L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Valerie T. Poindexter, Member Ms. Jennifer Ruggles, Member (came in later) 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: The following individuals registered to speak to comment on Comm. 349.3 and came forward when called by the Chair: Alex Achmat. Cory Harden. Toby Hazel. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 349.3: REQUESTS AN UPDATE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF WATER SUPPLY'S MANAGER -CHIEF ENGINEER KEITH OKAMOTO, REGARDING KONA'S WATER EMERGENCY From Council Members Karen Eoff and Dru Mamo Kanuha, dated August 16, 2017. AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 Motion to Close File: Ms. Lee Loy moved to close file on Comm. 349.3. Seconded by Ms. Eof£ MR. RICHARDS: So hearing that, we have the Director Keith Okamoto before us. Keith, if you have an opening statement, I'd appreciate that, then I'm going to open it up to the Council for questions. (Note: At this time, the Department of Water Supply's Manager -Chief Engineer Keith Okamoto came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. OKAMOTO: Okay. So basically, I was going to provide an update, but if you've changed the format to just questions and answers MR. RICHARDS: No, go ahead with your update, and then we'll open it up for questions. MR. OKAMOTO: Okay, great. Keith Okamoto, Manager -Chief Engineer, Department of Water Supply. First of all, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank the community. Those people in Kona have really done their part to reduce their water use, as evidenced as recently as this past weekend when we had a long weekend, busy weekend, including the Queen Lili`uokalani Long Distance Canoe Races. So we've been monitoring tank levels twice a day and even throughout this past weekend, tank levels stayed stable, which was an indication to us that everybody has really done their part in reducing their water use. So thank you to the community first off And as a reminder, we wanted to also indicate that because of the good efforts from the community, the hand watering of those valuable plants that people have, this is still okay to do. We also don't want to jeopardize anybody's livelihood, so if there are people with unique situations that really depend on a water supply for their livelihood, please contact us and see if we can work out options to make sure that things don't really get too far out of hand. I'm sure we could probably come up with some solutions to work together. Okay, so a quick update on the situation. Quick overview of the system, you folks all have that map. We're really hoping to have better news at this point and actually have three wells out of service, but as of August 13th, we currently have five wells out of service. There are a total of 13 sources in the system. All those 13 sources maximum pumping capacity, if they were all operating 24/7, roughly about 21.4 million gallons per day (mgd). Normal consumption pumping rates in the area is about 11 million gallons per day. So typically, there's a lot of excess capacity in the system. But again—so we currently have five of the mauka wells currently out of service, which leaves two remaining. Page 2 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 Status of repairs, we really want to focus on three of those five well repairs. The first is Hualalai and we anticipate that one, repairs complete approximately the third week of September. Originally, the contract completion date for this well repair was November 26th, so we're looking at about two months in advance of that repair schedule. Palani is the next one that we anticipate getting back online and we're looking at the fourth week of September for that one. That one, the original contract completion date was the end of October, so we're approximately one month ahead of schedule on that one, currently. And the third well that we're focusing our efforts on getting back on operation as soon as possible is Honokohau. That's the one that most recently failed, August 13th. For that one, we're looking at the fourth week of October, end of October timeframe. So basically our staff, the people behind me, has been working diligently. This is a daily task for us. This is priority number one for our department at this point in time. This is one of 23 systems so we're not neglecting the other 22, but right now, this is high-priority that we're dealing with on a daily basis. Our staff has diligently worked with the contractor, the manufacturer, and the suppliers to push these pumps and motors for these three well repairs ahead of schedule, which is why we can get them back online so quickly. Once we get at least one well back online, we'll come off of this emergency water restriction, where we're saying use it for health and safety needs primarily. We'll return to the original 25 percent restriction that we initiated back in January. Once we can get three of them back online, which is the plan for end of October, looks like we can relax on that water restriction and just go to that voluntary, encouraging 10 percent conservation, best practices, and things like that. So basically, that's our update. We have some list of items that we plan to do in the future to help us avoid being in this situation again. Basically, this has been a—this is like our 100 -year storm for us as far as mechanical, electrical, well operations in the area. I've been here for over 20 years in the department, this is the first time it has happened in my experience. But we are committed to moving forward, making improvements to make sure that we can avoid situations like this down the road. So basically, that's my update. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you, Mr. Okamoto. I'll open it up to the other Council Members. I see the first light on is Councilman Kanuha. MR. KANUHA: Thank you, Mr. Chair, and aloha Keith. Mahalo for being here of course and giving us an additional update about what's going on. You've heard the frustrations from the community and you've heard the frustrations from the Council Members, especially myself and Ms. Eoff. It's very difficult to move forward, especially for us because it's not part of our ability to oversee the Water Page 3 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 Department in a certain way. You have the Board of Water, the board that oversees the department and after I talk, I definitely want to get an update from what the board is intending to do. And I think you can explain that afterwards, but the frustrations that I'm going to bring out is the amount of time we've been seeing these signs for a really long time and I'm not going to emphasize everything that's happened over the course because there's a lot of things that's happening. And sure, it's hard for you guys to deal with and it's hard for the community to deal with, but there were a few points or questions that I really wanted to ask. You've given me the answer before, but for the community, they've asked about the "emergency restriction" and what does that actually mean? And what authorities do you, as the department, have in declaring an emergency restriction and what authorities does the Mayor have? And in terms of declaring this as an emergency restriction, what can take place? If there's a natural disaster, the Mayor can declare certain emergencies that you can bypass certain things to make the process easier and faster. Can you just explain a little about that and what the authorities are given to the department? MR. OKAMOTO: Okay. So basically, what's available to me as theI'm considered a head of a purchasing agency or the chief procurement officer for the Department of Water Supply. So according to HRS (Hawai`i Revised Statutes) 103, HAR (Hawai`i Administrative Rules) 3-122, there's an emergency procurement allowed under procurement law, so that's what's available to me as the chief procurement officer. We have utilized that for the latest well repair. Now, that procurement is quite clear in the statute on what it can be utilized for. It's when—for the preservation or protection of irreplaceable property or the health and safety of person or persons. So those are the basic criteria for emergency procurement. Now the other component I think you're referring to is like an emergency proclamation by the Mayor, something to that effect. So what I do know is that has been prepared, but it hasn't been fully executed. What that allows us to do is take advantage and utilize resources that normally wouldn't be available to us, like the State and federal resources, National Guard resources, things like that. So that's the basic difference, procurement versus, I think, uses of available outside resources. MR. KANUHA: And just to clarify, the emergency proclamation would only be instituted if it had an effect on the health and the—am I correct in saying that if the water levels or if another well should go down that would affect drinking water, sanitation, that kind of stuff, that would be the point at which an emergency proclamation by the Mayor or yourself would have the authority to proclaim? Page 4 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 MR. OKAMOTO: Yes, so I personally don't have that authority to proclaim that emergency. It's either the Mayor or the Governor of the State, it's my understanding. Joe can chime in any time if I say something incorrect. And I'm not sure exactly what criteria is used for that emergency proclamations by the Mayor and/or Governor, but we have been working since January, since we had the water restriction originally go into effect. We've been working closely with Mayor Kim, Civil Defense, to keep them apprise of the situation. We're giving them the twice daily reports on the tank levels and providing weekly updates on various stages of the well repairs and things like that. Basically, so they have the information on a timely manner so they can make that determination on the proclamation itself. I know it's drafted, it's just waiting for execution. But from our side, what we have available again, is the procurement. And what that can speed up is, like you mentioned previously, we're governed by a Water Board, so a normal project would go through a advertising process. You get bids, you open it, and then we award it at the Water Board, which happens once a month. So that takes some time. Emergency procurement eliminates that part of the process, so it makes that part quicker. MR. KANUHA: And why I'm bringing this up is you know, the sentiment from the community is we need this. We want this done as soon as possible, as expeditiously as possible and I want to make sure that you guys areI know you said that's the number one priority, is it going as fast as possible? Are there other processes that can make it faster? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, we're basically going as fast as possible. Lot of the restrictions that are really out of our control is the manufacturing process. All we basically what we're doing is we're making phone calls on a regular basis, just tracking—we're not letting assumptions that the manufacturer is going to meet a deadline. We're following up continuously with the manufacturers and the contractors. We're flying in whatever we can fly in. So basically yes, we're making this as fast as possible. Whatever we can do to expedite any portion of any project is what we're doing. MR. KANUHA: Okay, another thing that was brought up. I thinkI don't know if you made a statement earlier or there was a statement earlier about the fact that Ironman is coming up, thousands of people again coming to Kona. I know we just had Queen Lili`uokalani, where we did have an influx of people from outside coming in that you stated didn't—with the water restrictions, they understood, especially the washing of the canoes and what was going on here in Kona. And they were just making it so that they're obeying, following what—the water restrictions. But with Ironman coming up, can you just relay what the department's position was said about that? You know that in years past there hasn't been an—that much of an increase in water use so that you don't think that this upcoming Ironman should have any differing effects upon that water use. Page 5 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 MR. OKAMOTO: Right. I mean bottom line common sense indicates that you bring more people into the area, there's going to be a bump in water use. There's no doubt. But our review of past pumpage history for the past five years, you know, every month kind of differs primarily I think largely due to weather. But there hasn't been something significant enough during the months of September or October to indicate that there's going to be a situation that's really going to be stressed on our water system because of that event. And so we were also able to get a higher level of confidence in that line of thinking with this past weekend. It was kind of a mini test for us and our system. And really what we're hoping to get those two wells online prior to Ironman is really what's going to help us accommodate that event, besides the fact that people are continuing to do the right thing. MR. KANUHA: And are you're working with Ironman to make sure the message has gotten out about? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, we haven't reached out directly with Ironman organizers yet, but we definitely will do that. MR. KANUHA: Let me know, I can help too and reach out. MR. OKAMOTO: That would be great. MR. KANUHA: Also, I asked earlier about the board, what they're planning to do. I know we read in the paper previously that they had a certain general audit that they were thinking about doing but in conversation with them, what do you see happening, or what does the board intend to do? MR. OKAMOTO: Right. That's a good question. As a matter of fact, the board, again, just like the department and I think you folks, is really considering this a high priority. So normally, we meet with the board once a month, every fourth Tuesday, but due to the circumstances, they're calling a special meeting, next week Wednesday, September 13th. I believe the notice was just posted today and the intent of that special meeting is to discuss the possibility of convening a task force or a permitted interaction group. I think the intent really is to combine some of the board members, some members from private industry that's familiar with well operations or operating a private water system, and some members from the department, to create a group where I guess, exchange ideas, come up with ideas, plans, procedures, and review what we're doing now. Maybe there's some stuff we haven't thought about yet, think out of the box, help us think out of the box, help come up with some maybe creative ideas or solutions that might help us with our improving our well operations. So that's happening next Wednesday the 13th. It'll be in the Kona Council Chambers, 10:00 a.m. I believe. Page 6 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 MR. KANUHA: Okay, thanks Keith. I'll just yield at this time to open it up to other Council Members. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you, Mr. Kanuha. Ms. Eof£ MS. EOFF: Thank you, Mr. Chair and thank you, Mr. Okamoto and your team for being here today and also for being accessible to the public who have called and written to Council Kanuha and L Of course, the restricted area includes most of both of our districts. But Mr. Kanuha has asked most of the questions that we both have been hearing. I would like you to repeat a number to call for people who have maybe specific situations where their livelihood could be affected or they just have questions in general. I know you're open to that but I don't know if you could repeat the number to call. MR. OKAMOTO: That's a good point. Yeah, please call 961-8060, that's our customer service line, or 961-8790, after hours, and if you could provide whatever information. Our customer service people won't have the technical background, but if they can compile their information, we'll make sure the appropriate people can kind of disseminate their particular concern or that particular situation and we'll definitely have somebody get back in touch with them. MS. EOFF: So this has been a really unfortunate situation and it's concerning to residents who depend so much on water. But I'm happy to hear that out of this, maybe we will come up with some better ways to address the future break downs and prevent us from ever becoming into an emergency situation again. And with that said, I'll look forward to seeing how your task force shapes us. I think that would be one way to bring in, like you said, out of the box thinking because apparently, we're ready for that. And I've heard you say that you already have looked at some solutions. For instance, putting two smaller pumps and equipment into one well, so that if one were to break down, you would still be pumping. I thought that was probably something that sounded doable and hopefully that's still an idea on the table. But also, I mean you explained to us, Dru and I had met with you a couple of times, so we may have more information than other people. But one of the things that was reassuring is that with the pumps that are still, and the wells that are still functioning, we are able to fill the tanks overnight. And so none of our users have really suffered actually to the emergency—hasn't reached an emergency level where we need to proclaim an emergency. However, to some people, there is still, not just an inconvenience but a threat to their livelihood and you know, we have coffee farmers, we have landscape entrepreneurs, and you know, people who just have invested in their beautiful landscaping that are concerned about losing anything. Page 7 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 So, I hope that you'll work with those people and that maybe in the next couple weeks, as this other couple wells, hopefully, we'll keep our fingers crossed, do come back online, we can just go back to that 25 percent restriction, which I think everybody was able to survive comfortably with, and maybe bringing more attention to being conscious about water and conscientious about our water use. And maybe—actually, I'm interested in helping to implement some of the current thinking about being more conservative with water so we don't have to pump so much out of the aquifer too. I just appreciate the fact that we are ahead of schedule. I think if we can get the two functioning before Ironman, we'll be in better shape than currently. And if not, then I guess your message to Ironman and to the influx of visitors at that time would have to get—be a strong message to the hotels and wherever else you reach people. But I'd like to also thank my constituents and all the constituents of Kona who have contributed to conserving water. And you explained to us that you've seen like about a half reduction in normal water use because people are conserving. And that's really good to hear and really thankful to the cooperation of our communities. I'll yield at this point in case Council Members have questions too. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Ms. Eof£ Council Woman Lee Loy. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Chair. Mr. Okamoto, thank you for being here and staff, thank you so much. At the beginning of your presentation, you mentioned five out of 13 wells, what's the other eight looking like, as far as where? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, so the other eight are continuing to be monitored. As a matter of fact, we also have Kalaoa well repair under contract, in advance of it breaking down of course, as long as a couple spare pump and motor procurements in process and things like that. But the remaining eight overall are looking good. As a matter of fact, we're not utilizing them to their full maximum pumping capacity still, so we do have some cushion in the remaining resources as well. So at this point, I'm really hesitant to talk about—our luck has just not been—I tell you, it's been amazing. But anyway, the remaining are operating fine, let's just leave it at that. MS. LEE LOY: That's fine. Does that emergency procurement apply across all 13 wells or just the ones that are down at this time? MR. OKAMOTO: So really, we only implemented that for the latest one, when the fifth well went down because it was already shown, with the four wells down and the restriction in place, that we were able to sustain water levels, people were maintaining, nobody went without water. So you can't—at that point, you can't Page 8 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 justify some kind of eminent harm to public health and safety or irreplaceable property when you've been operating for several months under that scenario. But when the fifth one went down, we really weren't quite sure, you know, it was a strong possibility that there would be impacts to peoples' health and safety. So at that time, we felt justified to utilize emergency procurement when that fifth well went down. Anything beyond what was happening now would definitely be an emergency, for sure. MS. LEE LOY: So out of the five wells, you mentioned the fifth well went down and that's what we're using emergency procurement. Of the previous four, what are their pumping capacities, like as far as million gallons that each well is? And I'm asking this question to follow up with, are there other wells that's actually pumping or providing more water that we want to jump on and maybe use the emergency procurement process to get more water into the system? MR. OKAMOTO: Actually, how our system and how the wells work and even by certain mandates that we have with the State Water Commission, even if the pump is capable of pumping a little bit more, technically, we're supposed to stay within what's approved by the State Water Commission. That being said, we don't really have that situation anyway here. What we were intending to do was really, and this will be in line with our presentation at the next committee meeting with the water use and development plan update. But as far as water quality, that's why we're shifting our pumping to the mauka wells, which is higher -quality water because the ones on the makai side are basal and they do have—they all meet Safe Drinking Water Act standards but they have higher levels of chloride, which aesthetically, is not good and there's some folks that also are on sodium -restricted diets. So we wanted to get off of those sources and utilize the high level mauka sources primarily. But now with this current situation, fortunately, we do have that adequate capacity in those basal resources and that's what we're using now to basically account for the loss in the mauka capacity. MS. LEE LOY: Share with me how many in the basal lens, how many wells we have down there. MR. OKAMOTO: We have six sources in the basal so approximately 10.8 mgd in total pumping capacity with those basal sources. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Okamoto, I really appreciate you folks balancing that resource. I think that's a critical point to make, is that we're experiencing some stress up on our mauka wells, but we're able to balance that with our lower basal lens wells. Page 9 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 I want to talk a little bit now about the special task force and I know that decision hasn't been made. But is there any framework as far as the amount of people who can or will be participating in that task force? And what type of expertise will you folks be looking for? And maybe some people here on this Council could recommend some names that are very intimate with the area or have some expertise that would provide that out of the box thinking and has a different set of eyes. MR. OKAMOTO: Sure. I don't believe theI think that's what the purpose of the meeting next week, is to kind of provide that framework for this group. And I think to even determine who may be possible members of this group or actually determine the actual members. So that's why we put the notice out now, so you folks, as well as the public, can provide us recommendations on who you think might be good resources for this task group. And that can definitely be brought forward to the Water Board for discussion and consideration next Wednesday. MS. LEE LOY: Thank you, Mr. Okamoto. Thank you guys, thank you for working so hard. I yield. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Ms. Lee Loy, any other Council Members? Go ahead, Mr. Kanuha. MR. KANUHA: Thank you. And Keith, being that there's so much repairs going on and making this a priority, how much is this all costing the department? Is it taking away from other priorities around the island? Because this is the number one priority of the department, and putting a lot of effort into it, how much money are you guys actually putting into it? MR. OKAMOTO: I don't have an exact dollar amount, but a typical repair—so each one can consider $300,000, on the high end maybe $800,000 per repair, so just add them all up. It's a significant amount, but every year in our budget we do budget for well repairs. It's just this year, we get to spend it all in Karen and Dru's districts. But our resources, like any other department, are finite. I've got two-thirds of my mechanical engineers here with me today, that's Clyde and Eric. So basically, they cover all the pumps of whether it be boosters, wells, all our hydraulic control valves stations, and things like that throughout the island. So we cannot neglect other systems, but the other systems are operating at a stable capacity right now where we can dedicate our resources right now to Kona. MR. KANUHA: Thank you. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Mr. Kanuha. Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Really quick, and I know we're focusing on Kona side, but overall, on this island, how many wells do you folks, does the Page 10 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 County have? I'm just curious because there seems to be a lot in Kona and I'm just wondering what the number is for this island. Off the top, you don't have to be really accurate. MR. OKAMOTO: It's roughly around 70 wells and then we have a few spring sources, surface source in Waimea. So approximately 70. MS. DAVID: About 70? Wow, that's a lot. I know we're having issues with Kona, but in your opinion, how's the status on the other wells around the island? Have we been experiencing some problems or hints of problems to come? MR. OKAMOTO: Yes, we have. So like it's happening here is, there are mechanical and electrical devices that do wear down, do break down. I think the difference here again, is the timing and the sequence of events where we have five down at the same time, which is putting the situation at the level that we're at now. So other systemswe do have other systems with wells in need of repair, but in most of our systems, we do have that redundancy that's built into the system. Because we—that's just how we normally have our systems designed and constructed. So right now, again, because of the other systems being stable, we can right now focus in Kona. MS. DAVID: And will the task force actually not only take a look at the wells on the Kona side but overall, will they be looking at that or are they going to just focus on the problem areas? MR. OKAMOTO: I foresee overall. I mean I'm sure there are ideas and things that would apply to all our pumps and all our wells. So that's my expectation. MS. DAVID: Well that's great. Thank you for that and thank you forI mean I know it's not my district, I mean but I'm close. I border Mr. Kanuha's district so it's close to home too, so I appreciate all the work that you folks have done and the speed that you guys have been trying to work to resolve this. So, mahalo. MR. OKAMOTO: And sorry to this whole body for the added stress. I know that's been brought to you folks' offices, all the way to Chair Richards' office to yours and I know some other, even other Council Members have let me know that there's people who have come and talk story with them. So my apologies, this is really all on us, it's our situation that we need to address. Regardless of who our governing body is, we treat this as a community issue and we need to get our community, regardless of which community it is, back to their sense of normalcy, which is what we are trying to do at this point. MS. DAVID: And that's what I'm sensing and that's what I appreciate, the fact that this is not somebody's particular district's problem. I mean it's an island Page 11 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 thing, so I appreciate all the hard work that you guys do in trying to address this. So, I yield. Mahalo. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you. Ms. Eoff. MS. EOFF: Thank you. I just wanted to add that we asked for this update, Dru and I, basically because communication is really important. It's good for the constituents all around the island, but especially in Kona right now to hear all of the steps that you're taking, that it is a priority, and that we do consider it very serious and important. So I think the more that we inform people, the more that we can communicate, and the more avenues we have to get the message out, the better off everybody feels about finding us in this situation. MR. OKAMOTO: Agreed. MS. EOFF: I know we mentioned this to you yesterday but I'll justI think it's okay to state that Mr. Kanuha and I have gone a little bit further in that we are going to ask for an audit of how we can prevent ourselves from being in this situation again, as far as backup plans in the future. And I think we can all look forward to whatever kind of input we can get in that regard, to just give people a sense of security and possibly things we haven't' thought of to this point. MR. OKAMOTO: Right. MS. EOFF: So, thank you for backing us up and we'll back you up. I mean we need the community to get back online and then I think we can move forward in a positive way. MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, that's the plan. MS. EOFF: Thank you. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, thank you Ms. Eoff, any other Council Members? Okay, seeing none, then I have a few questions, Keith. To verify, I know five of 13 are down, I want to make sure I got my numbers right. Total production of the 13 wells is about 21 million gallons a day and right now, about 11 million is the consumption for the district, or for the system that's on there. Is that correct? MR. OKAMOTO: That would be the normal average, you know, when we weren't in this situation. But I think our guys have noticed, just from tracking pump hours, rough guestimate at this point, we're down to like eight. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, so the conservation has been working right now? MR. OKAMOTO: Right. Page 12 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 MR. RICHARDS: Okay, and then so if I understand, you said the five makai wells produce about 10 million gallons? MR. OKAMOTO: Six makai basal wells, about 10.8. MR. RICHARDS: And again, playing with the numbers, it looks like, under normal times, with all wells in production, you're about half of the capacity that the well could produce. Is that a fair assumption? So that's where the redundancy we're talking about comes in? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, so just want to get those numbers straight. The Palani well, when did you say that one was scheduled to come back online? MR. OKAMOTO: That one we are shooting for the fourth week of September. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. And I think you said it, I thought it, I think other people on the Council have thought it. It is a perfect storm. I don't think you could plan a bad TV movie to have five wells go down like this all at once. Do you have a—for the wells, I know it's a deep, submergent well for all of these, so we have electric motor and then the mechanical portion of the pump. MR. OKAMOTO: Correct. MR. RICHARDS: What's failing? Is it the electrical or is it the mechanical, or just depends on the well? MR. OKAMOTO: Primarily, the ones in this situation, it looks like the motor. The two major components are the pump, which is that mechanical component you talked about, and the motor is the electrical. So if either of those two fail, the well is out of service. If we're fortunate where a topside electrical component in the control building fails, that'll put a well out of service, but it's accessible topside and that can be replaced in a timely fashion. It's when these down hole pumps and motors go down that takes this long time. So it appears mostly the situation here is motor but there's, even with a motor failure, there's not just one single root cause to the motor failing. There could be several or a combination of factors that resulted in the motor failure. And that's some of the things that we're trying to move forward and be better at, whether it be power conditioning, making sure that there's no power going down hole that might be downgrading the motor prematurely, things like that. So we already have a lot of these components in place, but we're making sure that—we're hiring consultants as we speak to review everything and to see if there's some gap that we're missing. And looks like we did come across Page 13 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 something that—our guys worked with a consultant that looks like will help prolong some of these motors. It's adding another safety filter to clean the power further so that the motors aren't subjected to some of these irregularities that kind of degrade the insulation on the windings within the motor itself. But again, we're open to anything at this point. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, so sounds like that was just part of the next question, is what are you doing to try to mitigate something like this happening again? That's already under review, you're looking at that. Again, sounds like we might have a power issue, so that's again, part of the consultants to review this and see what our electricity coming into these pumps is looking like? MR. OKAMOTO: We'll look at all of that. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, great. And question on the whole designation of state of emergency. I know we don't want to claim the sky is falling unless we're really there, but by the same token, we don't want to be so late in making that declaration that delay implementing something else. And so I ask you, I'm not the one to make that judgement call, but I know this is a concern that came to me and I think it's come to the other Kona representation, that it would seem we're not quite on the knife's edge but we're kind of close. And so making that designation so things are in place, so things can happen very quickly, is that something that's being considered right now? Because that's coming from the comments I've heard. Why isn't this an emergency for that close to being water, so I pass that along, it's a statement number one. So what's your response to that? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah, so again, the emergency proclamation, my understanding is it's drafted it just needs execution. But we've submitted an RFI (Request for Information) to the State Emergency Management Agency to see if there's any place in the nation that might have a pump or motor that might fit our situation in Kona. So that has been done. So we're doing a lot of the grunt work, the background work, should this emergency proclamation happen. All that kind of due diligence has happened. We've also done an RFA (Request for Action) with the Civil Defense to see if we can utilize National Guard resources as far as water tankers, the buffaloes, camels, and hippos, and we've provided strategic locations. I guess they need locations and part of the RFA is to see how much you need, where you want to put it and things like that. So all that is already being done as well. We're working with private entity at the top of Makalei Estates because they have a pump and they're supposed to wrap up there too, so we're trying to coordinate with them on what the schedule for that is. So there's a lot of background work being done in anticipation of a possible crossing that knife's edge onto that emergency proclamation. Page 14 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 MR. RICHARDS: Okay, so MR. OKAMOTO: We're making plans. MR. RICHARDS: So you're doing the planning stage even though the declaration hasn't quite happened yet? MR. OKAMOTO: Correct. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, that sounds good. Another question came up, can you tie this water system into any other water system, County or otherwise? MR. OKAMOTO: We have it currently connected to the South Kona by—south of Honalo, south of Teshima's but hydraulically, it's very limited. So we can only push water from our Hale Ki`i well, which is close by the Kona Hospital. There's only so much that we can push north and that's what we're already doing to try and—basically we're stretching the South Kona system into a portion of North Kona to reduce the North Kona system's side. But that's really limited. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. But you explored that as well then? MR. OKAMOTO: Yeah. MR. RICHARDS: Okay. All right. So with that, I think that answers a lot of the questions. I know some of us on the Council have explored other possibilities to help you out, looked into other resources. I've contacted Senator Schatz's office, seeing if we can find any other help. So again, I appreciate your time coming in here and giving us an update on what's going on with it. Water is near and dear, it's not a district problem, this is a County issue and a County concern. So again, thank you very much. Are there any other questions from any other Council Members? Okay, hearing none, thank you again, Mr. Okamoto for coming in. Vote on Comm. 349.3: The motion to close file on Comm. 349.3 was carried by (Approved) the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, and Chair Richards – 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Ruggles –1. Excused: None. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, motion carries. Page 15 AWESC-7 September 6, 2017 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.) ADJOURN There being no further business, at 1:26 p.m., Ms. Poindexter moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Ms. David and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Kanuha, Lee Loy, O'Hara, Poindexter, and Chair Richards — 8. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Ruggles — 1. Excused: None. CHR. RICHARDS: We stand adjourned. Thank you very much. Approved: 1��I 10, r�- V)6 Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Cha r Agriculture, Water, and Energy Sustainability Committee HR/j m SEP 1 4 2017 (Date) Page 16