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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMIN EMC 2018/11/19 2016-2018Committee on Environmental Management 19th Session West Hawaii Civic Center 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway, Building A Kailua-Kona, Hawaii November 19, 2018 CALL TO The regular meeting of the Committee on Environmental Management was ORDER: called to order at 9:37 a.m. in the Council Chambers, Kailua-Kona, by Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Chair. ROLL CALL: Present: Ms. Eileen O'Hara, Chair Mr. Aaron S. Y. Chung, Member Ms. Maile Medeiros David, Member Ms. Karen Eoff, Member Ms. Susan L. K. Lee Loy, Member Ms. Valerie T. Poindexter, Member Mr. Herbert M. "Tim" Richards, III, Vice Chair Absent & Excused: Ms. Jennifer Ruggles, Member STATEMENTS The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, FROM THE Statements from the Public on Agenda Items. PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS: The Chair called Jerry Warren, who registered to make a comment on Comm. 1131, and came forward when called. COMMUNI- The Chair directed the Committee to proceed to the next order of business, CATIONS: Communications. Comm. 1131: REQUESTS A PRESENTATION BY ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR BILL KUCHARSKI REGARDING THE ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT FOR THE HILO COMPOSTING FACILITY From Council Member Eileen O'Hara, dated September 6, 2018. Postponed: November 1, 2018 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. Poindexter, seconded by Mr. Richards, to close file on Comm. 1131.) EMC -19 November 19, 2018 CHR. O'HARA: Thank you, Clerk. And Mr. Kucharski, if you want to come forward? I'm sorry we had to postpone this at our last meeting in Hilo, but thank you for accommodating. And Mr. Goodale is here with him. So, if you'll move forward with your presentation, we have a PowerPoint handout. (Note: At this time, Department of Environmental Management Director William Kucharski and Solid Waste Division Chief Greg Goodale came forward to address the members of the Committee.) MR. KUCHARSKI: Bill Kucharski, Director DEM (Department of Environmental Management), and I am going to turn this presentation over to the Chief of the Solid Waste Division, Greg Goodale. (Note: At this time, Solid Waste Division Chief Greg Goodale came forward and gave a PowerPoint presentation to the members of the Committee. For viewing of subject presentation, see the DVD copy of the meeting proceedings on file in the Clerk's Office. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is made a part of the record, see Comm. 1131.1) MR. GOODALL And that is what I have. So, if you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer. CHR. O'HARA: Thank you very much for that presentation and I'm going to look up and down to see if anybody has any questions. I don't see any lights on, so raise your hands if I'm not seeing you. Okay, Mr. Richards? MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. So, did I hear that we're going to haul the food waste to East Hawaii? Did I hear all that? MR. GOODALL So any food waste or contaminated paper mixed with the mulch would get transported on the return trip with the trucks and trailers heading back to East Hawaii. So, they would leave East Hawaii with refuse for West Hawaii landfill, and then they would return with the greenwaste, food waste whatever's destined for the East Hawaii organic facility. MR. RICHARDS: Okay, I yield at this point. CHR. O'HARA: Anyone else with questions? Ms. Eoff? MS. EOFF: Would you still be making the mulch at West Hawaii, though, as opposed to the full -on composting? Page 2 EMC -19 November 19, 2018 MR. GOODALL Yes, part of the contract we have with our contractor is that they will still continue to have mulch available on both sides of the island, in both East Hawaii and West Hawaii. So yes, there will be mulch at Kealakehe and West Hawaii landfill both. MS. EOFF: And would the compost be provided to West Hawaii as well? MR. GOODALL Yes it will. It's again, part of the contract is that the contractor is required to handle the distribution, which means they're going to have to bring compost to the West Hawaii facilities. So, they're responsible for doing the marketing and distribution of all the material. MS. EOFF: And that would be at a cost, as opposed to the mulch, which is for free? MR. GOODALL Correct. The contractor is going to be responsible for setting whatever the price they believe they can sell the material. You know, there was a lot of research that went into this ahead of time. There's a lot of folks on this island that are utilizing compost that's being imported in from outside of Hawaii. And, so, we know there's a demand for this type of material. So we believe that both in East Hawaii and West Hawaii, there's going to be a significant demand for this type of material. MS. EOFF: Okay, thank you. CHR. O'HARA: Anyone else with questions? Ms. David. MS. DAVID: Thank you, Chair. Good morning, gentlemen. I was just wondering on your timeline, and the securing the lease and the construction. Do you have any idea what the cost would be on the facility in Hilo, an estimate? MR. GOODALL Well, we haven't gotten an engineer estimate for the facility. I mean, one thing I can say is that we have over $10 million secured in CIP for construction of the facility. We believe that both facilities, East Hawaii and West Hawaii will be able to be built for significantly less than that. But, until we can get some engineering estimates from our actual design, we won't know what the specifics. MS. DAVID: Right. Page 3 EMC -19 November 19, 2018 MR. GOODALL We anticipate we should have something of an engineer estimate on the West Hawaii facility relatively soon because we've already given them the notice to proceed with design for that. So, once they can develop enough of a plan to give us an engineer's estimate, then we should have more information. MS. DAVID: Awesome, thank you. And that would include the lease cost to the County for the land? MR. GOODALL The lease cost would be done through our normal operating budget. MS. DAVID: I see. Okay. MR. GOODALL So the leasing of the facility wouldn't come out of the CIP (Capital Improvement Project Budget). The CIP would be just be for the design and construction. MS. DAVID: Okay, thank you. I yield. CHR. O'HARA: Anyone else with any questions? Mr. Richards. MR. RICHARDS: Thank you, Chair. There's initiatives out there to manage the organic waste stream coming forward, and I'm a little confused. So, I'd like to see your projection later. As far as what your projection is of the tonnage coming forward, and then perhaps some of the impacts that these other initiatives are doing. So, not for a conversation now, but if I can see something, bill coming forward, or what do we have, I would appreciate that. Okay, I yield. CHR. O'HARA: Thank you, Mr. Richards. Seeing no other questions, I have a few myself. Following up on Ms. Eoff's question about charging for the actual compost, currently the mulch is free. Under this contract, does the contractor have the right to charge also for the mulch? MR. GOODALL Yes, they do. They reserve the right to impose a charge for the—only for commercial, though. So, for residential, it was clear in the contract that as far as residential distribution, that it would continue to be provided without a cost. CHR. O'HARA: Okay. And, you said we don't currently have a lease negotiated for the site? We haven't had discussions or at least, preliminary discussions on that site with the land owner? Page 4 EMC -19 November 19, 2018 MR. GOODALL We've met with them several times. Obviously, we had to get a right -of -entry to perform the EA (Environmental Assessment), and to find out if they were even interested in having the site be utilized for this? But, we'd obviously be preliminary in having any type of lease worked out before we have gotten to the point of no significant impact determination for the site. So, once we can get to that point then we would be able to enter into that process. CHR. O'HARA: Okay, because this would play into our operating costs, which are pretty much unknown right now. We have an idea of what the construction might be, but we haven't gotten the engineering drawings, so we're still kind of guessing in operational costs. MR. GOODALL What we do know is that the original proposal that was submitted to us, the funding that was identified, the $10 million would have paid for that. Based on our own evaluation of the size of the facility and the types of the facility, we've made determinations, that's when I come back saying that I believe that we're going to be able to do it for less than that amount that was allocated under the original structure of the contract. And then also, we look at what basic land rates, you know, lease rates are going for in that area. So, we've got a good idea of what we think the costs are going to be. I guess the main thing for us is that we know we're not going to be looking at coming back asking for money for this facility to build it. We believe that everything that's been encumbered under the CIP would be adequate to construct. CHR. O'HARA: That's good news. Okay, thank you for that. And we had talked about various methods of collecting food. I mean, commercial food sources and residential food sources. Residential food sources, we were talking about compostable bags that could be given to residents and dropped off at a special container at the transfer stations. Commercial food, we were collecting food waste from commercial entities has become a bit more challenging with the growth of our swinery on the island. So, do you have any new ideas, and what's your prediction on being able to supply that food waste source, which is really important to the composting? MR. GOODALL That's a good question. You know, we have looked at where the food waste is coming from, where it currently goes. And what you brought up about the piggeries that are operating all around the island. The food waste that's going to those types of facilities is going to continue to go to those facilities, because those folks work out their own deals with the restaurants and the grocery stores that they get that material from. So, the County, while we wouldn't turn that type of waste away, we know that it's mostly all spoken for through those types of facilities. Page 5 EMC -19 November 19, 2018 So, we are counting on the material coming in from other sources, and one of the things that you brought up was the residential. We're evaluating right now, even through our Solid Waste Advisory Committee, different ways of how we expect to collect more of the organics like the food waste coming in. So, we know we're not going to be able to provide that type of drop-off at all 22 of our sites, but we are at least trying to evaluate if that would be feasible for the primary sites, which would be Hilo, Waimea, Kailua, and more than likely, Wai`ohinu. So, but, as far as like the types of the containers we're going to be using to collect that, and those types of things, the contractor as part of this contract was required to provide a million compostable bags, and they would be distributed to people that would want to collect their own residential food waste. And then, we would just need to have that drop off point. CHR. O'HARA: Okay, and I have to ask, you just named a few sites that would be primary, but you didn't name a single site in Pahoa, or I mean, Puna. And yet, Puna now represents 25 percent of the island's population, so I would think there would be a lot of food waste coming out of the residential sector from there and that would not be attractive to haul all the way to Hilo, as it's kind of stinky. MR. GOODALE: And I'm not saying that we're not looking at those sites, we're just saying initially, we're looking at kind of a starting point. And that may be where we would eventually broaden out to include sites in Puna. Well, and as the Director pointed out, the facility would also be able to act as a drop-off point for that type of material. So, not only is it going to be setup so that you'll be able to have the commercial, but we would have availability for the residential to be able to drop-off directly at either the West Hawaii organics or East Hawaii organics facility. CHR. O'HARA: Okay, so that's something that the public will need to be educated about. How to utilize that drop-off site. MR. GOODALE: Absolutely, this program is going to require, or that's built into the contract already, a big public education marketing process, because a lot of the things that we're looking at doing within this are new and are going to require educating the public as to how they can collect these materials, how they can store them, where they can bring them to, the benefit to the island of doing this and diverting this waste away from the landfill. CHR. O'HARA: Okay, thank you. Last question, I just want to know that we've given great consideration to analyzing this site through the environmental assessment process. Page 6 EMC -19 November 19, 2018 Have we given consideration to how it would be dealt with in terms of a natural emergency, like a hurricane? Because it seems like it could be ripped apart by high winds. And it's a pretty open area from my knowledge of that area. Just curious if we really evaluated the potential hazard from natural emergencies. MR. GOODALE: Well, you know the fortunate thing about a facility like this and the material that they're dealing with coming out of a facility like this is that high winds, even if it was to scatter the material, this windrow is not going to pose an impact to the area, because it's just organic material. The material that might be collected within the receiving building, the receiving building is going to be constructed such that it will be able to weather a storm. Also for us, if we're tracking storms and those types of things, we'll be in a situation where we may limit materials coming to East Hawaii during a period of time like that. But again, even if we had to remove the covers from the composting materials, that material isn't going to pose any type of threat to the area because it's not like its municipal solid waste. This is just organic; this is just ground up greenwaste, and it wouldn't pose any more issues to anyone than our current mulch piles blowing around the area. CHR. O'HARA: Okay, have a good emergency management plan for the facility please. That's all the questions I have, and with that I think we have a motion on the floor. Motion to Close File: There is a motion by Ms. Poindexter, seconded by Mr. Richards, to close file on Comm. 1131. Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, and Chair O'Hara — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Ruggles —1. 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. Page 7 EMC -19 November 19, 2018 Bill 192: AMENDS CHAPTER 2, ARTICLE 40, SECTION 2-202, AND CHAPTER 14, (Draft 2) OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2016 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT Establishes an Environmental Quality Control program to mitigate nuisance factors at County facilities and County -owned properties under the control of the department, such as improperly -handled refuse and wastewater, invasive plants, and feral cats, dogs, and pigs. Reference: Comm. 1083.11 Intr. by: Ms. O'Hara Postponed: October 2 and 16 and November 1, 2018 (Note: There is a motion by Ms. O'Hara, seconded by Mr. Kanuha, to recommend passage of Bill 192, as amended, on first reading.) ; and Comm. 1083.12 From Council Member Eileen O'Hara, dated October 23, 2018, transmitting proposed amendments to Bill 192, Draft 2. CHR. O'HARA: Thank you, Clerk. And where we left this, there was some discussion on the floor about some working that needed to be changed to clarify the Section 2-202. And that clarification is in Communication 1083.12. Motion to Amend: Ms. Eoff moved to amend Bill 192, Draft 2 with the contents of Comm. 1083.12. Seconded by Mr. Richards. CHR. O'HARA: Okay, we have Communication number 1083.12. As I explained, it's kind of self-explanatory in the minor changes that it makes to the wording, and it had to do with clarifying that DEM is only developing best practices for the facilities under its jurisdiction or control. So, that was the purpose of that amendment, to clarify that language. Mr. Kucharski, if you want to come forward? If anyone has any additional questions or comments on this bill? Oh I'm sorry, on the amendment, thank you. Alright. If I see no comments or questions, everyone good to vote on the amendment then? All those in favor of Communication 1083.12 replacing Bill 192, please say "aye." Page 8 EMC -19 November 19, 2018 Vote on Motion to The motion to amend Bill 192, Draft 2 with the contents of Amend: Comm. 1083.12 was carried by the following voice vote: (Approved) Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, and Chair O'Hara — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Ruggles —1. Excused: None. CHR. O'HARA: Okay, so now we're back to the main Bill 192, as amended with Communication 1083.12. And do I have any questions or comments? Ms. Eoff? MS. EOFF: Does this need to be referred to the Environmental Management Commission at this time? CHR. O'HARA: Yes, it does. MS. EOFF: Okay. Oh wait, see if there's any discussion first but, that would be the next question. MS. LEE LOY: Mr. Kucharski. Thank you, Chair. I just want to confirm that, as amended with the revised language, this is something that the department can live with and is ready to take down to the Environmental Management Commission. MR. KUCHARSKI: Yes, Bill Kucharski, Director of DEM. Yes, Council Member Lee Loy, we can live with it. I do have a question as to whom I'm supposed to request additional resources from, whether it's from you or from the Mayor? MS. LEE LOY: I yield. CHR. O'HARA: Well spoken, Mr. Kucharski. Okay, any other questions or comments about Bill 192? Seeing none, can we take a vote? Well, no we need a motion. If someone would like to give a motion? This needs to proceed to the Environmental Management Commission. Motion to Approve: Mr. Richards moved to refer Bill 192, Draft 2 to the the Environmental Management Commission. Seconded by Ms. David. Page 9 EMC -19 November 19, 2018 MR. HENRICKS: Madam Chair, just for the record, the Code also requires that the bill be referred to the director. The director has provided his input as well. So, for the record the motion includes an official response from the director with recommendation on the bill as well. Thank you. CHR. O'HARA: Okay, thank you. So, we'll include that in the motion? Everyone agreed? Okay, great. Alright, any discussion on that motion? Seeing none let's take a vote. All those in favor say "aye." Vote on Motion to The motion to refer Bill 192, Draft 2, to the Refer: Environmental Management Commission and (Approved) the Environmental Management Director pursuant to Section 2-207, of the Hawaii County Code, was carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, and Chair O'Hara — 7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Ruggles —1. Excused: None. CHR. O'HARA: Okay, it will be referred to the Environmental Management Commission and for your response. Thank you, Mr. Kucharski. MR. KUCHARSKI: And thank you. CHR. O'HARA: I believe that concludes all of the items in our 19th Session, which is the last session of the term. Page 10 EMC-19 November 19,2018 ADJOURN- There being no further business, at 10:15 a.m., Ms. Lee Loy moved to adjourn the MENT: meeting. Seconded by Mr. Richards and carried by the following voice vote: Ayes: Committee Members Chung, David, Eoff, Lee Loy, Poindexter, Richards, and Chair O'Hara—7. Noes: None. Absent: Committee Member Ruggles— 1. Excused: None. CHR. O'HARA: We are adjourned and thank you very much. Approved: li glib Jon , County Clerk (Date) JH/dt Page 11