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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-02-26 Meeting Minutes ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAIʻI MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, February 26, 2020 9:04 a.m. to 11:20 a.m. Aging & Disability Resource Center 1055 Kinoʻole Street Training/Conference Room Hilo, Hawaiʻi 96720 Commissioners present: Justin Pequeño, Chair Jon Olson, Vice Chair Georjean Adams, Commissioner John Burns, Commissioner Dee Fulton, Commissioner Rick Gaffney, Commissioner Staff present: William Kucharski, Director Diana Mellon-Lacey, Deputy Corporation Counsel Mary Fujio, Secretary Others present: Nancy Cook-Lauer, Jerome Warren, Sandra Demoruelle, Cory Harden, Roy Kadota, Claire Cea, Richard Pratt, Kristine Kubat, Jennifer Navarra, George Hayducsko, Chris Chin-Chance, Sanne Berrig, and several others 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Pequeño called the meeting to order at 9:04 a.m. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JANUARY 22, 2020 Motion, second, and vote: Vice Chair Olson moved to approve the minutes, Commissioner Gaffney seconded the motion, and all commissioners voted aye. 3. STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIR Chair Pequeño introduced himself, as there were some new faces on the commission and it is his first meeting as chair. He is originally from Texas and now calls Waiākea home. For the past six years he has been the project manager for Kamehameha Schools. His background is not in science, but in education. He believes we are at a critical point in history where the human consumption and management of the world’s resources are having a profound impact on the climate, and this threatens our very existence. People across the world need to be more conscious about the choices they make as individuals, and large corporations and the wealthy need to be held accountable for the amount of resources they consume and the waste they produce. This is especially important for places like Hawaiʻi, where space is limited and the rise in sea level will be devastating. The County’s Department of Environmental Management has a crucial role in leading the government’s efforts towards becoming a zero waste community. It is in the best interest of commissioners to engage fellow community members in meaningful and purposeful ways so they can be informed and empowered. They need to be aware of the community’s heartbeat and of innovative technologies and ideas that support their mission. For 2020, he would like the commission to prioritize a couple of focus areas. The first is diversion. The amount of waste entering the landfill and the ocean must be reduced. The commissioners can use their knowledge and networks to bring forth ideas for solutions. The second focus area is engagement. He would like the commission to better engage with the County Council, the department, and the community, and he would like these entities to better engage with the commission. He asked the commissioners to make connections where possible and to make space for open and honest dialog. He thanked them for the opportunity to be chair and said he will do the best to keep meetings flowing and on track. 4. PUBLIC STATEMENTS ON ITEMS ON THE AGENDA Chair Pequeño asked for a show of hands from the public on who wanted to testify now or wait until later, and most hands went up. Jerome Warren: Regarding the Nāālehu project, wʻhen he arrived back home after the January 22 meeting, there was a sewer spill across the street. County employees were working on the rotten pipes. He still does not know how many gallons were spilled or the cost of the repair. The house above him had raw sewage spilling out of the tub and toilet onto the floor, and it came from the houses above them. His side yard was torn up because that is where the pipe was plugged. The county knew the pipe was rotten from smoke tests done in 2004, and his neighborhood is crisscrossed with rotten sewer pipes. After the spill, the EPA called and scolded him because he keeps complaining. He told EPA Enforcement about the county not being in compliance with the timeline. They said they would call him back but never did. Councilmember David, Representative Creagan, and Senator Kanuha are also silent. Sanitation is a core service of the government, and the department is ignoring its primary duty. He will be leaving the meeting after public testimony because the commission does not use microphones and speakers. This tells him they are not concerned about the public. The presentation on the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan could be done on the Nā Leo television station so 2 that everyone can listen and learn. Also, when department staff comes to Nāālehu, the ʻ community has to strain to hear. This shows a lack of concern towards the people who need to be informed. Finally, the director’s report lists nothing under current legislation, but there is stuff going on. There is a complaint on file with the Board of Ethics regarding Nāālehu, and ʻ hopefully it will get results for the 160 homeowners. No commissioner has ever shown an interest in correcting this boondoggle. He is in the phone book and no one has called him. Cory Harden: Regarding waste to energy, she hopes the commissioners will take a vote stating their position is no incineration. The public has made it loud and clear that it is opposed. On alternative uses for waste, with the new composting facility in the works, she hopes the commission will put forth recommendations on how to keep plastics out of the compost so toxins do not end up in food. Regarding recycling, she hopes they determine the current state of affairs and continue the recycling for electronics and businesses. She also hopes they will vote against cutting the hours of recycling centers, because if the hours are cut, more waste will go into the landfill and be left on roadsides. On the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, it is unfortunate that so many tasks in the 2009 plan could not be done due to lack of funding and staff. There should be a fee at the point of purchase, as this would help with the ongoing lack of funding. She hopes the commission will recommend that DEM draft a bill regarding this fee and that councilmembers and commissioners can work on it and take some first steps. Claire Cea: Regarding the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, she works at Mr. K’s Recycling & Redemption Center and supervises the logging of the e-waste collected and processing of invoices. The plan proposes exploring an e-waste take-back program with the state and manufacturers. These take-back programs have not been implemented on the Big Island. However, the county may soon be discontinuing subsidies for e-waste recycling for schools, nonprofits, businesses, and government agencies. There is also the possibility that residential e-waste will be suspended for the remainder of this fiscal year due to lack of funding. Without free avenues for recycling, e-waste will likely be dumped and end up in the landfill, and this can cause fires due to the lithium ion batteries which are in a lot of e-waste. Even if a battery is too weak to power a device, there is often still enough charge in it to spark a fire. There have been major fires in New York and California caused by the batteries. E-waste such as cell phones, televisions, and tablets also contribute toxins which can leak into the groundwater and end up in the food chain. Hawaiʻi County does not currently have a law banning e-waste from going into the landfill, but such a law should be considered. E-waste is dangerous and toxic, and we do not want it in our landfill, water, environment, or bodies. The Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan should include effective ways to keep all e-waste out of the landfill, and it is DEM’s responsibility to ensure there is an adequately funded e-waste program. Richard Pratt: He explained he works for Mr. K’s in Hilo. Regarding the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, a ten-year e-waste plan is needed, and it should be funded not only by the state but by the county. E-waste has been underfunded. The current budget is $160,000, and for the first seven months of fiscal year 2019-20, Mr. K’s has collected and processed $210,000 of e-waste. The county’s Solid Waste Division has $400,000 which came 3 from stopping the recycling of #1 and #2 plastics, but people have been told the money has already been spent. There needs to be a 10-year program to fund e-waste to get it off the island, as it contaminates the ground, water, and starts fires. The Television and Electronic Recovery Act says a covered entity is any business, government, school, or nonprofit. The act was revised in 2017 to allow the county to create its own program, but not to change a covered entity. Regarding cardboard and glass, glass is already taken care of by another fund, so the county should not fund it. Some of the cardboard waste could be used on the island for mulch and weed-killing rather than being shipped. As we live on an island, the cost of shipping waste is prohibitive. Roy Kadota: He is the owner of Mr. K’s. The e-waste problem is here to stay, and it needs to be addressed in the 10-year program, as his staff has explained. Maui County was able to contribute $210,000 toward e-waste, and they did it because they don’t want it in their landfill. There are ways our county can come up with money for it. There should also be a diversion fund to get plastic off the island, as it takes a lot to ship it. There was a fund previously, but former Mayor Kenoi did away with it. His employees have said it all, so he’ll leave it at that. Kristine Kubat: She is from Recycle Hawaiʻi and wanted to remind the commissioners about the $400,000 the county saved from the rollback of recycling services provided by Business Services Hawaiʻi. At the last meeting, the commission voted to send a communication to the County Council, saying they supported keeping the money in the recycling budget. That communication has never been sent, and she would like a commitment from the commission that it will be done. After the rollback of the recycling, if the electronic waste recycling gets cut, it will not be pretty, and people might take matters into their own hands. There is also the question of whether it is legal for the director to have reallocated money that is in a line item to something else without authorization or permission from the council. Some people have told her it is not legal and some say it is, so she is requesting clarification from Corporation Counsel on this. Regarding the draft Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, it has many punctuation, spelling, grammatical, and computational errors. The county is paying for it and deserves a high quality end product. Also, there was a decision made not to do a waste composition study. When she brought this up, the response was that it these studies are not very accurate and it was unnecessary to know everything that is in the waste. This is not true. These studies are done all over and are accurate and important. The plan that is supposed to guide us for the next 10 years is based on a study that was done in 2008, and a portion of it was done in 2001. An up-to-date waste composition study needs to be done. Chair Pequeño called up Sandra Demoruelle for her testimony and informed her, for the record, that he had received her written request for information on the Nāālehu and Pāhala ʻ Wastewater Treatment Plants. However, the commission does not have the records or information she is seeking, so her request has been forwarded to the department. Sandra Demoruelle: She thanked the commissioners for their service and efforts. She wanted to remind everyone that in October, Chair Bennett began a conversation on changing the public testimony portion of the agenda by adding a statement about what is wanted. She 4 takes this personally, as Chair Bennett told her at the last meeting that they were looking for recommendations and so forth. Testimony is good, and people take time to write things down and testify. She has never heard any offensive testimony at the EMC meetings she has attended. Putting qualifications on testimony is chilling for people, and the qualifying paragraph should be removed. Do not make her take this further, as it is not legal. Jennifer Navarro: She is with Zero Waste Big Island and would reiterate Cory Harden’s comments about the number of hours recycling centers are open. They should have the same hours as the transfer stations. Regarding the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, there is a lot of discussion about removing organic waste from the waste stream. It is concerning that the county does not have a plan in place on how to get the waste to the facility. She hopes the commission will start having discussions on this and also provide recommendations to the Solid Waste Division on a better structure to divert organic waste from the landfill. 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Continued discussion on waste-to-energy proposals or alternative uses for waste, including Vice Chair Olson’s and Commissioner Adams’ ideas on plastic waste reduction. Vice Chair Olson said that in order to manage anything effectively, you have to be able to define the value of what you’re dealing with. We don’t have a good idea of what is heading in our direction in terms of what could end up in the waste stream. We have no idea of the volume sitting at the docks that will end up in our waste handling facility at its terminus. A method is needed to track the volume and collect money to accommodate whatever it will cost to dispose of the waste. The funding needs to be removed from the property tax roll. Commissioner Adams said there are ways to access data on the volume hitting the island. A funding mechanism to recover it and not have it turned into waste is a separate issue. Commissioner Gaffney said the state collects the general excise tax, so there must be data compiled at the state level. We need to ask our legislators to request specific answers on the data from the DCCA and Department of Taxation. Further discussion was held back and forth between Vice Chair Olson and Commissioner Adams. Vice Chair Olson said data is needed to figure out the total volume heading towards us and what it costs us to dispose of it, with the goal to get the costs paid at the point of purchase. Commissioner Adams said the draft Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan has a section with some funding options. Director Kucharski pointed out that DEM’s solid waste budget is about $38 million per year, with more than half of it coming from the General Fund, which is funded by property taxes. If DEM takes money from the General Fund, it means that money is not available for other departments who may need it. The General Fund is a zero sum budget. If DEM gets 5 more, somebody else gets less. He would welcome recommendations from the commission on how solid waste could be gotten off the General Fund. Chair Pequeño said they would table this agenda item and have on the next agenda a discussion on funding mechanisms for solid waste so it could be gotten off the General Fund, and that he would work with the commission’s secretary on submitting a communication, voted upon at the previous meeting, on keeping the money saved from the rollback of the Business Services Hawaiʻi contract reserved for recycling programs. Ms. Mellon-Lacey said that as the commission is an advisory body to the department, the communication should be going to the department, and then seeking a councilmember to support it. Chair Pequeño invited Commissioner Adams to speak on waste to energy and BioEnergy Hawaiʻi. Commissioner Adams said BioEnergy Hawaiʻi had proposed to build an integrated waste management facility in West Hawaiʻi. They would take waste and sort it out. Some of it would be turned into fuels through anaerobic digestion, and there are many different technology options on how they could convert the waste they receive. They would also recycle what they could find a market for. Pyrolysis, which is burning without oxygen to break down materials to useful chemicals, could also be looked at. Bioenergy is a complex area with many different technologies. BEH made a presentation to the commission back in May 2017, and she was trying to get them to speak to the Solid Waste Advisory Committee about the technologies they were looking at. They are privately funded and are not looking for any county money to run their organization. She heard back from BEH last week, and apparently there was a lot of activity going on between them, the Mayor’s Office, and DEM. It appears that BEH did not feel they were getting support from the county to create their facility. However, she feels it will be helpful, from an informational standpoint, to hear from them on available technologies. She requested the commission extend an invitation to BEH to come and present on what they are doing, what they know about available technologies to get recovery, and how they are coping with the reduction in recycling outlets. Chair Pequeño asked if the commissioners were interested in a presentation, and they were. He asked Commissioner Adams if she would make the invitation to BEH for a presentation in March or April. Director Kucharski said he needed to clarify the issue between BEH and the county. BEH feels the county pulled out and killed the power purchase agreement with HELCO, which was needed for electricity that would be produced. The only thing the county refused to do was directly endorse the project, as the county does not endorse private activities. The county had to inform HELCO that it was not a county project and they were was neutral on it. The allegation that the county killed the project is incorrect. 6 Commissioner Adams said she would invite BEH to present, and the commissioners can ask questions and get a feel on the options out there. Commissioner Burns asked her about the Closed Loop Report, and she explained it was an analysis that was published last month on available technologies for companies doing waste recovery, a lot of it plastic centered. She felt it was a good summary, so had passed it on for the commissioners to read. Chair Pequeño said they may keep the current agenda item on for next month. Director Kucharski asked if the agenda could be changed to accommodate his recycling staff, who were there to do a presentation. Ms. Mellon-Lacey said a vote would be needed. Motion, second, and vote: Vice Chair Olson moved to change the agenda to have item 7a(5), the presentation on the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, done. Commissioner Adams seconded the motion, and all commissioners voted aye. 7. REPORTS/CORRESPONDENCE a. Director’s Informational Report. (5) Presentation on the draft update to the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan by George Hayducsko, Recycling Coordinator. George Hayducsko introduced himself, explaining that he is the county’s Recycling Coordinator. He has over 30 years of experience on the mainland and designed two successful recycling programs in Wisconsin. There are different challenges here in the middle of the Pacific, however. They are working with the community in going through the challenges to make the recycling program better in the long run. The draft Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan has a total of 83 recommendations, and the Solid Waste Advisory Committee has identified six of them as priorities. He presented a PowerPoint entitled “Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan Update.” Some highlights: • Some have been critical that another waste composition study was not done before moving forward with the plan. However, they only have so many resources, and they are able to use the studies done elsewhere, such as the 2017 study done on Oʻahu. • He showed data from the county’s 2008 waste composition study, Oahu’s 2017 study, and from a 2017 EPA study. The major components are organics and paper. If the desire is to keep stuff out of the landfill, organics are critical. Organics are also a resource that can be utilized. 7 • He explained how waste composition studies are done, how samples are taken, and how they are snapshots in time. They did not spent money on a waste composition study, because they have enough good data. In ten years, the community may decide another study is warranted. • Funding is a challenge for the county’s recycling and waste diversion programs. The budgets for some of the programs have been reduced the last few years. The department is doing a lot, recognizes the community impact, and is working in the long run to make the program better, despite the negative press out there. • There is a Master Recycler Program now under development, which will be reaching out to organizations and others to bring their expertise and enthusiasm to work with the community and have a bigger impact. • He explained the changes to the 2-bin recycling program. They are learning that more communication with the other islands is needed and that they should recommend legislation rather than only respond to it. • On the positive side, contamination has gone down, source separation has been better, and the corrugated cardboard volume is up. • Even though the county is not taking certain items any more, Business Services Hawaiʻi s?ll does, at their Shipman Industrial Park location. • The greenwaste and mulch programs are very successful. The mulch is in such high demand that they are constantly running out. • The Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan is being finished up. They received more comments than expected, and it was good for the community to come out and voice their thoughts and concerns. The SWAC will be going through the comments at their meeting this afternoon. • He explained where they are in the process of the plan and the plan’s contents. Once the SWAC approves the plan, it will go to the County Council for approval, and then the state. It is hoped the recommendations will get included in the budget and actually implemented. • After 13 meetings, 83 recommendations were identified by the SWAC. The members ultimately came up with the top six recommendations, which are: ◦ do more education and outreach ◦ renegotiate the contract with Waste Management Hawaiʻi ◦ hold additional household hazardous waste collection events ◦ change the County Code to allow small businesses to drop off recyclables at recycling and transfer stations ◦ establish goals that are expressed and measured in terms of environmental impacts and consider full life cycle impacts, in addition to tonnage-based landfill diversion or waste recovery goals. ◦ develop county policy and ordinances related to source reduction and recycling. Mr. Hayducsko said they are having two presentations, on March 2 and 4, 2020, on the reusable food service ware container system for takeout food in Hilo. 8 Chair Pequeño directed the agenda back to item 5b. b. Continued discussion on recycling activities, updates, and breakthroughs. Chair Pequeño said he missed this discussion when it began at the last meeting and asked if someone would start it off. Commissioner Adams said there are always new and interesting things happening in recycling, and there has been a lot of activity with the Zero Waste group and Recycle Hawaiʻi. The commissioners had been provided an email with her thoughts on waste reduction and some links to articles that may be of interest. She has a chemical background and is very supportive of processes that could not only recover energy but conserve molecules that are present in the products so they can be used again to make more valuable products. The Big Island has challenges because of its scale, but there are options for smaller operations to either melt down or break down waste into useable material. She disagrees with a comment made earlier that incineration is incineration. It depends on whether oxygen is present. Pyrolysis waste to energy does not use oxygen and efficiently reduces waste. Several other commissioners said they would like to keep this agenda item as a standing item on future agendas. Chair Pequeño said he’d like the commissioners to become acquainted with the recommendations in the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan so they can have a discussion on it at the next meeting, and Commissioner Adams said the commission should decide what its role is relative to the plan. It may be appropriate for the commission to be an overseer of it. This could be an agenda item once the report is final, as the comment period is closed for now. Perhaps progress on the recommendations in the plan can be an item in the director’s report once the plan is final. Commissioner Gaffney said it could take six months for the plan to become final, and he wanted it discussed sooner than that. Director Kucharski said he could start adding the status of the plan to his director’s report as a standard topic, and Chair Pequeño said that would work. Commissioner Gaffney said they need to make sure when considering new opportunities and technologies that they don’t lose site of the fact that liquid waste is also an issue. There may be technologies that allow liquid and solid waste to be combined and benefit the overall system. 6. NEW BUSINESS There was no new business. 7. REPORTS/CORRESPONDENCE a. Director’s Informational Report. 9 • To clarify, the only legislation they keep track of are proposed changes to Chapters 20 and 21 of the County Code. • On the proposed Pāhala Wastewater Treatment Plant, they are expecting the draft environmental assessment to be published on March 8, 2020. The environmental assessment for Nāālehu is continuingʻ, and the draft environmental assessment is expected to be completed between April and June, depending on issues such as the cultural review requirements. • The R-1 project for the Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant is on hold. The final design is 90-95% done, but doing the design for outside the fence and the disposal system are on hold for now. He will update the commission when he has different information for them. • He does not have new information on the Aliʻi Drive inflow and infiltra?on. Their CCTV system had a failure and the part has just been received to fix it. On the east side sewer system, 4,400 feet has been done since October. They are in the process of getting equipment that will log and archive the CCTV data. About 19,000 feet of sewer has been cleaned since December. They still need to check on instrumentation to test for salinity. • He met with the mayor recently regarding e-waste, and they are working diligently on not terminating that service this year. The DOH is looking at a possible grant for next year. • There is more e-waste than there used to be. A primary issue is how to fund it properly so they can be more responsive to demand. They are locked into it because the funding comes from the General Fund. • Again, the money saved from the recycling contract has been used to fund, for this fiscal year, wages for new drivers and operators at the transfer stations. The collection of solid waste is DEM’s primary responsibility and is a service they must provide, as it touches on health and safety. Chair Pequeño asked the director about the senate bill regarding the State Historic Preservation Division and delays in cultural reviews. Director Kucharski said he would check on the bill and get back to him. 8. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Chair Pequeño told the commissioners to contact him and the secretary if they had any requests for agenda items. Commissioner Adams said she would check with BioEnergy Hawaiʻi about doing a presentation. 9. ANNOUNCEMENTS Chair Pequeño announced the next meeting: March 25, 2020, at the West Hawaiʻi Civic Center. 10 10. ADJOURNMENT Motion, second, and vote: Vice Chair Olson moved to adjourn, Commissioner Gaffney seconded the motion, and all commissioners voted aye. The meeting adjourned at 11:20 a.m. Respectfully submitted: Mary E. Fujio, Secretary (with her signature)