Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-08-26 Meeting Minutes ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAIʻI MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, August 26, 2020 9:01 a.m. to 12:19 p.m. (online meeting via Zoom videoconferencing) Commissioners present: Justin Pequeño, Chair Georjean Adams Melissa Cardwell Dee Fulton Rick Gaffney Lee McIntosh Staff present: William Kucharski, Director Diana Mellon-Lacey, Deputy Corporation Counsel Mary Fujio, Secretary Others present: Jerome Warren, Sandra Demoruelle, Cory Harden, Steve Holmes, Riley Saito, Councilmembers Rebecca Villegas and Tim Richards, Rick Bennett, Sue Aronson, and unknown others. 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Pequeño called the meeting to order at 9:01 a.m. and took a roll call of the commissioners present. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF JULY 22, 2020 Motion and second: Commissioner Adams moved to approve the minutes, and Commissioner Gaffney seconded the motion. Commissioner Cardwell said she wanted a notation made on page 4 regarding Director Kucharski’s statement on Puna Precious Plastics. She spoke with David Marquis, and they were indeed collecting plastics in July and August. However, with the new COVID-19 mandate limiting gatherings to not more than 10 people, the plastic collecting will be postponed until the situation changes. The secretary indicated she could put a footnote in the July 22, 2020, minutes to reflect this information. Motion, second, and vote: Commissioner Adams moved to approve the minutes as amended, Commissioner Gaffney seconded the motion, and all commissioners voted aye. 3. STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIR Chair Pequeño thanked everyone for participating in today’s fourth virtual meeting and reminded all to engage in conversation with aloha. 4. PUBLIC STATEMENTS ON ITEMS ON THE AGENDA Jerome Warren: Regarding the Nāālehuʻ sewer, sometimes the cure is worse than the disease. Gang cesspools are banned because the wastewater can percolate to the drinking water source. The Nāālehu ʻgang cesspool does not contaminate the town’s drinking water, yet it seems the county must cure a problem that does not exist. The money for the new cure is inflicting more harm on the wallets of taxpayers than a cesspool does to their health. The 2007 cure was good enough and cheaper. The government never considers the cost-benefit ratio and the common people, who must pay property tax, and no commissioner has raised this. Peoples’ taxes are being squandered in Nāālehu. The county’s cure is to spend the equivalent ʻ of a quarter million dollars for each of the 160 hooked up homes, which is more than twice the value of each house. The curse is worse than the disease. This malfeasance also incubates a mistrust in government. When that reaches a pandemic level, there is anarchy. On abandoned vehicles, anarchy is brewing at 95-1206 Milo Road. The vehicles were clearly in sight when wastewater employees were working there. Neither Director Kucharski nor his wastewater chief did a site inspection or contacted him, though his yard was affected. The same goes for Maile David and Richard Creagan, who owns a house down the street. County officials cannot solve this public health and safety hazard. The Keanu family’s land acquisition consultant, Keoni Fox, has ties to the family and is involved with the Kaū sewer ʻ projects. These boondoggles have colorful backgrounds. On the department’s spill response, the Nāālehu sewer spill on Milo Road was more ʻ than 70 gallons. Director Kucharski told a half truth when he said the line held 70 gallons. He did not say the houses uphill were still adding wastewater to the pipe, and this went on for a couple of days. His veracity and credibility will continue to be examined at the Board of Ethics hearing in September. Sandra Demoruelle: She stated that she had submitted public testimony in writing, so she would not speak and take up more of their time. However, she was available to answer questions. Chair Pequeño asked the commissioners if they had any questions on her testimony which had been emailed to them, and there were no questions. 2 5. NEW BUSINESS Chair Pequeño extended his appreciation to Steve Holmes and Riley Saito for attending and sharing their knowledge and experience with the commission. a. Presentation by Steve Holmes on energy savings performance contracts. 1 Mr. Holmes: I am a former U.S. Department of Energy national energy champion. I’ve traveled around the country helping local governments address their infrastructure problems using innovative financing. And one of the tools in the toolbox for that are what are called ESPCs, or energy savings performance contracts. Hawaiʻi actually leads the na?on in investments from energy savings performance contracts. Hundreds of millions of dollars are pouring into the state of Hawaiʻi for projects that are funded using this mechanism. Honolulu Airport is a good example. They’re going in and retrofitting, putting in energy efficient lighting and HVAC systems, and they’re putting in solar. So it’s a very powerful tool. It’s been around since 1996, and I think it’s an opportunity to look at some of the wastewater problems and some of the solid waste problems that the commission has to address, at a time where there are limited county funds available for these types of projects. It’s third-party financing. It means it’s somebody else’s money. These companies are able to leverage rebates from Hawaiʻi Energy, for instance—so if you do a lighting retrofit, you can get cash rebates for that, so that becomes part of the financing. They also leverage tax credit financing. So if they put solar on your buildings, say the wastewater treatment plant at Kealakehe, they can write off 60% of the cost of that project to tax credit financing. They also have varied access to 5-year depreciation schedules on many forms of equipment, like pumps and motors and things like that. None of that is accessible by the county directly. So if the county just wanted to put solar panels on its own, it would lose those types of opportunities to bring that kind of extra money in to make the project work. So we’ll have Riley take the portion of the presentation this morning, Mr. Chairman, dealing with solid waste and with the transportation connection that I think is very innovative, and I give Riley a lot of credit. So we’re doing a tag team today, and I will focus in on wastewater stuff. One of the issues that Bill has presented to you—Bill Kucharski, our director—has been the issue of infiltration in the wastewater lines. So there’s an energy connection. Every gallon that comes in through cracks and breaks in the sewer line is a gallon that has to be pumped for miles out to the treatment plant. So that’s where the energy connection for using an ESPC, energy savings performance contract, comes in. You also have an energy cost associated with treating that water that’s coming into the system unnecessarily. So it eats capacity in your lines, it eats capacity at the treatment plant, and it has huge energy costs. So if you can prevent that, then that’s a big savings, and it provides an opportunity for financing mechanisms using this type of an approach. The Department of Water Supply is actually moving ahead on a similar concept, where they are putting in Doppler flow meters that register water that’s leaking out of their pipes. So the analogy here is the opposite, where you’re trying to prevent water 1 Minutes in italics are verbatim. 3 from coming into the collection system that you then have to treat and to pump. So same concept of what the Department of Water Supply is doing now in terms of Doppler and flow measures, you’re looking to do the same thing on the wastewater collection system side of things. Another angle on this is the idea of water recycling. Because water recycling pays for itself, it creates an income stream. So they could be put as a subcontractor by the energy savings performance—under the energy savings performance contract. Once again, there’s a specific carve-out in state law for this. It’s being used by counties, federal agencies, and state agencies, so there’s good legal authority for using this type of an approach. Basically, the concept is to turn a liability into a resource. Rather than throwing a water resource into a hole in the ground and polluting our coastline, you can actually use the ESPC to fund the R-1 upgrade and to do water recycling. So there is a way to get there (another man’s voice is speaking)—I’m hearing another voice. This also brings in experts. So people who are experts in wastewater treatment systems, process controls, pumps and motors, all sorts of expertise that an ESCO company can bring to the table. So rather than hiring consultants and paying for them out of taxpayers’ money, you use the ESCO financing to pay for those experts to come in and do this type of work. So that’s another benefit. So zero down. In the case of solar, they own the system for the entire time period of the ESCO contracts. So you don’t own the system. You don’t have to maintain it. They maintain it, because it’s their asset. And they get to take all the tax write-offs and depreciation of those assets. None of those things could be done by the county. You can get electricity for half of the cost you’re paying today using this ESCO financing mechanism. So this is really a huge opportunity. The other thing I wanted to put out there is—let’s say you did a lighting project in an office in Hilo. You can transfer those savings to work on a wastewater project in Kona. So that money becomes fungible. You can kind of move it around and put it where you need it under an ESCO contract. So it’s a little different way of thinking about it. You don’t have to think of just a specific location—where can I harvest savings at that specific location, and how can I expend it at that location. You can actually harvest savings from the entire county under an ESCO contract and use it where you need to make those types of green infrastructure improvements. Mr. Chairman, that’s pretty much it. I’ve given you a lot of materials, case studies. I gave you a summary and an email that was shared with all of the commissioners, and I will pass it off to Riley at this point. Thank you for your time today. Chair Pequeño thanked Mr. Holmes and moved to the next presentation. b. Presentation by Riley Saito on the use of ESPCs by Hawaiʻi County. Mr. Saito showed a PowerPoint presentation entitled “County of Hawaiʻi and ESPCs.” Mr. Saito: The key word in energy savings is energy savings. To build on what Steve has mentioned—so we look at the analysis we’ve been working on, Madison and I, is analyzing the 4 energy. So this is kind of a profile of—we worked with the utility company, got the GIS locations of the various meters. And the reason for that is there’s multiple departments that _________ the county, although the energy load by the county may be consolidated physically but not in its record-keeping. So we got the GIS locations of the meters, and then we did a heat map, which is on the left. DEM is in purple, and the size of the circle is related to the amount of funding going toward electricity. So on the right side, that kind of gives a comparative of various departments in relation to their electricity consumption. So the Department of Environmental Management is in second place. Actually, they’re in third place if you count the Department of Water. Public Works is number one at $2.5 million. DEM is a little over $2 million. But the Water Department is closer to $15 to $20 million, so it wouldn’t fit on this graph. This pie chart kind of lays it out a little differently, but in analyzing the energy consumption, 99% of the funding goes to wastewater. So if you want to focus on what needs to be done, this is Kealakehe, which was the largest circle in West Hawaiʻi, spends about $670,000 a year. It’s 8.3% of the county’s total annual utility expense, not including Water Supply. It has ________ and solar, irradiation, and it’s within the opportunity zone. And that relates to what an additional tax incentive that—to build on what Steven said about federal tax credits, state tax credits, or state refundable grant type of cost offset for the asset owner, along with accelerated depreciation. So within Kona, physically there’s opportunity zones, which relates to capital gains tax deferral. So that’s an additional incentive for investors to look at assisting the county in installing facilities. So this is another example where you have the transfer station, and combined, the annual energy is $200,000. The kilowatt hours are 680,000. But if we look, the Police Department pays their own bill, and the transfer station pays their own bill. But combined you can see that it may be of interest to a foreign investor to offset that energy cost. Now this is more of a question that Madison and I had, is that one of the locations of the meters is in the middle of the airport. Which I’m not sure it’s true, but we can work with Bill in getting clarification on where this meter is. But it is one that uses a lot of electricity, $545,000 a year. And it’s also within the Hilo opportunity zone. So these are other examples of just consolidating meters physically within the county so we get a better look. Like here, the Hoʻolulu complex has five different meters. So if you look at them separately, it may not have the scale for it to interest an ESCO provider. But if you combine the meters, there is a chance. So I mentioned opportunity zones. These are zones that were determined as close to shovel-ready. Land use zoning is favorable, it allows different investment types to build up capital projects and assets. This is the Hilo area. So within the gray bubbles, these are all meters or load centers. 5 We looked at the capital improvement projects that were I guess approved and _____ budget. So within these different opportunities, where it has pumps and air and other things like that, there is a potential to have a third-party investor actually involved with that. We looked at other energy and cost savings across the country. These are just examples of—like a combined _____ power, 120 kilowatt solar system, _________ about 100,000 a year. So these are just examples of how this methodology of engagement by the county, by government agencies, can actually reduce the amount of capital investment and extend the relationship over several years and lower the actual operating costs of the entity. Regarding solid waste, this is a slide I had from over a year ago. But that flaring on the left is what we currently do at the landfill to be EPA-compliant. The methodology of disposal of methane gas produced by the biological breakdown that’s occurring at the landfill. So the gas is collected in a passive manner at one collection point, then it’s flared, because flaring of the methane reduces the carbon output by 28 times. So that is the acceptable method by the EPA to dispose of landfill gas. Now with that—and this is not a picture of the actual landfill, this is just an example. It actually burns clean. So all you see is a heat ______. But you can use that heat to actually run a steam generator and produce hydrogen through electrolysis, using an electrolyzer. So you can get the energy from heat or solar or wind, and it produces the actual hydrogen. You can transport this stored energy, because that’s what hydrogen actually is—it’s a form of stored energy, which then can be used for fuel cell generators to power vehicles, transportation, and it’s portable, so you can diversify the location of consumption. This is appealing compared to, say, battery, electric chargers, where the station is fixed and the recharge time is over several hours, unless you put a high-end investment in level 3 charging, where you can get down to half an hour. But really with the hydrogen, we have a hydrogen bus that’s going through getting approved for the county to receive and operate. This is an actual picture, it’s not a concept drawing, of the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaiʻi. The station has been approved to actually operate. So this station will produce 64 kilograms of hydrogen a day. The bus we’re looking at gaining has a 200-mile range on 20 kilograms. So the tentative plan is to have the bus go from Kona to Waimea, run that trip, because you have the topography that’s challenging, and we can really test the performance of it. So per day the two round trips would be about 140, 160 miles. So we have the production from this facility to actually run three buses. With the landfill, from the actual analysis based on a BTU to energy basis using the conversion tables, the heat currently from the 270 standard cubic feet, 43% methane gas that’s there, would produce about a thousand kilograms per day. It’s capable of doing that. So that would result in about—the bus gets 10 miles per kilogram, so that would result in about 10,000 29-passenger vehicle bus miles per day, which we wouldn’t be able to consume. So the other thing to consider is transforming the hauling trucks that haul the trash to the landfill from 22 transfer stations, having those long haul, heavy load vehicles convert to fuel cell vehicles. That’s all I have, if you have any questions. 6 Commissioner Fulton said these were very exciting opportunities, and she asked who would address the mechanics of getting them in motion. Mr. Saito said the statute involved with third-party financing is Hawaiʻi Revised Statutes 36-41. The State Procurement Office had an RFP last year for vendors to bid on a master agreement, utilizing that statute, and the county is allowed to sign up to utilize that RFP process. He has been working with Director Kucharski on the scope of work, and he explained some of the steps involved. Commissioner Fulton wanted clarification on “where the gears start to move” and asked about the Doppler technology Mr. Holmes spoke about. Mr. Holmes said Doppler flow meters are being used by the Department of Water Supply, which has an energy specialist on their staff. In sewer collection systems, the Doppler meters could identify the areas where repairs are needed so the collection system can be triaged and the salt water kept out, as it is the salt that is preventing recycling the water. Commissioner Cardwell asked how the commission could support this process and help move it forward. Mr. Holmes said the commission is advisory, and the decision-makers are the administration. The commission could pass a motion in favor of moving forward on an ESPC contract and indicate their support by notifying the County Council and Mayor’s Office. Commissioner Adams said the scope of work is a large hurdle. The commission would want to leverage everything they can to deal with the zero waste goal. She is not sure they have the wherewithal to come up with a big plan on how to get less costly yet efficient waste management and also achieve the goal of eliminating pollution. Director Kucharski said the main issue they’re having is the ability to go into third-party financing. ESPC contracts generally need to be tied to energy. The power footprint of the Kealakehe WWTP has been reduced by about 40% with the last upgrade of new blowers. However, they have been working with Research and Development. Regarding methane from landfills, Hilo has never generated enough to meet EPA minimums for reuse of generated methane. However, the landfill at Puʻuanahulu does generate methane, and they have been working with Waste Management on collecting it. He would welcome working with Research and Development on a project to provide the gas to generate hydrogen. Regarding the Doppler system, it is his understanding that it is used on pressure systems. However, the majority of the wastewater lines are gravity, so he is not sure the Doppler system would work with them. Steven Holmes: Let me add a few things. In response to Commissioner Adams, the idea—Bill’s been struggling trying to find a third-party way to address water recycling. So right now they’re throwing their resource away into a hole in the ground and we’ve got pollution issues, as the commissioner pointed out. So how do we stop that? One thing we need to do is to prevent salt water from coming into the collection system that makes it impossible to do water recycling. The second thing, then, is to find another way to finance water recycling. And because water recycling finances itself based on the income that it generates, how do you park that. How do you make it happen within this public-private partnership realm without getting 7 into legal issues? Well, an energy saving performance contract could be the umbrella to do water recycling. So you would bring in a company like Hawaiʻi Water—I just throw that out there, I have no financial connections—that has that kind of experience, has access to cheap capital right now, because money is cheap, and could bring the water from the treatment plant up to R-1 and put in the distribution system as a design-build-operate contract under the umbrella of the energy saving performance contract. So because this is a specific state law that enables energy saving performance contracts, it gets around all the legal issues that Bill has raised previously. So that’s one thing. The other thing—and I sent Riley an email just before your meeting, Mr. Chairman—was to how to rethink what is happening with the methane at the landfill at West Hawaiʻi. Rather than looking at just the resource from the exis?ng landfill, you have to really rethink it and look at a bioreactor technology. I’ve toured a couple of these in Virginia, for instance, where you create a cell within the landfill that acts as a bioreactor. So that increases the breakdown of organic material. And so that a long term benefit is that it helps save your landfill space. But it also increases gas production, so then it increases the resource value of the landfill. So one way you do that is you add water to the system, because the microbes produce methane better when there’s more water in the system. So you can add that by adding wet sludge from Kealakehe. You can take wet sludge from the Mauna Lani wastewater treatment plant, which is two miles down the road. You can take it from the Waikoloa wastewater treatment plant which is nearby. And you put that wet sludge in there to act as the inoculant for methane production. So methane is produced by organic breakdown of material, and methane is released. So you want to recapture that, and you want to create a cell within the landfill specific to do ______. I’m talking to you from Bremerton, Washington. We have a landfill. All of the trash trucks in Bremerton, which is comparable in population to the Big Island, comes from landfill gas. So you could just—instead of, as Riley’s proposing, go with a fuel cell technology, converting methane over to hydrogen, you could do compressed natural gas. So that’s another opportunity. And I suggested that you use the Landfill Methane Outreach Program through EPA to fund the types of studies that Bill’s talking about that would look at the opportunity that would be created if you shifted over to a bioreactor technology. It turns out that Waste Management, the folks that run the West Hawaiʻi landfill, are the very ones who ran the landfill in Virginia that I toured. So they have the expertise in bioreactor technology, so you want them to partner with the ESCO company to make that happen. They have the expertise, they have the contract for the landfill, everything is set in place. All you need to do is direct them to start looking at a bioreactor where you’re going to increase your gas output. And once you do that, then the economics get much better. Otherwise it’s just a demonstration project for ________. What’s the point in that? Why not go big? There’s an opportunity to go big. Take all of the greenwaste that you’re generating in West Hawaiʻi and put that into the cell. Make that part of the fuel. So add the sludge, add the greenwaste, put it in the cell where you’re maximizing gas production, and that’s how you do it. Don’t just recapture landfill that’s mixed in with other types of waste products. You’re just not going to get the type of output that you need. And that’s my two cents. Commissioner Adams said she agrees with thinking bigger and with tying in Waste Management, since they have extraordinary experience with recycling and managing landfill materials. However, she is concerned with the wastewater side and questioned whether the 8 whole packet of better waste management could be done under an ESPC contract. Mr. Holmes said yes. He has a lot of passion on this subject and can talk to Commissioner Adams outside of the meeting about ways to do it. He is not talking about pie in the sky. He has actually done projects. Mr. Saito announced that he had to leave the meeting to host another one, and said he will continue working with Director Kucharski. Councilmember Rebecca Villegas spoke up and said she would like to have a presentation given to the County Council about what is possible and the potential project protocols, so there is a broader understanding of where they want to be headed. Though there will be a new administration coming in soon and the new Council layout is not known, she holds projects involving solid waste, recycling, wastewater, and coastlines close to her heart. She wants to be a part of moving to the next phase. Creative ways to finance projects are needed. She told Mr. Holmes she would have her staff look at dates for a potential presentation. Commissioner Cardwell asked about the possibility of using the Hilo landfill for methane even though it is closed. Mr. Holmes said the methane could actually increase now that the landfill is capped, and they could revisit it in the future. However, from analyses done so far, the amount of gas is unusable. Director Kucharski agreed and said the studies done over the past 30 years have not come up with the minimum amount of gas production that warrants further use. It could be due to the large amount of Hilo rainfall and the fact that the landfill is not lined. However, there are gas monitors that will be checked, and if there is an increase it will be followed up on. Further discussion was held on ESPCs and public-private partnership contracts, 6. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Status of the commission’s letter to the County Council in support of the draft 2019 Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan Update. Chair Pequeño apologized that he had not finished drafting the letter. He asked if there was an update on when the plan is up for approval by the County Council. Commissioner Adams and Director Kucharski both were of the understanding it would come up in September. Councilmember Tim Richards, who was also present, said he had not seen it come up. Chair Pequeño said he would get the letter out by the end of the week. b. Status of the commission’s letter to Councilmember Richards and Director Kucharski regarding inviting private entities to look into creating recycled/reclaimed water. 9 Commissioner Pequeño said the letter went out, and that he was grateful and appreciative Councilmember Richards could attend today’s meeting. c. Continued discussion on public-private partnerships, such as energy savings performance contracts (“ESPCs”) and “Statement of Objectives” Requests for Proposals. Chair Pequeño asked for the commissioners for their thoughts on how they could move forward, and Commissioner Adams said it seemed the next step is to educate the County Council on the opportunities and get their support. Director Kucharski said the mechanism to enter into an ESPC is already available, and there are contractors. However, being able to enter into a public-private partnership contract is not yet finalized. Councilmember Villegas said a presentation to the Council is needed on this, and a determination of who the presenters should be. She is hoping it can be done by late September. Chair Pequeño asked the commissioners if they were interested in forming a subcommittee to determine the scope of work or what type of information should be presented to the Council. Commissioner Gaffney felt the commission does not have the knowledge and experience in the operation and management of wastewater facilities to be able to create an RFP. However, he strongly believes they need to support ESPCs and reach out to the Council and administration about pursuing them. A project to repair the failing sewer pipes is necessary, and would clearly involve energy savings. This is also a huge opportunity to provide jobs. He would like to review the scope of work from the director first and decide whether it is big enough. But for now they can reach out to the Council and administration and express their full support of ESPCs for the opportunities out there. Chair Pequeño agreed. Motion and second: Commissioner Gaffney moved to send a letter to the County Council and administration requesting they immediately begin the process of implementing ESPCs, and secondly that they request the director to provide details for the RFPs for those ESPCs. Commissioner Cardwell seconded the motion. Commissioner Adams said the first step is to develop a scope of work rather than to implement an ESPC. She would like to see a draft scope of work. Commissioner Cardwell said it may be that they’re not ready to implement an ESPC, but Steve Holmes, when asked what the commission could do to move the process forward, had specifically said to draft a letter to the Council and administration. It seemed straightforward to her that this is the next step. Commissioner Fulton agreed, and Commissioner McIntosh said he 10 would support sending a letter, but it seemed ESPCs were already being researched and the commission may need to be patient. The commissioners further discussed ESPCs and what DEM projects might be appropriate for them. Director Kucharski said ESPCs are very specific in regard to energy savings and efficiency, and they also do not guarantee the county will save money—it depends on the whole setup and what the bids are. Chair Pequeño called for a vote. Vote: All commissioners voted aye. Chair Pequeño asked Commissioner Gaffney to draft the letter, and Commissioner Gaffney said he would do so with the help of Commissioner Adams. The draft letter is to be brought before the commission for review and approval at the next meeting. 7. REPORTS/CORRESPONDENCE a. Director’s Informational Report. • For the R-1 system, progress is being made with the EIS, which they are hoping will be finalized this year. They have restarted the distribution line design and infrastructure increase to get the water lines connected and are working with the Bureau of Reclamation on grants. The Lanihau force main system is being replaced, and they will continue working on the system from location to location. Additionally, the department’s administrative rules and related sections of the County Code are being updated. After a public hearing and Council approval, DEM can require private parties to fix their leaking laterals. • George Hayducsko gave a PowerPoint presentation on the county’s various recycling and waste diversion programs. He touched upon the 2-bin system, e-waste recycling, household hazardous waste, scrap metal and white goods, used motor oil, greenwaste and mulch, the reuse centers, education and outreach, the Master Recycler Composter Program, the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan’s top six recommendations, the recycling budget, current collaborations, and the county’s diversion rate and categories. He and Director Kucharski answered several questions from commissioners. • Director Kucharski gave a brief presentation on the abandoned vehicle program, including the statutory authorities on removing abandoned or derelict vehicles, code definitions, providing notice to owners, numbers of vehicles towed each year, the vehicle disposal fund, and the process to have 11 an abandoned vehicle towed. He answered several questions from commissioners. Commissioner McIntosh said a majority of the vehicles Jerome Warren testified about looked to be within 10 feet of the road, which is owned by the county, and he wondered why the police had not cited them. Director Kucharski spoke on the difference between derelict and abandoned vehicles and said he could have the AV people check on it. If the vehicles are on private property, a member of the public would need to file a complaint with the Planning Department as a possible zoning violation. He said he would provide the complaint form to Commissioner McIntosh. • Regarding ESPCs in other counties of the state, he checked with his counterparts in Maui, Kauaʻi, and the City and County of Honolulu regarding whether they had any wastewater system ESPCs. Maui and Kauaʻi did not, and Honolulu had a small one that did not work out well for them. ESPCs usually need to show there is a reduction in energy and savings. • The commissioners had been provided his Wastewater Division’s spill response management plan. • Regarding chloride levels at individual wells and the point of return to the Kealakehe WWTP, he does not like the data. At the King Kamehameha Sewer Pump Station, they are averaging about 3,000 milligrams per liter. At Keopu, it’s about 900 to 1,000. At Project 19, it’s about 2,000 to 3,000. The main issue is the need to replace the force main system on Aliʻi Drive. At the plant they get down to about 600 to 800 parts per million. He would prefer 300 to 400, which is normal. Kona’s drinking water is about 250 to 300. He will forward the information to the commissioners. They are continuing to work on code and rule changes, including the one to give DEM the authority to require private property owners to fix their leaking laterals. The plan is to have the revisions before the Council in the next month or two. The need to replace the Aliʻi Drive system is cri?cal. Commissioner Fulton asked about the chloride levels at Project 19, and Director Kucharski said there are several large communities, a hotel, and condominiums that are also flowing into the system. Commissioner Fulton said she does not understand his reluctance to share information, or why his answers have been nebulous about entities that may be causing problems in the sewer system. He is working for the public, and she wants him to share his information about Project 19. Director Kucharski said he does not want to roll entities under the bus without quantifiable information. Kona Bay Estates may be a likely source, but he does not know for a fact they are. Commissioner Fulton said the commission has also been informed, meeting after meeting, that DEM would be empowered to inspect private laterals once the code is amended. The language to do this should be very simple, yet it still has not been done. Director Kucharski said they are trying to put together for the Council a full package of not only code amendments 12 but administrative rule changes. However, the code regarding private laterals could be done as an individual piece. Commissioner Fulton said it would be worthwhile to prioritize it. • He does not have an update on a tracer/dye study, but it will be a tracer study, as dye is more visual than a tracer in his opinion. They have checked on prices, and it will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, so a budget will be needed. No progress has been made other than checking with available contractors who have done it before. He said Dr. Bennett may want to provide his testimony at this point. Rick Bennett: The standard for this type of investigation has been created by what was done in Maui County by the University of Hawaiʻi. And I take a little pause in requiring that this test be visual to the human eye. The assessment of these tracers in Maui was done with spectrophotometry, because at these lower concentrations it’s not detectable to the human eye. I’m reminded of a tracer study that was done by DOH in the early 2000s, when they poured some dye in there and sent staff out to the coast, and they were looking for dye. They concluded they didn’t see any, and from that they concluded there was no connection. This is not science. We have the scientific methodology to put tracers into the groundwater and measure their flow and dilution scientifically. So my request is twofold. Number one, there are about a dozen peer reviewed scientific reports that talk about this hydrologic connection between the wastewater disposal and the ocean. I would encourage the County of Hawaiʻi to independently review those reports. I have collected them over the last 20 years, starting in 2006 with a study that was done by the USGS. I’m very happy to provide the full PDFs of those reports to the county so they don’t have to take the many, many hours and scouring the search engines to pull them down and download them. I’ve written up a review of some of the major findings. I’d be happy to provide that review. And on the basis of that review, then a scientifically designed study could be done to determine how best to use a dye tracer to establish or to refute the hydrologic connection between the sump and the ocean. My third request is that the protocol for that study be made public and put out for review, at least to the commission, so that we can comment on its appropriateness. In addition, you’ve got experts in our state—Bob Whittier with the Department of Health and Dr. Craig Glenn at UH-Mānoa—who have done these types of studies and could provide guidance. Done right, it will be expensive. And I am concerned that if done on the cheap, the experimental design will pretty much suggest the result. And that’s not science. So whatever is done will be scrutinized, so I encourage the county to do it right. That’s my comment. Dr. Kucharski said he has no disagreement with anything Dr. Bennett said, and he fully agrees and concurs with his comments. Commissioner Gaffney said a standard has been set from a legal perspective on the kind of study Maui County used, such that the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on nearshore pollution caused by Maui’s injection wells. If the standards of the studies that Hawaiʻi County uses are anything less, they will not pass scrutiny. Director Kucharski said he agreed. 13 • On how the Planning Department and DEM interface regarding new developments, any time a zoning or land use type of application goes through the Planning Department, it is sent to DEM to review and comment on any wastewater or solid waste implications. Several of these are received each month. Director Kucharski answered questions from Commissioner Gaffney regarding how reviews are done for large projects that will need to connect to the sewer system, and whether R-1 use is taken into consideration. 8. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Chair Pequeño reminded commissioners to send him and the secretary items they want on the next agenda. Commissioner Cardwell asked Director Kucharski about the status of the Waiōhinu ʻ Transfer Station repairs, and he said he had not looked at the project for awhile. The EA was finalized, and they are making sure to take care of the environmental concerns. He can have a more direct answer at the next meeting. Chair Pequeño said it would go on the next agenda. 9. ANNOUNCEMENTS Chair Pequeño announced the next meeting is scheduled for September 23, 2020, at a location to be determined or online. 10. ADJOURNMENT Motion, second, and vote: Commissioner Adams moved to adjourn, Commissioner Gaffney seconded the motion, and all commissioners voted aye. The meeting adjourned at 12:19 p.m. Respectfully submitted: Mary E. Fujio, Secretary (with her signature)