Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-09-23 Meeting Minutes ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAIʻI MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, September 23, 2020 9:02 a.m. to 10:22 a.m. (online meeting via Zoom videoconferencing) Commissioners present: Justin Pequeño, Chair Jon Olson, Vice Chair Georjean Adams John Burns Melissa Cardwell Rick Gaffney Lee McIntosh Staff present: Diana Mellon-Lacey, Deputy Corporation Counsel Mary Fujio, Secretary Others present: Councilmember Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder, Cory Harden, Jerome Warren, Sandra Demoruelle, and unknown others. 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Pequeño called the meeting to order at 9:02 a.m. and took a roll call of the commissioners present. He explained that Commissioner Fulton, Director Kucharski, and Deputy Director Noda were unable to attend the meeting. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF AUGUST 26, 2020 Motion and second: Commissioner Gaffney moved to approve the minutes, and Commissioner Adams seconded the motion. Commissioner Adams said a correction was needed in the list of who was present for the meeting, as Riley Saito’s name was missing. Motion, second, and vote: Commissioner Adams moved to approve the minutes as corrected, Commissioner Gaffney seconded the motion, and all commissioners voted aye. 3. STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIR Chair Pequeño thanked everyone for participating in the meeting, saying it appears the common theme for their meetings is to continue to engage in difficult conversations together. It is an understatement to say the county and DEM have an abundance of critical issues to address, in addition to the pandemic and other curve balls that have been thrown. Given that it is also an election year, it is imperative to begin setting an environmental management agenda for the new administration once the election is over. 1 4. PUBLIC STATEMENTS Cory Harden: She was testifying for the Sierra Club’s Hawaiʻi Island group regarding the illegal dumping at the old ōkala Mill. This issue should have been in the director’s report and Ōʻʻ should also be a future agenda item. Director Kucharski visited the site two days before the last meeting and said he would help with disposal and would contact Planning and Public Works. He should have informed the commission about this, as it falls under their purview, since the website says the purpose of the commission includes litter control, and the department’s website says it has the responsibility for solid waste disposal and all other environmental projects. The property owners are Darcy and Louie Nobriga, and they also did illegal dumping in 2018, getting off with a slap on the wrist. The items dumped in ōkala includeŌʻʻ munitions, animal carcasses, construction waste, vehicles, and scrap metal. Contaminated run-off may be going into the ocean. Dump trucks have been seen taking rusted metal and other debris to the site, and they go over a wooden bridge that may be inadequate for heavy loads. She urged the commission to send letters calling for thorough investigations and maximum penalties to the State Attorney General, the State Department of Health, and the County’s Planning and Public Works Departments. The Army should also be asked what contractors are responsible and how they plan to improve the vetting of contractors and inspections of work to prevent future problems. The commission should also ask for monthly updates from Director Kucharski on the status. Councilmember Matt Kanealii-Kleinfelder: He also was concerned about the illegal ʻōŌʻkala dumping site, which came to his attention from other councilmembers and the public. It is a big concern for the Hāmākua community, especially as the site contains munitions and animal carcasses. He also wanted to know the status of the composting facility in the Shipman Industrial Park. The project was to have been completed in the summer, and it is now September. He is very concerned about this project and wants to see it happen, especially in 1 Due to technical difficulties, public statements by Jerome Warren and Sandra Demoruelle occurred later during the meeting. Their testimony is on pp 5-6. 2 light of the Hilo landfill closure, the movement of trash to Puʻuanahulu, the increasing cost of shipping, and the various solid waste issues during the pandemic. 5. NEW BUSINESS a. Discussion on the status of the composting facility in Shipman Business Park. Chair Pequeño asked Commissioner Cardwell to speak on this. Commissioner Cardwell said she had been in touch with Jessie Hay of the Department of Health and Marvin Min of Hawaiian Earth, which is the company that got the contract to do the facility. Jessie Hay had been working on the permit and had submitted a number of questions to Mr. Min which were never answered. Commissioner Cardwell emailed Mr. Min to find out what was going on with the permitting, and he essentially told her they withdrew the permit on August 20. She does not know if Director Kucharski was informed of this or if he was withholding the information from them. She would like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but is not sure. She tried following up with Mr. Min several times to see if the director had been informed about the withdrawal, but he has not responded to her emails. To her knowledge, since the contracting company has withdrawn the permit from the DOH, the project is not happening. It is disappointing, upsetting, and frustrating, especially since the director had informed them it was moving forward. The problem is not going away, and the county needs some kind of composting facility. Commissioner Cardwell said she will continue to follow up on this and try to get more answers. She’ll report back to them at the next meeting. She heard there is a successful compost project happening in South Kona, and she will try to get more information about it, as it is possible there is a solution to the problem that could be set in motion. Commissioner Adams said she would try to find out more from the county’s recycling staff. She had not heard anything about the Shipman facility hitting a wall. However, she is concerned there is not a fleshed out plan on how to make it work on this island, and collection and transport to a facility is key. The Solid Waste Advisory Committee had strongly recommended the promotion of composting, because it represents a huge chunk of what would otherwise go into the landfill. The commissioners further discussed potential ways composting could work on the island, such as having smaller facilities throughout the island, and how it is a priority because it would reduce or divert waste from the waste stream. Commissioner Burns said it may be worth exploring where the distribution of smaller composting centers could be, as the commission could actually have some influence on promoting this. There is a huge demand for compost. A cost benefit analysis to see what it would take to have smaller hubs provide composting would be good, as these would help people with their day-to-day activities. 3 Commissioner Adams said she just learned the department is waiting for the mayor to make an announcement that the compost facility has been halted. She will try to dig around and find out what the barrier is to the Shipman facility. Since a new mayor and administration will be in place soon, this is a high priority for the commission. Commissioner Gaffney said there are several small composting facilities and a larger one on the west side that mixes soil, cinder, and compost and sells it by the truckload. There is clearly opportunity. Vice Chair Olson said composting facilities have been discussed for over 25 years here, but the basic problem is the island does not have enough tonnage and it is variable. The volumes should be looked at, and then getting those people who are interested to work on it. There has been a lot of research into this over the past 25 years. Someone who has worked on it is Russell Ruderman, and he might try to reach out to him and get names of others who could be interested. 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 said the letter has been drafted, and he was told the plan should be on a council agenda in about two weeks. His plans to send the letter out so it will be a part of the Council’s meeting documents to consider as testimony. b. Status of the commission’s letter to the County Council and administration requesting they immediately begin the process of implementing ESPCS, and requesting the director to provide details for the RFPs for those ESPCs. Chair Pequeño said the letter was drafted by Commissioners Gaffney and Adams, and he had a discussion with Councilmember Richards about it. He wanted the commissioners’ thoughts on when the letter should be sent out, since there would be a new administration soon. Commissioner Gaffney felt that since a lot of people in the current administration and council had been working towards the goal of using ESPCs, sending the letter now would support them and let the administration and council know it is important and the commission wants them to look at it. Then in the early part of next year, when the new administration and councilmembers are in place, they could send another letter saying essentially the same thing, but perhaps fleshing out more details on what they think are critical to a broad, go big type of ESPC. 4 The other commissioners agreed it would be good to send the letter off now, and then follow up with another version of it early next year. Commissioner McIntosh said the letter needed some minor edits to clean it up, and Chair Pequeño asked him to send him the changes so they could finalize it and have it sent out. Commissioner Gaffney said he felt it would be best to send individual letters to each council member and the mayor, rather than have them all addressed in one letter, and Chair Pequeño agreed. Chair Pequeño said Councilmember Villegas just sent a chat message to inform them that progress is being made with an ESCO partnership, and the scope of work is being worked on by Research and Development. There is a training coming up about ESCO financing practices and protocols. If any commissioners are interested, they should provide their contact information to her. Chair Pequeño asked if there was anyone present who was unable to testify earlier and would like to do so now. Jerome Warren responded he was present and would like to. Chair Pequeño told him to go ahead and that he would have three minutes to testify per agenda item. 2 Jerome Warren: I had to come home and call up on my land line. I was down at Sandra Demoruelle’s, but we were shut out. Anyhow, I’m testifying on two items. They’re both on the director’s report, item 1a and—it’s both under wastewater—items 1A and 4J. So item 1A, notice of apparent violation. This relates to the Nāālehu sewer spill on Milo Road and the false report ʻ of 70 gallons. The Board of Ethics helped bring this report malfeasance to the attention of the Department of Health. Director Kucharski asked for a closed Board of Ethics hearing. This keeps the public in the dark, which creates mistrust and disrespect, not only for the government, but for the environment itself. The Board of Ethics was also interested in the abandoned house and the illegal junkyard across the street from the sewer spill. The false spill report will be further investigated at their October hearing. This should not be a closed hearing. That’s it for that one. Also on the director’s report, wastewater, item 4J, and here’s another contractor. There is always a secret romance in every purchasing department. Let me repeat that. There is always a secret romance in every purchasing department. The seductress is the employee, and the seducer is the outside salesperson. The outside salesperson brings gifts, and the employee accepts them for their own personal use. Then the employee favors that salesperson. Believe me, I’ve seen this ad nauseam in my own employment, and I’ve been the receiver of gifts. These gifts are kickbacks. This scenario is called graft or corruption. Governments must raise taxes to pay for these clandestine relationships. The Department of Environmental Management has been full of these scenarios ever since wastewater and solid waste was taken out of Public Works. The first example was the cost per ton of solid waste. It immediately went from $25 to $50 a ton. One current example is the boondoggle with the Nāālehu sewer project. The newest ʻ 2 Minutes in italics are verbatim. 5 salesperson to come calling is Dig Deep, a consultant. Please keep in mind that kickbacks to government employees include campaign donations, so there is no incentive to keep a close accounting of consultant contracts. If Director Kucharski isn’t here to explain wastewater spending, then the wastewater chief, Dora Beck, should be present. And mahalo for both of those. Chair Pequeño asked if there was anyone else who would like to provide testimony. Mr. Warren said that Sandra Demoruelle had been trying to testify but was being muted. Chair Pequeño said he had not muted anyone and asked Mr. Warren to inform Ms. Demoruelle to try hanging up and calling in again. A few moments later Ms. Demoruelle was able to connect, and Chair Pequeño thanked her for her emailed testimony and said she could provide her verbal testimony now. Sandra Demoruelle: Thank you. I just really want to just address the Nāālehuʻ LCC and the wastewater spill, which is under the wastewater CIP item 4A on the director’s agenda. I particularly want to address that. This has now gone to the DOH, and if you’ll look on page 10 of your director’s report, it says that they received a notice of apparent violation on wastewater collection system condition and sewage overflows, which I presume is in response to my August 17 complaint to the DOH. Now this information was withheld at the last meeting, and I reported that to OIP, because it was not withheld at the request of the board, but just withheld by Mary Fujio at the request of Corporation Counsel. And there was no reason for them to do so, and this is now being contested and there will be an OIP opinion issued on it. But this is a very important and very crucial fault that’s happened here. What has happened is there’s been a misreporting. This is not just not reporting, this is a lie. This is why the DOH is ______. In the past is there are fines, and they’ve been around a hundred thousand to four hundred thousand. But that’s for neglecting to report things. This was an effort by at least four people—Kucharski, Eric Takamura who signed the form, Dora Beck, and Alika DeMello. This is four people who have participated in perpetrating this falsehood. Now it doesn’t matter how many gallons flowed. The fact is it flowed into the drainage ditch, which is defined as state waters. The fact that they are misreporting Nāālehu spills in order to avoid putting in the sewage collection ʻ system is really a major, major problem. And it’s going to result in fines. And it’s a sin that this has not been addressed. So it’s going to be addressed on an individual level by BOE. The Board of Ethics will look at the individual roles. But it’s important that you folks look at whether or not sewage spills are being reported accurately, because if the DEM is actively misreporting, this is a critical issue and will be—will be subject to huge fines for the county. And with that said, I’m done. Thank you for letting me speak. 7. REPORTS/CORRESPONDENCE As Director Kucharski was unable to be present for the meeting, Chair Pequeño suggested the commissioners decide what questions they want him to respond to for the next meeting. A summary of issues they want addressed are: 6 • The status of the compost facility, including what the plan is now that the permit has been pulled. • An update on the spill that occurred in Nāālehuʻ. • The chloride content in the sewage collection at different points along the line and at the plants themselves. • Where the liners have been placed in the Aliʻi Drive and Palani Road sewer system to make the pipes functional again. • An update of the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan. • The illegal dumping situation in Ōʻʻ. • The status of the Waiōhinu Transfer Stationʻ. 8. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Chair Pequeño said if the commissioners thought of other items for the agenda, to let him know within the next three weeks. Commissioner Adams said Councilmember Villegas just sent a notice of a forum tomorrow about the Hawaiʻi 2050 Sustainability Plan, which is going through a 10-year update, and input is being sought. She will have the link provided to them. 9. ANNOUNCEMENTS Chair Pequeño announced the next meeting is scheduled for October 28, 2020, at 9:00 a.m., and most likely using Zoom. In addition, Councilmember Villegas just sent a chat notice that she is looking for input on good news she can share about what Hawaiʻi County is doing. 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 10:22 a.m. Respectfully submitted: Mary E. Fujio, Secretary