HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-05-26 EMC testimony - (05-19) Demoruelle, Sandra - Part 1Testimony to the Hawaii County Environmental Management
Commission May 26, 2021
Aloha Chair Adams and Commissioners,
I am Sandra Demoruelle in Naalehu and, once again, I am commenting on THE
NAALEHU AND PAHALA SEWER PROJECTS. While listening to public testimony at the County
Council special budget hearing on May 18th, I was struck by the number of important fiscal
needs presented by the public - from Kona parks and Alii Drive sewage lines, to an arborist,
ecologist and $50,000 for your EMC high priority of a “life-cycle” analyst for our renewable
solid waste. The good news is that EVERYTHING can find needed funding if DEM would only
stop throwing money away on consultants designing expensive projects to close the illegal
Ka’u large-capacity cesspools.
As Ka’u’s EMC Commissioner, Lee McIntosh, said in his May 18th Bill 21 and Bill 22
written testimony, just go back to the original septic conversion plan (costing the County
taxpayers only $403,000), which completed the Pahala AOC at the Senior Center on
schedule on September 28, 2018, as can be seen on the Semi-Annual Report, attached.
Please urge the County Council to save the County $31,528,000 this year alone for
“designing” huge Ka’u sewer projects just to get 99 homes in Pahala and 144 homes in
Naalehu off the County-owned cesspools.
Instead, please ask the Council to use this money for the good of the public to pay
for an ecologist, arborist, solid waste recycling lifecycle analyst, the Kona parks and Alii Drive
sewage lines – and a lot more.
Don’t allow the Department of Environmental Management to waste this
$31,528,000 paying more to the same outside contractors to design wastewater plants that
are not needed.
Mahalo for your attention to my concerns.
Sandra Demoruelle, PO Box 588, Naalehu HI 96772