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HomeMy WebLinkAbout21-04-28 EMC minutes ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, April 28, 2021 9:05 a.m. to 11:37a.m. (Online meeting via Zoom videoconferencing) Commissioners present: Georjean Adams, Chair Rick Gaffney, Vice Chair John Burns Melissa Cardwell Dee Fulton Carrie Hoopii Lee McIntosh Jon Olson (Audio only) Elyse Robinson County staff present: Ramzi Mansour, Director Dora Beck, Wastewater Division Chief Sanne Berrig, Recycling Specialist George Hayducsko, Recycling Coordinator Konrad Kaipo, Sewer Maintenance Working Supervisor Eric Takamura, Wastewater Deputy Chief Peter Sur, Secretary Malia Hall, Deputy Corporation Counsel Rebecca Villegas, Council Member, District 7 Cherie Griffore, Council Aide, District 7 Holeka Inaba, Council Member, District 8 Pomaika‘i Bartolome, Executive Assistant, Office of the Mayor Others present: Chantal Chung, Irina Constantineu, Sandra Demoruelle, Cory Harden, Steve Holmes, Jennifer Navarra, Michelle Sorenson, Jerome Warren, Evan Lam, others. 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Adams opened with a roll call and called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m. 1 2.APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR MEETING ONMARCH24, 2021 Motion and second: Vice Chair Gaffney moved to approve the minutes, and Commissioner Cardwell seconded the motion. Discussion: No discussion. Vote:The minutes were approved as presented by voice vote. Ayes: 9 (Adams, Burns,Cardwell, Fulton, Gaffney, Hoopii, Olson, McIntosh, Robinson); Nays 0. Motion carried. 3.STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIR The Commission is at “full speed.” It has been years since we have had nine commissioners. Chair Adams asked the two new commissioners to introduce themselves. Commissioner Robinson said she has been a Hawaii Island resident since 2004, originally from Honolulu. She has been active in the Rotary Club and the Zonta Club of Hilo. Volunteering has always been a part of her life, contributing what she can. It’s important to address the issues related to environmental management. She is happy to be here and is looking forward to hitting the ground running. Commissioner Hoopii said she is a lifelong resident of Hawai‘i Island, coming out of Keaukaha, and is actively involved in the community to work toward solutions. She volunteers her time a lot and is thankful to be here. Chair Adams thanked both new commissionersfor volunteering. It can be a lot of work but she hoped they will find it enjoyable and want to participate. It’s important for this Commission to give the people’s voice to advise the Department and the Council. 4. PUBLIC STATEMENTS ON ITEMS ON THE AGENDA Jerome Warren commented on agenda items 7-b and business report 3-5. Item 7b is the Trojan Horse of Nlehu. He read out a portion of his letter that was printed in West Hawai‘i Today on April 23, 2021: “Everybody in the Department of Environmental Management and all Hawaii County Council members have refused to look into the financial fiasco surrounding the Naalehu sewer boondoggle. The previous District 6 Environmental Management Commissioner was hostile toward me at meetings when I tried to inform commissioners about what has side-tracked a simple solution to the EPA’s gang-cesspool conversion mandate. Thankfully, our new commissioner can see the situation, whereas, the previous commissioner was part of the problem and the rest of the commissioners just ignored it. Please ask yourselves: If our gang- cesspool is such a threat to public health and the environment, then where is the evidence? 2 Why do we need an expensive monumental project?The Trojan Horse in is full of outside consultants. Another question is how much money have they already grabbed from the county’s counting house? And who opened the gate?” My next item, he said, that’s the abandoned vehicles. In regards to derelict vehicles, the He has an idea that his family lived next door to him. This is the property that is in violation of health and safety regulations. Derelict vehicles are packed in like sardines. These vehicles are parked on the side of the road pavement. And now they’re in the street and they are across the street. It’s a living hell. Your Mayor’s (Deputy Managing Director) in Kona is unable to correct this public health and safety hazard. I have a Mayor’s complaint. His communication with me is an act of psychological warfare. This is another violation of the Code of Ethics. If Keone Fox had any regard for Naalehu, he would use his skills to help the neighborhood he claims heritage to. This neighborhood is planned to be in proximity to sewer plant, which is connected to Keone Fox’ trail. This is connected. Everything is connected to everything. This sewer plant is under the authority of the EPA. I talked with them this morning. The EPA deadline according to this gentleman is 2023. However your deadline is 2027. Look at the business report. Nobody will straighten this out, not even the EPA. The cars and the sewer are creating mistrust in government. Mahalo. Sandra Demoruelle welcomed thenew commissioners and thanked them for their service. This is really splendid that you do have a full Commission now. What I would like to shed light on this morning is how the County’s wastewater consultants have a lack of knowledge of the Endangered Species Act and how this will place both the Naalehu sewer project and the Kona Sewage Pump Station projects in violation of Section 9 of the ESA, which can lead to potential expenses and civil and criminal penalties. While the Departmenthas shownagreatrespectfor Hawai‘i’s cultural laws, which they call Section 106 and so forth, there is a definite lack of understanding of the nature Section 9, Take of Endangered Species, and why neither the County nor the State Department of Health are eligible for Section 7 consultation. I have provided information for you on the differences between Section 7 and Section 10. I am particularly concerned because at the bottom of Page 6 of the Director’s Report, it says Section 7 by DOH for the sewer project. But Section 7 is only available for interagency consultation among federal agencies, like the EPA did for the project. And as you can read for yourself, in the EPA Basics, the two-page pamphlet I provided from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the County and State agencies Department of Environmental Management and Department of Health, have to do a Section 10 habitat conservation plan for Hawaiian hoary bats, nn and the assorted waterbirds that are endangered species that are found in Naalehu and in Kona. Finally, I would just say that the Department has no agencies named for these Section 7 consults. So unless they follow Section 10 procedures they will not be able to avoid civil and criminal penalties, which does in fact award fees to the people who sue. So it puts a lot of reason for sewing in the hands of Sierra Club and so forth. So again I want to say thank you for your service and I hope you will help the Department understand the difference and that the do need to follow Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act. Thank you for your time and service. 3 5. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Status report on 2021 EMC Priorities – Each lead commissioner to provide brief report on assigned priorities. Chair Adams o DEM reports each month on progress on ISWMP goals, with specific emphasis on reducing and recycling organic wastes. EMC provides comment and support with Council. o DEM adopts an explicit philosophy of water resource management versus wastewater management and begins to reflect this in its planning and goals. (Example – Kealakehe WWTP). o Get review from the State attorney general regarding the Konno decision that seems to unnecessarily prevent cost-effective, creative solutions to problems. o Champion cross-agency and multiple stakeholder engagement in addressing life cycle issues of waste and wastewater management. Have joint commission meeting(s). Request presentations by other departments (e.g. HDOH, HDOT). (Co-lead Olson). o Become involved in the Mayor’s sustainability planning process. (Chair Adams said she would take a “pass” on her items at this time with the understanding she would have an opportunity to discuss them later in the agenda during the Director’s Report) Commissioner Burns o Enhance the availability and capacity of transfer stations to ensure residents can effectively manage waste and reduce the likelihood of waste being improperly or illegally disposed. Commissioner Burns met with Solid Waste Division Chief Greg Goodale and Recycling Coordinator George Hayducsko to discuss all the issues that the Commission tackles related to moving forward with solid waste and managing recycling. He wanted to get a clear picture of where the Commission can help by pursuing initiatives that are valuable. They were informative and supportive and willing to meet with commissioners to give insight. As someone who works with the state, there are a lot of complexities and it’s rarely a simple solution. There are usually a lot of reasons why things act as chaotically andcrazily as they seem. They also have a lot of initiatives that can help to free up funds to improve their program. On one level in these meetings we come down to a lack of a budget. One of the reasons the budget is limited is these programs come to an end. And there are stipulations with the way money can be moved from Oahu to Hawai‘i County. That often leads to scenarios where there may be an earmarked amount of funds but only a smaller portion of that makes it here for what can actually be utilized. He ran through a few bulleted items they brought up where we could provide legitimate support by writing letters to Council Members saying, we think this should be legislation, to allow them to make positive changes for our waste management and recycling. 1.Increasing greenwaste fees: There is a lot of work they have to do to combat the simple scenario of commercial operations putting greenwaste in the landfill. We all wish there is the possibility of downstream separation, but the reality is once a bin is contaminated, that bin ends up in the landfill. So there isn’t the money to 4 support the people being at all the transfer stations, but by raising the fees, nobody likes that, nobody wants to see the fees raised, but that gives them the opportunity to have an internal managed budget where they can honor that more effectively. 2. Creating diversion programs: This is something we could support. Certain transfer stations would have dedicated days for greenwaste only, and that way all the greenwaste that comes that day cannot contaminate the other waste bins and cannot end up in the landfill. Small things that seemsimple but need a lot of support. That can ruffle feathers because on a diversion day people might not want to bring greenwaste on a Thursday; they might want to bring on a Wednesday. It won’t be a “one size fits all,”but it’s a reasonable approach to try to eliminate contaminating waste bins. 3. Expanded producer responsibility programs: These are ways for consumer items to collect a fee up front, and then can deal with the disposal and management of that. One area Mr. Hayducsko is working on now is fees for stores that sell paint. The stores are supportive of it. Fees would be built into the paint you purchase, and would help with the paint disposal. Fees would go to county recycling, not to the business, and then have the business tasked with recycling the item. As we have seen with tires, the tire recycling program doesn’t work perfectly, and the surplus of funds for tire recycling stays with the private company. We need those funds to stay within the Recycling budget so they have the capacity to deal with the management and respond to public input. 4. Standardized waste management plans: As an example with plastic bags, this can be a big success. The problem can be when each County adopts a unique structure of the rules, and that can catch people off-guard. For a business like Safeway, which serves all counties, it can be difficult to comply with differing ordinances. One thing we can support is a standardized plan, which makes it easier for businesses to comply. The easier you make it to comply with rules, the more people and business will do it. It’s a positive consideration to take into account. 5. Encouraging life cycle assessments: This is to encourage the County and the Council to allocate funds for life cycle assessments for a lot of these recycling programs. Hi-5 programs, for example, have a lifespan. For a lot of the items we recycle the cost and requirements to deal with it will change in 5 and 10 years. It would be a positive movement to do more life cycle assessments. We saw the outcry over the loss of the contract for recycling, but the reality of it, and we need better education, is you just cannot do the recycling as done on the mainland when you are isolated on a small island. And you burn an enormous amount of resources moving those recyclables away. We need to develop creative strategies that work for here. They are not going to be the same for everywhere. 6. Increase the Hi-5 glass recycling fee: Right now the State funds going to glass don’t actually go to our County. We’re running out of money to deal with glass and that can be a low-hanging fruit. Because we know the mechanisms of 5 recycling it. As previously alluded, often you have money set at the State level, but often it does not go to the counties where it is needed. That is something we can support and the County Council can lobby the State to ensure those funds make it to the recycling program so they have the adequate money they need to deal with things like glass. 7. Encourage oil recycling: If we could advocate to take the scale down to quarts, instead of large gallon volumes, that helps to deal with oil recycling at a consumer levels, not individual levels. We buy oil in quarts, not 55-gallon drums. As it is now it’s geared to high end commercial consumers. That is something they would like to change. 8. Electronic waste funds being allocated directly to the counties. About $250,000 went to the island but only $100,000 went to the County because of the stipulations in moving funds. There’s a whole back story to that, but it’s another example where we can advocate to the Council that all the funds set aside actually end up in the budgets for the County to do what they need to do to deal with e-Waste. Commissioner Burns said he would be happy to summarize those points or put them into letters that the Commission can review. These are tangible directives we can take from their advice to push forward that program. This is a valuable area we could spend time on, trying to support them, and not focus on the lack of a budget but change the structuring to build independent budgets within our County to maintain the projects in the long term. Chair Adams recommended that Commissioner Burns come up with specific proposals, so we’ll get it on the agenda, and have background information on priorities, and then we can address it as a Commission. She said Commissioner Burns could go ahead and draft a letter and the Commission can have a discussion around the letter. She hopes other commissioners might also pull together a package and we can get it on an agenda, discuss a motion, write a letter, and get it done. Commissioner Burns said he would talk with SWD Chief Goodale and figure out a prioritized list. He could start off with a letter and we could all weigh in with revisions, and push it forward. Commissioner Cardwell o Support efforts on sustainable island-wide residential food waste composting: i. Support identification of barriers and solutions with stakeholders. ii. Pilot scalable, safe and cost-effective processes to collect and convert food waste and distribute valuable compost to users. While Commissioner Cardwell did not have new information to report, she wanted to reiterate that one of the barriers to composting is the permitting process, and the other piece that wasn’t mentioned in the March meeting was that there has been an argument about harvesting methane from landfills. If we continue to put organics in the landfill we could harvest the methane. She wanted to oppose that idea because it makes more sense to use composting material for compost and not for methane, especially when energy sources like solar and wind power are so cheap that it doesn’t make sense to harvest the methane. 6 Commissioner Fulton o Support public-private comprehensive sewage management for the Keauhou area. o Recommend Council allow DEM to evaluate laterals to WWTP for Kailua Bay. o DEM to identify priorities for moving its infrastructure at risk of sea level rise in the Kona area (indeed all areas) as part of county sustainability/climate planning efforts. Council Member Villegas, Director Mansour, and Commissioner Fulton met via Zoom and spoke about the priorities in Council District 7. Priorities that Commissioner Fulton identified included the cleanup of the leakage of sewage and the infiltration of ocean water into the sewer system on Ali‘i Drive; the development of a sewer district from Kahalu‘u to Keauhou. She had a follow- up meeting with Vice Chair Gaffney, Cindi Punihaole, and Council Member Villegas, and they strategized about how to make these things come to fruition. Chair Adams encouraged Commissioner Fulton, when she is ready to move on something, to put it on a future Commission agenda and have background information ready for action, if EMC is the proper venue to make that happen. Vice Chair Gaffney o Support public-private sustainability planning in the Keahole area, particularly to achieve sustainable water treatment for reuse. o Refocus efforts at Kealakehe WWTP to recover and use R-1 water locally. Since the last meeting Vice Chair Gaffney said he had been working on the ongoing issue of having a sewer plumbing connected to nothing, which makes no sense to him. When the Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway was widened, a sewer pipe and a return line were installed between Kohanaiki and the Kealakehe Parkway, which is the entrance to Honokhau Small Boat Harbor. There has been no movement toward an actual connection of those two pipes for the last 0.6 mile to the Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant. He had a meeting with Director Mansour and also meetings with Rep. Nicole Lowen, who represents the district, because clearly funding is required to make those connections and have complete sewer system which not only delivers sewage from as far north as Kohanaiki and all of the mauka properties that can be connected, particularly Hina Lani Drive, where there are new developments are coming in. Their sewage goes to the plant and the recycled water comes back because at least in years past Kohanaiki was interested in buying recycled water once it became available. harbor has always been one of the target destinations for recycled water because they have lots of landscaping take care of. The North Kona Sewer Pump Station project is moving forward and that will include at least the sewer line to connect Kealakehe Parkway to the wastewater treatment plant. He did not know whether that is also going to include the return line. If it is not, the Vice Chair would come back to the Commission and suggest we write a letter to the Council. There is no sense digging a trench for one pipe when you can dig a trench and put two pipes in it. That would be the sewage line and the return line. So that’s issue number one. The other thing he has been working on since the March meeting is getting the Department of Land and Natural Resources to commit to the sewering of all of harbor. Sewage is 7 essentially flowing intotheocean because of antiquated sewer systems and antiquated sewage management systems failing regularly. There are a combination of cesspools, injection wells, and septic systems at harbor. None of them is connected to the others. There is also a membrane bioreactor that was required to be put in by the state. We have a new District Manager for the Boating Division, who is very positively disposed to getting the harbor sewered. The Vice Chair also sitson a H2050 Commission, and we have made that our first priority, that we sewer all of , connect at the highway, and also that we are ready to receive R-1 water when it is ready for irrigation. Chair Adams told Vice Chair Gaffney to let her know when these proposals are ready for proposed action, and then we can discuss it on an agenda item. Commissioner McIntosh o DEM to re- identify more reasonable cost solutions (No report) Commissioner Olson o Champion cross-agency and multiple stakeholder engagement in addressing life cycle issues of waste and wastewater management. Have joint commissions meeting(s). Request presentations by other departments (e.g. HDOH, HDOT). (Co-lead Adams) o Enhance solid waste and wastewater infrastructure, given expected population growth in the Puna district. o Review and support sufficient funding and creative cost reductions recommended by DEM. Commissioner Olson addressed the abandoned vehicle removal process. Puna in the early 1990swas the dumping ground for unwanted cars and his group got together and decided we were going to work on that issue. Part of that is the reason the Commission exists is because a couple dozen of them got together and got it on the ballot. This was not an idea that came from government. The car issue continues to be a sore point with us here, and it’s probably going to be a sore point until we deal with the funding issue.The funding is not being dealt with because basically all of our funding for these programs comes from the County coffers, which is based primarily on property taxes. There is a total disconnect between the people who bring the cars to the island, and then dispose of them, and the disposal process. We need to get to the point where we have collected the money for the disposal of the vehicle and anything else that we will need to dispose of, or remanufacture and reuse,is collected at the point of purchase. The bottle bill has been a fairly successful program. We certainly do not have the problem we used to have before the program was implemented. And it is by and large self-funding. And we need to check the boxes, up and down the line, for anything that comes on to the island if it has a disposal component. We need to have the money in the bank to deal with it when it shows up, either to remove or reutilize it here. He had spent the last couple of months talking this up with everyone who would listen to him. Probably the most challenging part is going to be setting up the programs themselves, and the fact that everything that comes in has a bar code already on it. His question now is, how we get from where we are to where we want to be on that. He was one of the people involved in the design committee that created the first recycling center, the 8 one in Keaau. The issue of greenwaste was brought up. Initially we had dealt with that by having the greenwaste facility privately operated but adjoiningthat facility. There was property set aside along the Kea‘au Transfer Station recycling center to deal with greenwaste. That component was never completed. We agreed it can be an asset for the community if it is managed, Commissioner Olson said. Paying for it obviously is going to be a question. In the circulars that we sent out initially about greenwaste, most of the people who answered the handout said they would be willing to pay for compost. So the majority of people who were willing to drop off were willing to pay for the completed process. He said he would have more on that as we go along. He was still working on some of the finer points, and would like to have a broader discussion with all of the people here to see how we can make that move forward. Chair Adams said that if Commissioner Olson is ready to roll with a specific proposal, with background information, to let her know and it would be placed on a future agenda for action. To the new commissioners, Chair Adams recommended that if there are priority issues that they would be interested in joining, they should contact the lead person and get some more background, or if you have your own issue to do the homework on and pull together the information, and make a proposal for us to discuss, at one of our meetings so we can move it forward, let her or the Secretary know, and we’ll get it on the agenda. We are all volunteers so you work at the pace you can work but we are all passionate around this area, and we’re only going to make things happen if we can pull it together into something concrete we can move it forward. b. Status report on action items from previous meeting i. Letter to Council to recommend bringing in a financial consultant to consider, among other options, enterprise funding and energy savings performance contracts. Chair Adams referenced the letter placed in the agenda packet drafted by Commissioner Fulton to recommend that the Council hire a consultant in financial and environmental funding to look at, in particular, an enterprise funding process for wastewater treatment management, to get us a sustainable long-term revenue base to handle the costs that come in, to keep our wastewater treatment operations functional, and also to look at energy savings performance contracts as another option. The consultant would look at all the different ways that can help with funding. Motion and second: Commissioner Olson made a motion to adopt the contents of the draft letter on wastewater management funding consultation, to which Vice Chair Gaffney seconded. Discussion: Commissioner McIntosh said his only concern was referencing Honolulu as the example for their wastewater system. That’s not a good system because they need to revamp their entire system just as much as us but theirs will cost as much as the rail. Chair Adams asked Commissioner Fulton to respond, adding she thought the purpose was just to tell the Council that “hey, we have done it in this State. It’s not a strange, weird thing to do.” Hawaii County is not Honolulu but there are similar experiences and lessons to be learned. 9 Commissioner Fulton replied that the advantage to referencing Honolulu’s experience is we have a template so we can have contacts made between the counties and smooth out the process, and streamline it. Commissioners Olson and Cardwell also saw no problem with mentioning the City and County of Honolulu. Chair Adams hoped that a consultant would look at an array of sustainable funding processes that we could use for wastewater treatment. Commissioner Cardwell said her only concern is that we are hiring an outside consultant who makes a recommendation, and that recommendation sits on a shelf somewhere and nothing comes of it. Some kind of followup needs to happen so that money is not wasted on hiring consultant and then nothing happens. Chair Adams agreed that was a valid concern and added that following up would be a role for this Commission. Or the Commission could disagree with the recommendation. She hoped the Commission would follow through and make sure it’s happening. Commissioner Cardwell asked if something could be added into the letter regarding followup, just to emphasize the point. Commissioner McIntosh agreed with the idea of an enterprise fund. He felt that Director Mansour would keep on top of the issues, but the Commission could always keep tabs on it as well and have the letter be more positive than accusatory. Chair Adams asked Director Mansour to add any comments. Director Mansour said the idea is to get the financial consultant to look at the pros and cons and lessons learned so we can avoid the bad mistakes, and move forward with a better system to our County. And the good thing now is we have a Commissioner with an economics and finance background. So Commissioner Robinson could assist and navigate through these requirements. It’s a win-win, no matter how you look at it, and the City and County of Honolulu is seeing dividends as we speak. They were in the same situation we were in, with a collapsing system. They are now providing top of the line system with resource recovery, water reuse, and fertilizer for compost. It’s amazing how they can be self-sufficient and financially stable to do all these projects without a subsidy from the General Fund. It empowers the Department to do what’s right. Health and safety becomes a priority, and funding becomes a priority. Chair Adams asked if any Commissioner wanted to amend the contents of the letter further. Hearing none, she proceeded to the vote on the main motion. Vote: The motion was approved by roll call. Ayes: 8 (Adams, Cardwell, Fulton, Gaffney, Hoopii, Olson, McIntosh, Robinson); Nays 0. Absent: 1 (Burns) Motion carried. Following the vote, 10 Commissioner Olson suggested requesting to the appropriate Council committee chair to place it on a committee agenda so it can be discussed in public. ii. Commissioner Fulton said that he hasn’t made an inquiry recently, and based on the discussion in the previous meeting, she came away from that with the understanding if she asked that data will be shared with her. She asked Director Mansour about whether the request should be made to him or to the head of wastewater operations. Director Mansour replied that he wantedto make sure the interpretation of that data is correct. If she has a question, please call, he said, and don’t share any interpretation that may mislead the public or staff. That would open a can of worms. Commissioner Fulton said the subject is the accessibility of the data, and what she does with that data is at her discretion. She added she appreciates the Director’s opinion. iii. Format and content of the Director’s Informational Report. Chair Adams asked for comment on the report as constituted. Commissioner Cardwell said the format and content are easy to read. It seems functional. Chair Adams suggested the report include a segment on the implementation of the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, though she could communicate with the Director on that. It’s an open issue, if anyone has got some suggestions and is not getting the information being requested, or is tired of reading certain items, please let her know. 6. NEW BUSINESS i. Why the Life Cycle Analysis that DEM was planning to do was postponed (Requested by Commissioner Cardwell) Recycling Coordinator George Hayducsko said we had planned on utilizing the funds available in our education budget. We did the work to solicit the consultants, we got the consultants on, and worked on the contract, and we had a budget for it, but it became apparent that the Division is in dire straits of funding, and he was informed those funds were no longer available. Funding for the project was taken away from us, he said. We do have a new budget starting July 1 and we do have funds in our education budget to do this if it is passed by the County as drafted. He said the Solid Waste Advisory Committee are very excited about doing this project. The Council did pass the Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan. They did approve that and this is one of the high priorities, one of the top six items. The goal is to make sure whatever we do in his County that we are not wasting resources but saving resources. The plan will give us a guide on doing that. We are excited about doing that project but funding was cut so we did not have an opportunity to do it right now. Commissioner Cardwell commented that goes back to what she was sharing at the last meeting about the importance of collecting information and data. She was hoping that budget gets 11 approved. She learned it was $50,000 to do this life cycle analysis, which is not a lot of money. If there’s no money, there’s no money. But it’s frustrating for her and for most of us when we havethese goals. Chair Adams was on the SWAC, which came up with these goals, and presented them, and because of money it is not accomplished. But if we want to move forward, this is the exact information that we need to determine whether our programs are doing more than good. One of the examples is shipping our cardboard to Taiwan. Not only is the environmental impact pretty large and we could use that cardboard here for composting projects. That would come up in this life cycle analysis and we would have the science to back up our decision-making process. Would it be helpful to draft a letter to County Council, something in support of passing the budget so something like this could be approved? Maybe that could be something we could do. Chair Adams asked whether there would be any advantage to having the EMC send a letter of support to Council members. Director Mansour said he would leave that up to the Commission. This year the Solid Waste Division is coming up $1.8 million short, so now we have to figure out how to offset that. With the next year’s budget the idea is to continue with a “status quo” budget. So that should cover the revenue shortfall. Anything helps, but everyone in the Council understands that our Departments really need the funding. Chair Adams said the Council would expect the EMC to support funding, and if we had to go through and line-item different things, she’s not sure if the Commission is prepared to do that. Director Mansour said the initial letter to the Council is going to send a message about the Department’s financial state. You already have the message sent, he said. Commissioner Olson reiterated that the Commission came into being by the vote of the eligible voters of Hawai‘i County. This is not a creation of government in and of itself, so the majority of the people on the island at this time believed that this body would improve their overall well- being. That’s what we are here to do. In terms of handling our waste stream and our wastewater. So step up to the plate. Chair Adams said what she was asking is whether there is something specific to this proposed budget that we are prepared to comment on, and if so we need a copy of the budget, to go through it. Commissioner Olson said the Department has produced budgets based on what they need to do. And we have to this point supported what they believe they need to do to accomplish their job. So the question is, are we satisfied with the work that has been done, and it sounds like we are supportive of it. And now it’s up to the Council to figure out where they are going to get the money to do it. 12 Commissioner Cardwell questioned whether we need to go through entire budget or it this only one line item of it. Maybe the Council doesn’t know much about a Life Cycle Analysis so it could get easily overlooked. To her, it’s one item in the budget. Is that something we could do to look through the entire budget? Commissioner Olson said probably not. The appropriate agency has looked through it and said, this is what we need to get the job done, and this is what it’s going to cost. And we have supported that analysis, and therefore we should be going to the Council and we support their analysis of what needs to get done. And it’s their job to figure out how to do it. Chair Adams noted that the revised draft the budget is coming out May 5, and there will be a public hearing on May 18. As she understand it the Life Cycle Analysis study is within the DEM’s education budget, and she would be amazed if it were a line item being sent to the Council or budget approval. Mr. Hayducsko said that is correct that it is coming out of DEM’s education budget. We know how important education is and how we haven’t been doing the job that wewanted to do because money has been taken away from us for multiple years. The education budget is currently $100,000, so the LCA would take half of that, or $50,000. LCA 50K. What would be great is if we had $50,000 to do the LCA and the education stayed. Unfortunately the Solid Waste Division Chief is not present in the meeting to provide comment. Chair Adams wondered whether there is a need for a letter or whether this commentary is sufficient to emphasize that we would like to see the Department conduct or prepare a LCA format for thinking through the alternatives of how they do waste management, and that it be adequately funded, and where it happens to come out of the pot that DEM gets is less of an issue to argue with the Council. It’s more for DEM to prioritize. Having been on the SWAC, education is Number 1. And part of the education is giving information on the context that a Life Cycle Analysis provides on what are the true costs behind the way we do what we do on waste management. We’re 50 percent of the education budget; are there other things that we can do? That kind of makes her wince but we’ve got to take the money somewhere, and forward it. She is struggling a little bit about what actions the Commission should be taking. She is more skeptical about need to send something to Council, because Council will looking at the big number and everything that the Department is doing, and $50,000 is not much by comparison. Or do we need to go to the Department and say there were priorities set in the ISWMP and education was No. 1, and the LCA was in the top six list – do it, and give some money toward it. But she thinks they know that, and she is not sure that we need to put it in writing. We would need a motion for that, and what would we put in writing? Commissioner McIntosh said that because it’s coming up for a public hearing it might be better if commissioners individually contributed testimony in support, because usually the way it works is that the Department submits large number to the Finance Committee and they leave it up to Departments to figure out how to divide it out, unless they specifically request line item 13 budget matters. If we say we support the budget as is, that’s all we can do. It’s not necessary for us as a Commission. Commissioner Olson reiterated, “not towhip the horse,” that the Commission has a seat at the table by the same methodology that the Mayor and all of the Council Members have a seat at the table. It is a creation of a vote of eligible voters on the Island of Hawaii. The majority of the people on this island felt it was important enoughto create this body, and to speak to these issues directly to these other elected officials. He was not saying that we at any opportunity should go and speak to what we believe are the needs, but it is pretty fundamental, and the reason he could say that is we got a majority of votes that created the organization. So if he had any fault, in the past we have not exercised what he saw as an obligation. Director Mansour said maybe what you need to do, because this is close to your heart and everybody on the Commission, and after what the Commission has heard from Mr. Hayducsko – he is kind of hesitant to split the education budget because that is going to take away from other educational programs – that you need to do for the entire year, what you need to do is maybe you ought to request an additional $50,000 to be put to the budget to allow for the contract to move forward. That way, at least that $50,000 will be dedicated just to that study, and it would be approved by the Council upon your request. That way you always will guarantee that the study would be done because that $50,000 will be dedicated for that particular study. Otherwise he could see Mr. Hayducsko and the Solid Waste Division struggling between other educational programs. So maybe what Commissioner Olson was saying if it’s your obligation and you want this study to be done, maybe ask for dedicated funds to go to that study. Commissioner Olson commented that he would support that as a mechanism to accomplish the goal. Commissioner Cardwell asked what is the action to be taken? If we have a seat at the table, and it’s our kuleana to make some movement in these matters, then what specific action do we take? It does sound like that idea of drafting a letter to ask for an additional $50,000 to be specifically spent on that study, it seems like that would be well within our power to do that. She said she would be willing to work on that letter Motion and second: Commissioner Cardwellmade a motion that the Commission write a letter to the Council to recommend that $50,000 be added in the FY 21-22 operating budget to a Life Cycle Analysis study, to which Commissioner Olson seconded. Discussion: Commissioner Robinson asked whether asking for an additional $50,000 would cause some confusion because it’s already an ask in the other bucket of money; and she is wondering if the whether the Council will think we’re asking for $100,000. Commissioner Olson said we could clarify it. 14 Director Mansour said the $100,000 is just for educational programs, it’s not per se just for that contract. We have a lot of work ahead of us from that part of the education. As Mr. Hayducsko said if you take away $50,000, that is limit us to do nothing, almost for the entire year to do any educational programs. So no, that definitely the $50,000 is dedicated to that study, and reflects it’s very close to you heart. You need it to be done because for us as a Department, the education along the entire island probably has more priority than just doing the report. The $100,000 is not going to take you anywhere, it’s a small amount of money. Chair Adams said we’re talking about bumping up your request for a budget byanother $50,000, and have it specific to conduct a study. Director Mansour said our hands our constrained. We get instructions about how to makethe budget. We get these requirements that we have stay within and sometimes we are not able to include projects that you would like to see in the budget, because we have that parameters that we have to set our budget for. But if you as a Commission can see something that is not in the budget, but you want it, then that’s where your obligation comes in, and you send a letter saying, add additional money because you firmly believe in that. Chair Adams restated the motion would be to request to the Council to add $50,000to the DEM budget dedicated to developing a template for conductinglife cycle assessments to evaluate our solid waste management programs and recycling programs. Vote: The motion was approved by roll call. Ayes: 8 (Adams, Cardwell, Fulton, Gaffney, Hoopii, Olson, McIntosh, Robinson); Nays 0. Absent: 1 (Burns) Motion carried.Following the vote, Chair Adams asked Commissioner Cardwell to take a shot at drafting a letter, and to get it in before May 18. Commissioner Cardwell said she would send a draft to Chair Adams, who would then distribute it. ii. Is DEM applying for any Hawaii County R&D Innovation grants for sustainable development? https://www.rd.hawaiicounty.gov/funding-grant- resources/r-d-innovation-grants Chair Adams said there was a question about whether the Department of Environmental Management was seeking an innovation grant from the County Department of Research and Development. The Chair spoke with Mr. Hayducsko the previous day and wanted to know more about the grants that vary in amounts. Are you working on getting grants, and which ones? Mr. Hayducsko said yes we are, and we are seeing if we are able to apply for those, so we are having internal discussion on that. It may apply to a couple of projects. We are short-funded for the electronic recycling programs, so we are seeing if it is a good fit. Sanne Berrig, Recycling Specialist, is working on a master recycler composting program. We are looking to see how that works out. Chair Adams had worked on that grant previously with Recycle Hawai‘i and they were successful in getting a $5,000 grant (which was ultimately returned). We are very interested in using the language they used and basically duplicating that effort, and maybe 15 increasing it to more than $5,000. The problem is when you don’t have any money and there’s a 50 percentmatch, that does cause a problem. We arestill going to be pursuing those to see where we can come up with the matching funds. We use our staff time so we might be able to cover our match using our staff time for that, maybe even volunteer time. We are definitely pursing those and more than just those two programs. We are looking to try to fill some of the funding holes that we have and we are looking for other grants too, not just that one. Chair Adams said she was glad to hear we are going after that. If anyone is working with organizations, the web link (in the agenda) may be provided to non-governmental organizations as well. The deadline is May 18, so work fast. iii. Future venues for EMC meetings – whether to continue virtual meetings or resume in-person meetings in Hilo/Kailua-Kona. Chair Adams asked whether it is OK to keep having virtual meetings. The discussion from the last meeting was yes, we all like the fact that we don’t have to drive across the island. It sounds like things might be loosening up relative to COVID-19. But have we heard of any official rule that allows us to continue holding virtual Commission meetings? Deputy Counsel Hall said the Commission can continue conducting virtual meetings, as it has become the norm across most boards and commissions in the County. Chair Adams noted by way of background for the new commissioners that because this is the “Big Island,” the discussion in the previous meeting determined we all appreciate not having to drive more than an hour to go a meeting, and would continue this. She said it’s great for having more opportunities for the public to listen in on the meetings. As far as she was concerned, we should still do this. However at some point, post-pandemic, we should get together just to get together, because there are advantages to bonding as a group. For now, she is glad to keep meeting via Zoom. 7. REPORTS/CORRESPONDENCE www.hawaiicounty.gov>Our County> County Calendar> (Meeting date). Director Mansour started by thanking Vice Chair Gaffney and Commissioner Fulton for their meeting, and for reaching out for discussion. He thanked Commissioner Burns for meeting with Solid Waste Division staff to understand our business to get a better focus on our needs. He asked Commissioner Cardwell to let us know when she wants to visit the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant. As far as some of the comments that were given at the beginning regarding the Endangered Species Act are concerned, we could look into it about the animal take. We will look at Section 10 to see how that will be impacted. To Commissioner Olson, regarding the abandoned vehicle issue, please continue working with Chief Goodale to figure out a way, he said. Deputy Director Brenda Iokepa-Moses was committed to do more about the abandoned oing to be able to come with something that can take care of these issues. The beautification project is under Public Works, but they also 16 have to be within the right-of-ways so they can pick up any abandoned vehicles. But when it’s on private properties, that can limit involvement. But let’s continue working that, figuring out ways to beautify the island. And if anybody had any questions about the report, please ask. 1. Legislative update Commissioner Cardwell asked about HB 1298, which is about moving $5 million from the beverage container deposit special fund and $1 million from the electronic device recycling fund. Her question was whether that will affect those programs, and if so, how. Mr. Hayducsko said we’ve already been impacted by COVID-19, where the Department of Health has given us fewer funds than they told us they were going to give us. So it is uncertain how those funds being transferred out of the designated funds will impact us in the long term but we’ve already been impacted. The money wassitting there, and we still got less money. We were designated to get over $200,000 to support our e-waste, as an example, and the Governor would not sign that. So the Department of Health actually sent that to the Governor and he would not sign that. We only ended up getting $99,500 because DOH could actually give us that without the Governor’s approval. We are already seeing an impact. And he would love to see our non-HI-5 glass program get fully funded, because the money was there and we couldn’t get it because of the current legislation. So we have definitely been impacted, but he is unable to answer directly how because the money was there and we still didn’t get the money.To his understanding the redirecting of the funds will be used to pay for their programs. Chair Adams asked about HB 1299, which was basically about stopping a special environmental management fund for the Department of Health and having the money go into the general fund, and the Legislature would have to decide whether to appropriate the money. It’s concerning when we are talking about having an enterprise fund for wastewater treatment if they are taking away the opportunity to have special fund money from everybody. There is a huge list of special funds that the State is garnishing to place instead into the general fund, to cover the shortfall from COVID-19. Will the American Rescue Plan funds make a difference, and the money will come back, who knows? It’s again one of those challenges of how do you get money, and use every avenue available. Commissioner Olson said a point of purchase disposal fee would be entirely a County function. The funding issue is “old news.” The State has done this continuously to the Counties because it meets its needs first. Chair Adams said the concept of expanded producer responsibility was discussed in the ISWMP. It’s also one of the things we’re looking at, with regard to enterprise fund approaches and dedicated funding. The biggest issue is whether we could get funds from a supplier that could go direct to the County and not through the State. If it goes through the State and then gets divided up, that seems to be where we are losing the money. Commissioner Olson said his understanding is as long as it is site specific – in other words, it’s electronics, it’s the bottle bills, it’s anything that is going to have a residual impact. Obviously, you’re not going to collect money over a loaf of bread. The wastewater treatment issues is 17 separate because you have a much more complex chain of command. More moving parts. Collecting fees at over-the-counter sales is a straightforward thing, it goes to a dedicated fund that is used for nothing else, and it avoids tampering from afar. Commissioner Cardwell asked isn’t that what the HI-5 program is already doing, and the money is still being taken? Commissioner Olson said the difference is HI-5 is a state matter. Chair Adams said maybe that would be something for Commissioner Olson and maybe Commissioner Robinson to look into: How can we establish a tax on goods brought to this island when I buy everything on Amazon? Commissioner Olson cautioned about using the word “tax.” It’s a fee with a dedicated purpose. As far as how it would work on orders made outside the County, that is an issue we are going to have to figure out, Commissioner Olson said. Chair Adams said it could be a future agenda item. The PaintCare program could be a model of how it works. 2. Requests for updates: The commissioners have requested informational updates on the following: a. Tran Commissioner McIntosh) Station is going to begin. It keeps getting pushed back and the sign has been up for at least two months. Mr. Hayducsko said he was unable to answer the question, he could say the Hawai‘i Wildlife nets. They were told to request that HWF remove the nets to prepare for construction. That indicates it is happening sooner rather than later. They took a huge load of those nets out last weekend and there is about half of it left. They are going to be coming back this weekend to get the remainder of them. It is a great, successful program. He is not sure about the timing of construction but it is getting closer because we have to remove those nets. Commissioner McIntosh asked about whether a decision has been made to keep the transfer station open. Director Mansour said those are still being looked at for options. For now it will stay open until the Department decides what it is going to do. We are going to meet in-house to make sure that service continues. If it closes people will need to go to other transfer stations during the construction. But that will be worked out and people will be notified via signage what is being done. 18 b. McIntosh) Chair Adams asked the Director to comment on negotiations going on with the EPA regarding gang cesspools. Director Mansour said we haven’t heard back from them on the NEPA process, so we are waiting on them. We are waiting on some items that we are working on in-house, such as the geotechnical reports. So we are still waiting to see what direction that will go. c. Implementing the goals and priorities of the ISWMP (Requested by Chair Adams) Chair Adams said that one of the things that we’ll be talking to the Director about is how to format a standard template to report progress with the ISWMP. The plan was approved at the last Council meeting, and unfortunately there were several comments about how disappointed the Council was, and having participated on the Solid Waste Advisory Council for a couple of years writing it, she was kind of bummed. But one of the things that she wanted to make happen is for the priorities that are set and the recommendations in the plan are acted upon by the Department. She would like to see a tracking mechanism for what’s happening. She had identified six core actions being taken, education being No. 1, but also re-evaluating the contract with Waste Management Hawai‘i so that they don’t get paid by how much is going into the landfill but to see if we can turn that around and they can get paid for how much they are diverting from the landfill because we are recycling it. There are discussions on that with WMH, and life cycle assessment, so there is some work that is happening already that is starting before the plan is approved. Now we can track it and make sure it isn’t just a plan that we put on the shelf; we are going to report on what is happening or not happening. Commissioner Cardwell agreed, saying that it is important. It goes back to what she said earlier about all these wonderfulideas that sits on a shelf somewhere and there is no action that is taken. Perhaps the Director’s Report could include updates on those six priorities. She would appreciate something like that. 3. Solid Waste Division Projects and Updates Chair Adams noted concern about the decision not to allow trailers at transfer stations for safety reasons, and she understands the Director is looking at what practical options we have. Is there something that the Commission can do about it? Director Mansour said this rule took effect under the last administration. It was supposed to take effect in March and implementation was delayed to get a handle on what is going on. And he discovered that he had no authority to revoke the administrative rule (outside of emergency proclamations or due process) once it is approved. He asked about the reason behind the ban on trailers, which was for safety. He tried to confirm what the initial intent was, and found it is a safety issue. Now we have to go through the legal process. But prior to that first we need to find out if we can remedy the concern. The Safety Committee had recommended a redesign of 19 these facilities to be ableto accommodate trailers, because they were not initially built for that purpose. The whole idea was small vehicles come in, they dump their household garbage into the chute, and people go on their daily business. We are looking at different options. Maybe instead of having sites open three or five days for residential waste, take a day away from residential and dedicate it to trailers, and try to modify the site and eliminate the hazards. If we cannot modify the hazards, then we will go back to Council Member Richards and convey the new findings. But if we take a day away, the residents without trailers might get mad because now they have one day fewer for garbage. As a Commission you need to know where that is going to go. Any comments or recommendations on that topic would also be appreciated. It’s taking one day away from non-trailer users, and how many people have a trailer? If 10 percent of residents use a trailer, is it feasible to take one day away from everyone else? And the trailer ban is not really a ban. They still can drive to landfill. We aren’t saying you cannot use a trailer at all. Take it to the landfill. It’s a bigger site, you can move around without creating a safety hazard to vehicles or workers around you. Chair Adams said that just as the Commission prefers to meet virtually, driving to this island from wherever you live is also a logistical headache. And when you talk about distributed compost sites, and how we locate things in places that are convenient, practical, and safe, it’s a big challenge on this island. Director Mansour said that when the decision was made in late 2020, it was safety, which is the No. 1 priority for staff that operate the facilities. Make it a weekend trip. Unless you can find us money to convert these transfer stations. That’s where the challenge is, the funding, the way it was designed, and the distance. You hit it right on. There is a big distance between locations. Chair Adams said that would be another place where a Life Cycle Analysis would be advantageous. Do we need 22 transfer stations? What makes sense on this island? Director Mansour said if you are within 30 to 40 minutes away from a facility, that is a reasonable to drive. You don’t want facilities too close to each other because that increases cost. He understands convenience but that comes with a price. We cannot provide a convenient service if we do not have the money. Unless people are willing to pay for it, and we would be more than happy to build more stations. These are the challenges. Commissioner McIntosh has a trailer. From what he has seen it has become a problem in the last year or so because the transfer stations have restricted days of use. They used to be open every day, 12 hours a day. He could use his trailer but not anymore. There is no way to turn around, he’s afraid he might get stuck, and there are always 10 cars in the waiting line. He does not think there are enough people with trailers on the island to designate one day out of the week. What might be better is if you had some designated areas. You could have the dump in Kona, the one in Hilo, an You could have a couple days out of the month to allow trailers and people can plan their schedules around it, rather than outright banning it. Once our transfer station is fixed you can maneuver your trailer without any problems. 20 Director Mansour said that has been under discussion. Even fixing these transfer stations requires money. And most of our challengescome down to money.If you have money you can do anything. That’s where it stands now, they need to set a priority. We’re going to ask staff to get better number of how many people have trailers. It could be once a month, not once a week. Commissioner Olson said he was on the committee that did the design of the Kea‘au Transfer Station and we had long discussions about the most efficient design for a transfer station. Basically, none of the county facilities meet the standards that were set in the beginning for that, primarily because it is not a pull-through environment. You have people backing up to the bins. And the last thing you want to do is have someone put car in reverse. He visited the transfer stations that were in the ‘Ewa area of O‘ahu, and they had three transfer stations there, and they were all pull-through. The volume they could handle far exceeded anything we have here on this island. What you have to do is look at the successful design elements of a transfer station. So there is quite a bit of documentation if you can look up the development of the Kea‘au Transfer Station. Director Mansour agreed. He used to design these transfer stations. You don’t want to have vehicles backing into that because it takes time and when you have a huge line, you’re going to have every vehicle trying to back up and get into a chute. It has to be like a pull-through chute. You drive in, drive out. You don’t drive in and try to maneuver, so imagine you are driving in with a trailer and you are trying to back your trailer in with the right spot, and you hold traffic. So you are right. It has been a challenge with the way these transfer stations have been designed. He visited and watched the operations in Kealakehe. Every vehicle comes in, the other vehicles have to wait for them to maneuver around and back up into the chute. It’s just time-consuming. If we are going to redesign it, it’s going to cost money so we need to reconsider that. 4. Wastewater Division Projects and Updates Vice Chair Gaffney said the North Kona Sewage Pump Station was reported to be moving forward. A West Hawai‘i Today article appeared to include a connection, and the story and map showed a connection from the pump station, across Kealakehe Parkway, all the way to the wastewater treatment plant. What it doesn’t show is whether or not there is a recycled water line coming back from plant as part of the sewage pump. Is that in the plan and can that be added? Director Mansour said that the newspaper unfortunately did not contact him for comment because they just took the information out of the environmental assessment. Wastewater Division Deputy Chief Eric Takamura said from the harbor stubouts we have in our north and south pipeline distribution design, an R-1 distribution line and a double- barrel force main that will hook up the North Kona SPS to the Kealakehe WWTP. The recycled 21 water R-1 distribution pipeline from the Kealakehe WWTP plant will hook up to the harbor intersection R-1 stubout pipe. It’s in the project planning design status right now. Vice Chair Gaffney asked if he meant that it’s not part of the funded North Kona pump, but it is in the long-term planning. Deputy Chief Takamura clarified that there are two projects going on simultaneously: the North Kona SPS and the R-1 distribution design projects. In the R-1 distribution project’s design scope there is a R-1 distribution pipeline running along Queen Ka‘ahumanu Highway, and also the force main to hook up the North Kona SPS to Kealakehe WWTP. Vice Chair Gaffney’s other question is that given that the process seems to be moving forward do we have a sense of a timeline? Director Mansour said it was driven by a grant award. We have received a letter from the U.S. Economic Development Administration telling us that it is under consideration, so hopefully we can get the entire grant amount of $19.2 million, roughly. If we get the grant, at least we have the environmental assessment complete so we could start jumping into constructing the connection. So it’s really contingent on the funding source. In a meeting with staff the previous day to follow up with the funding agency to ask them to give us a hint as to when we should expect to get a letter, so we are going to keep in touch with that department. The whole concept of moving forward with this project is the funding. If the funding is not going to happen then we need to start looking at other options to be able to fund this project, and start meeting with the communities and the developers to find ways to construct that segment. But let’s hope that we get the grant. Keep your fingers crossed and hopefully our staff will be successful in working to secure that fund. Vice Chair Gaffney asked whether the environmental assessment that was announced includes the return line. Deputy Chief Takamura said the pipeline to which he referred is in the EIS for the R-1 project. Vice Chair Gaffney’s last question related to U.S. Rep. Kaiali‘i Kahele collecting wastewater projects he wants to champion as part of the President’s infrastructure plan. Is this project on Rep. Kahele’s list yet, and if not, can someone do that outreach to get it started? Clearly he is interested in wastewater issues and wants us to submit a list of projects. Director Mansour said we sent a priority list to his office, and it was based on a limit of $1 million, so this project does not fit with that parameter. Wastewater Division Chief Dora Beck said she did give a list to Rep. Kahele, and the pump station force main project was included in there. She was advised to submit the whole list. 22 Chair Adams said she would be in touch with the Director regarding ISWMP reporting for the next round, and certainly if there is anything that he would like the Commission to help in responding to concerns that the Council and its committees have raised recently, let us know. Director Mansour expressed appreciation for the discussion. He also added that the ISWMP is a “living document” because we also have different options we can look into, such as collections versus transfer stations, and other options that we need to entertain. 8. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS a. Follow up on action items determined today. Commissioner Cardwell to draft letter to Council regarding funding for the life cycle analysis (although we may be doing that before the next meeting, Chair Adams said) Commissioner Burns to provide information on his list of priorities that he discussed with Mr. Hayducsko and Mr. Goodale. b. Other (Commissioners may suggest items they would like placed on the next agenda.) 9. ANNOUNCEMENTS Secretary Sur noted that SB 1034, amending the Sunshine Law requirements relating to remote videoconferencing of boards and commissions, has passed out of the Legislature and if it becomes law, would take effect January 1, 2022. Next meeting scheduled for May 26, 2022, probably online. Chair Adams said she and Director Mansour will be participating in the online Waimea Community Association meeting on May 6, focusing on solid waste issues, and she encouraged commissioners to reach out to their own district’s members to find out what their issues are. Commissioner Robinson asked for recommendations on how to connect with the community. Chair Adams recommended joining community groups and attending public meetings in their district, and asked others to share how theyget connected. Commissioner Cardwell said she asks questions on a community-based Facebook group; Commissioner Olson recommended talking to the transfer station attendants. Vice Chair Gaffney said the social media network Nextdoor has a lot of useful information for his area. Commissioner Cardwell said there are some wonderful nonprofit organizations, such as Zero Waste Hawai‘i Island, which is putting on a sustainability summit on May 28. It is a daylong virtual event. They are working on creating the registration process, and she can share the link for anyone who wants to be involved. 23 Commissioner Hoopii said she started off with connecting with the community neighborhood associations and Neighborhood Watch groups and people who are involved in their community. From there, they know people and they use that same chain to keep connecting. 10. ADJOURNMENT Motion, second, and vote:Commissioner Olson made a motion to adjourn, to which Vice Chair Gaffney seconded, and the motion was adopted. Ayes: 8 (Adams, Cardwell, Fulton, Gaffney, Hoopii, Olson, McIntosh, Robinson); Nays 0; Absent 1 (Burns). Meeting adjourned at 11:37 a.m. Respectfully submitted, Peter Sur, Secretary 24