HomeMy WebLinkAbout23-05-24 EMC minutes1
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
COUNTY OF HAWAIʻI
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
9:05 a.m. to 11:06 a.m.
West Hawai‘i Civic Center (Kailua-Kona) and Zoom
Commissioners present:
Georjean Adams, Chair
Jon Olson, Vice Chair
Laura Acasio
Lee McIntosh
Dot Norris
Dell Otsuka
County staff present:
Ramzi Mansour, Director
Chris Laude, Wastewater Division Chief
Craig Kawaguchi, Recycling Coordinator
Peter Sur, Secretary
Kelly Hartman, Environmental Management Planer
Sherilyn Tavares, Deputy Corporation Counsel
Kea Loa, Legislative Assistant, District 6
Wendy Baez, Legislative Assistant, District 8
Others present:
Jovan J. Hall, Jennifer Navarra, Michael Brestovansky, others
I. CALL TO ORDER
Chair Adams called the meeting to order at 9:05 a.m.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR APRIL 25, 2023 1
Motion, second, and vote: Vice Chair Olson moved to approve the minutes as presented, and
Commissioner Norris seconded the motion. The minutes were approved as presented. Ayes: 6
(Acasio, McIntosh, Olson, Otsuka, Norris, Adams); Nays 0; Absent 2 (Burns, Cardwell). Motion
carried.
1 April 25, 2023 draft minutes: https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=123288
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III. STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIR
Chair Adams asked Commissioner Norris to give a little bit of her background, and we'd
appreciate, and we're very happy that you've joined us. We're picking up someone who's very
knowledgeable and going to keep us on our toes, so that's great.
Commissioner Norris said she had been retired for about six years, so it's still in her DNA. She
worked in wastewater in California, in the city of San Diego, and in the City and County of San
Francisco. As a marine biologist, she worked in a lot of watershed issues as well, but mostly
offshore and frequently the near shore areas. She has worked in wastewater evaluation and
worked on a lot of the reports, and was part of the wastewater reporting to EPA.
V. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
Status report on action items from previous meeting
1. Pretreatment rule draft
Chair Adams asked Acting Chief Laude on the status of the pretreatment proposal.
It's still unfinished, Chief Laude said. He would commit to finishing that up this weekend. He
doesn’t get time here at work to get things like that done. We had a pretty good meeting with
DOH last week about their strategies for when they're going to require something instead of
on-site wastewater treatment, for example when they're going to require subdivision to have a
package plant, when they're going to require them to extend sewer, that kind of thing. This
time he has everything needed to finish off our proposed changes. He will propose that we
bring back control over sewers for subdivisions into our chapter and take it away from the
subdivision chapter, because we need to make that clear and we need to be consistent.
Vice Chair Olson said he would be very interested to hear more about that, given all the
subdivisions that we have in Puna.
This is a huge problem that we're going to have to figure out how to address. They're already
built, Chief Laude said.
I've only known that for 30 years, the Vice Chair said. I've brought it up on several occasions,
and it seems like you're the only one that has been able to say something about it.
Chief Laude said he has some ideas on how we can strategize for that, but it comes down to the
same basic problems. Money, staff, schedules, and the political will to make it happen.
I'm more interested in the logistics of making it happen because they're already built, Vice Chair
Olson said. And that is going to be a major problem. We have the second largest subdivision in
the United States. So I really want to hear more about it.
It’s on the agenda every meeting, Chair Adams said. So we'll keep bugging Chief Laude or
whoever's left in the chair.
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Well, just to add one other thing, the Vice Chair said. The Mainstreet Pāhoa Association, we
have gotten to the point where we succeeded in getting monies for an advanced treatment
facility for Pāhoa. We've gotten to the point where Russell Ruderman, when he was our
Senator, got us money for a regional library. All of those things need to be connected, and
that's an ASAP. That money is sitting there, and without that infrastructure, they're not going to
get built. I don't have an exact figure, but it’s $8 million to $10 million just to open the door.
You could contact Sen. Joy San Buenaventura, and she would be happy to pass along all the
data.
Chair Adams said those would be new facilities that would require pretreatment because
they're significant commercial facilities-
It’s a no-go without a wastewater system, Vice Chair Olson said. And the library. You're going to
put up a real library. You're talking about a whole lot of people going through the facility and
then we have a new supermarket and then there certainly is going to be the impetus to do a lot
of building out there because the subdivisions are building out.
Director Mansour said this is a topic that pertaining to the AECOM report and the Puna district
study that we just completed. It should not be commingled with the pretreatment countywide.
Chair Adams agrees. It goes into the reports on the facility work you have been doing later in
your report, but also it includes the concept of, now we're going to have pretreatment rules at
some point in the near future. They need to deal with the fact that these side plans are
happening to build new facilities that are going to require pretreatment. And is that being
factored in and how do you make sure that proper coordination is occurring as they design
those new operations? So we'll get back to that, and you can further that conversation, she told
the Vice Chair.
2. Continued discussion of EMC county landfill diversion ordinance initiatives.2 3
Chair Adams said she brought back the same agenda item from last month on how we look for
opportunities to require diversion from landfill via County ordinance. And she would like to look
at if anyone has come up with new ideas, and also maybe get at least a consensus, if not an
official motion, to do some further work on devising a draft ordinance or approach. So are
there some comments that commissioners wanted to make about diversion ideas?
There's a lot of ideas, Vice Chair Olson said. Back when we filed a civil rights complaint about
the level of service that was going on in Puna, we got support from the federal government and
it started with transportation. Solid waste was an issue. We started on looking at where other
transfer stations could be built, enlarged. The Kea‘au Transfer Station got funding to do a much
larger transfer station with recycling, with a whole list of things that it would do and that's all
2 Ordinances to reduce landfill volume https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=123309
3 Ordinances to reduce landfill volume https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=123310
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still sitting on the shelf. None of those things happened even though the money was
appropriated to do it. All we got through basically was phase 1.
Chair Adams said the Director is also going to be talking about the operations study that the
Department has money to get done and looking at the whole system of how we manage solid
waste will be part of that. So she deferred discussion to the Director’s Report. What she was
talking about specifically is the idea of banning from landfills, certain materials that we know
we have a diversion route for. That is our HI-5, the glass, corrugated cardboard, the recycling,
that we have that appears to be working, but how do we do more of it? And so her concept is,
and perhaps the Commission would back up the Chair and spend more time on working up a
proposal perhaps for next meeting, is to write up a bill that would go to the Council to say
certain designated recyclable wastes are prohibited from the landfill. We have a system now
that has prohibited materials, and they're basically hazardous stuff such as tires and used oil
and other materials that have to basically go to a hazardous waste facility. So she came up with
this term of “designated recyclable materials” that we wouldn't be able to landfill. And not that
we want the Council to identify what those are. She would prefer to say that DEM identify what
those materials should be. And as you may recall from the last time she was talking about,
there are certain categories of information that need to qualify a kind of waste to be a
designated recyclable that's prohibited from landfill. There has to be a market that will take it,
and we have to know how to handle it. It's pretty well defined, and it's going to be a significant
reduction to our landfill.
The other thing that was Chair Adams’ idea is to start first with commercial operations. So
businesses – certainly start with the large businesses, maybe work our way down to the smaller
businesses – but to apply it first to them, get the logistics set up, create a supply stream that
would be coming from commercial operations that might entice some private haulers and
processors, recyclers to come into business because they would have that steady stream
coming from the commercial end. And then once we've got that rolling, maybe move it down to
residential or start with things like developments, outfits that have HOAs, that can be required
to develop the collection for recyclable waste. And then it would go to DEM. And DEM would
follow these basic criteria, and they would periodically identify, here's something that were
designated as recyclable, and it has to be diverted. And that may change as markets evaporate
or markets appear. They could add new materials and expand it or take them away because we
don't have a reasonable ability for it. So that's kind of the concept she is thinking about, a
general all-purpose ordinance that would authorize and in effect charge DEM to come up with a
system that will require certain recyclables to be diverted. And then we'd have an opportunity
as a Commission to comment on both the bill and on any rules that DEM comes up with to
make sure that it is meeting the proposals that we intended. So do you want her to work on
that? Or should she just say, all right, we'll let DEM do this?
Commissioner McIntosh asked who made the rules for the current items that are not allowed
to go on the landfill. Was that passed by ordinance or was that policy by DEM?
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The ones that are banned now, many of them are from the U.S. EPA, Chair Adams said, which
then passed down those requirements to the states and counties. The County has a list 4 of
these prohibited materials, things like medical waste and oil and your all-purpose general
nasties that you don't want to put in a landfill and then DEM in their admin rules. Interestingly,
the County Code does not say they're prohibited and can't go into the landfill. What it says is
DEM will prohibit them and they have prohibited them. And you can get an exception from the
Director. So there's a little bit more flexibility from DEM. But DEM actually executes the
prohibition. The County Code didn't. They just defined stuff. So it's kind of a tiered system as
you're moving from Feds to State to County to DEM. So there's some details she need to figure
out how to make work.
That's fine, Commissioner McIntosh said. The only concern he has is how do you keep DEM
from becoming ban-happy and just banning what's convenient for them in a worst-case
scenario? That's what he always looks for when moving forward with policies and laws: where
are the checks and balances?
Chair Adams said her idea right now is that the Council would say, these are the criteria that
any designated recyclable waste must meet. And the Chair listed some of those things the last
meeting about how we have a place to take it, whether it's shipping it off island or our own
recycling, that it's cost effective, that you're not going to encourage people to throw it in the
ditch because it costs too much to recycle it. So balancing the economic costs, it has to be
technically feasible. And it needs to make sense from a life cycle management standpoint to
divert it from waste. Some waste plastic, the non-HI-5 plastics, are probably safest sitting in a
landfill from a lifecycle standpoint. We could put them to better use by requiring diversion and
at commercial level volumes, might be able to justify a business coming into fruition to handle
those kinds of waste. So it's a juggling, but the County Council would set the criteria that DEM
has to be able to justify banning landfilling. So they could challenge a DEM rule saying, you're
not following these criteria the Council laid out. Could they go crazy? We can all go crazy. One
of the advantages of DEM is they don't move too fast, you might have noticed. So I don't think
they'll go real crazy trying to ban it really, Chair Adams said.
Commissioner McIntosh said the only other thing he has a concern about is the green waste.
Yeah, they have a spot in Kona where you can take it, but nothing down in Ka‘ū. So then we
don't want to truck it all the way up to Kona, which is a three-hour round trip. That was the only
concern he had.
The feasibility of selection needs to be one of those criteria, Chair Adams said, which is partly
why, you start with commercial because they're located in just a few spots. And so maybe
4 Admin Rule 2-1-3: ““Prohibited materials” include, but are not limited to, burning or smoldering materials, paint thinner or
solvents; oil based paint; engine oil, antifreeze or lead acid batteries; pesticides, poisons; household cleaner; contaminated soil;
untreated medical waste; propane, compressed gas cylinders; diesel, gasoline or alcohol; liquids or sludge in containers one
gallon or larger unless mixed with a bulking agent so that it solidifies, large appliances, automobiles, whole tires, radioactive or
chemical waste, explosives, blasting materials, fuses, live ammunition, and hazardous wastes as defined in the HRS or Hawaiʻi
Administrative Rules.”
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there's a way to justify commercial volumes, trucking it to a few places we've got, but again, it
would be one you've got to look at, can you justify that it really can be recycled and
conveniently before you would ban it for residents, for example.
Okay, so go ahead and write it up, Commissioner McIntosh said.
Commissioner Acasio said she was very interested in this as well and would like to help and
participate. Just going on Commissioner McIntosh’s comment around green waste, is to look at
distributed, smaller scale green waste facilities throughout our large island to address, for
example, what he did mention around the need to not truck it different places. And what does
that look like in terms of redistribution as well? And of course, taking into consideration the
cost effectiveness as well. But it becomes relative because what is the larger cost? So anyways,
on that note, she also wanted to look at large businesses, for example, Costco (not to single
them out). Their business model is creating lots of large amounts of landfill waste, especially
around plastics, being that they repackage and repurpose and then sell it out. In that business
model, it's all in plastic and there is no reuse structure. And so this is a large issue that we're
looking at even on a world scale in terms of Extended Producer Responsibility or reuse and refill
infrastructure, but to engage that as part of a larger solution as well.
This is not the be-all answer to the whole gamut, Chair Adams said. She is trying to come up
with something that is digestible, and something we could get our arms around that would be
relatively practical in a shorter term rather than long term. And as infrastructure builds up, as
we move to that distributed composting, that would start meeting the criteria that it needs to
be available for recycling because you've got a place to take it and not just six transfer stations.
So it's kind of a chicken and egg scenario, and how do you prompt more eggs to be laid?
Commissioner Norris said that when she first moved into the complex that she is in they had
recycling bins for HI-5 items and they took them out because people would put just whatever
they want to in there. You might think about if we get to that point, that we take it off the
property of the complex so that it doesn't become a source of trash. Maybe like you said, a
collection center or something.
One of the fantasies Chair Adams said she has about this approach would be the requirement
that says you're prohibited from landfilling and you must recycle the following materials, is that
you must educate your customers and homeowners to what the rules are for recycling and to
manage the collection of recycling. She has the same issue as the condo area that she lives in,
that people don't understand the Chair’s pictures of zigzags on corrugated cardboard. They put
everything in there, including plastic containers. So it is a challenge to educate and to make
sure that you have a process in place to make it work. And the same thing is in a workplace.
People throw the wrong things in. And so you need to have a live education program to make
sure that it's working. One of the things that she would like to avoid is building up a new service
that the County has to provide. She doesn’t want the County to have to plant more transfer
stations, more collection stations everywhere for every subdivision or condo development, but
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to encourage that there is business volume if you want to get your trucks moving around on
this island. So it's a lot of balancing.
Chair Adams said that if she and Commissioner Acasio want to work on it together, we can do
that and we don't need an official Permitted Interaction Group. So thank you for volunteering
and she will share drafts and maybe we could start working on this. It may be something that
she winds up going independently anyway. She has been talking to a recycling hauler, Nick
Resnick from Hana Hou Recycling and Jennifer Navarra of Zero Waste Hawai‘i Island, about this
concept.
Chair Adams said she would work with Commissioner Acasio. If you have other ideas, bring
them. We will have this on the next agenda.
VI. NEW BUSINESS
1. Funding for solid waste – discussion about moving to a fee for service model versus
property tax funding - e.g., enterprise funding (as supported by EMC 5) for wastewater
management.
Chair Adams said EMC sent a letter a couple of years ago to the Council. At that time, it was
cast in terms of, give DEM some money to hire somebody to come up with how they're going to
fund the wastewater program other than relying on just sewer fees. And there's this concept of
an enterprise fund, basically running the operation as a business where you've got enough
customers and they're paying fees to cover your operating costs and you're not just relying on
the ups and downs of property tax and a small proportion of support and grants that you go run
and chase down every couple of years. She is wondering if we could ask for the same kind of
consideration for solid waste, to think of it more in terms of a fee for service model instead of-
and heaven forbid they reduce the property tax that gets assigned to solid waste- but assuming
that could happen, that it's basically, you're paying for this service the County is providing.
There are different ways to do it. It's a different kind of model. Just wondering if that's another
route for us to look at how can we sustain and grow our solid waste management program
other than relying on the property tax and some fairly minor tipping fees that are basically
supporting our solid waste management program.
As we give the reports, we could drive into it because it is part of the operational study as well,
Director Mansour said, because there's going to be a wide discussion on that.
Well, let's do it in order, otherwise it drives the Secretary crazy when he's doing the minutes,
Chair Adams said. It dawned on her not too long ago that we did put in the concept of a fee for
service and as an enterprise funding mindset for wastewater management, and we didn't do
the same thing for solid waste. It's in there as one of the many options in the Integrated Solid
Waste Management Plan, but we haven't specifically highlighted it to the council. So it's
something that if we wanted to, we can kind of model a new thing aimed at solid waste. But
this report, this analysis that the Director is going to tell us about, will certainly inform that.
5 VI.1: Letter re enterprise funding https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=111072
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But this question came up a few meetings back, and counsel was going to look at the legality of
what would it take to take the solid waste out of the property tax as currently exists and try to
make it as an enterprise fund. Because currently under the Charter, solid waste services is
funded through property taxes. Therefore it's already dictated where we are going to get the
fund from, especially for residential, not commercial. Commercial is getting charged through tip
fees. So the idea is from a legal way, how could we transition? And it may require a ballot that
may go to the constituents to vote on if they want to be exited out of the property tax structure
and to set it as a fee. So I don't know if you ever got the answer on that, the Director said.
Chair Adams said she did not think EMC formally ever asked Corporation Counsel to do that.
How do we ask for that?
DCC Tavares said you simply ask for it. In the same way that EMC asked DCC Keyra Wong to do
research on formalizing something, you just have to put an official ask, make a motion, vote on
it.
Chair Adams said what we'd be asking is, how would we move from a property tax supported
solid waste management program to a fee for service program? What steps would need to
happen to change a property tax allocation?
Director Mansour said he would not want to waste time and energy on the steps and find out
later that we cannot do it anyway.
Motion and second: Vice Chair Olson made a motion, to which Commissioner Acasio seconded,
to request its Deputy Corporation Counsel to evaluate the feasibility and steps to move from a
property tax-based support for solid waste management to a fee-for-service model.
Discussion:
Vice Chair Olson said that one of the things you might go looking for is we did get federal
money way back when to do the rehabilitation of the Kea‘au Transfer Station. Unfortunately,
that was never finished. In other words, all the facilities that were supposed to be put in place
there never did happen. But that was spoken to on a multiplicity of levels, and he can't find his
copy of it anymore.
Chair Adams asked if anyone in DEM has ever been able to find that. Maybe it molded away in a
container truck that Recycle Hawai‘i had and is long gone. But it was government money. So
there should be a government file somewhere.
We hired from a list that was presented to us by EPA of people who came to help us do that,
the Vice Chair said. So it wasn't just something pulled out of the bank.
Somebody's got to go dig into archives, Chair Adams said.
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The Vice Chair said it was around 1994, 1995. We made a lot of trouble with abandoned cars at
that time because all of the subdivisions had been filled with abandoned vehicles. And that's
where we started and that's where we got the most help from EPA.
Well, there's always funding through EPA, especially now under the climate change and
diversion and recycling, the Director said. So hopefully that will continue even though whatever
funding mechanism that becomes the standard, we may stay the status quo on property tax or
we may chase something else, but that should not stop us from chasing federal money when it
comes.
Vote: Ayes 6 (Acasio, McIntosh, Olson, Otsuka, Norris, Adams); Nays 0; Absent 2 (Burns,
Cardwell). Motion passes.
VII. REPORTS/CORRESPONDENCE
Director’s Informational Report
1. Legislative update
Director Mansour said the Secretary has been sharing with you what bills went through and
not, but there's one particular item he wanted to share, which was a resolution that came from
the State to the Mayor’s office, and was forwarded to us from the House of Representatives.
It's HCR 208, which is asking all counties to submit the comprehensive integrated wastewater
management plan and financial strategy, including any proposed legislation to the Legislature
no later than 20 days prior to the conveying of regular session of 2024. That only leaves us with
six months to do that. We received that last week. Part of it is because none of the bills
pertaining to cesspool conversion went through, which is unfortunate, and that's why that
resolution came about.
It seems like you're working on the integrated wastewater management concept and no way is
it going to be done in six months, Chair Adams said. The idea of what kind of additional funding
and planning for the future, put together your wish list, but-
They are looking at financial strategy, the Director said. Part of it is state may be willing to assist
in the financial aspect of getting people assistance to convert from cesspool to septic or
connect to sewer. The timing was- we're still working on it, but I don't know what other
counties already have it ready. So it's going to be hard to accomplish, but you are right, we're
working on it. We're trying to enter into an agreement with our consultant to do a countywide
cesspool conversion facility plan for the east and west side of the island, also as an optional task
to update the operation and maintenance manuals for all our facilities. We haven't even signed
the contract, but they are aware of this resolution. But I don't know if we're going to have
anything that comprehensive to submit. We may have the skeleton, the structure of it.
Yeah, Chair Adams said. That's all you're going to be able to do is say, here's what we're
working on, here are the components that are going to be in there, and this brilliant list of items
to make sure you include in it that you received from your EMC. And the rest of it is, what was
recommended in the Cesspool Conversion Working Group plan that didn't pass. And I don't
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understand why they dragged their heels on that. But I think at least the way I was hearing Rep.
Nicole Lowen explaining what happened, that it would be, we've got the plan to look at the
priority areas that we've got. We've identified those. Then we got to work out how are we
going to sewer these areas or look for the most feasible alternatives. So you've got the bones of
it. Here are the details we're going to be fleshing out and no, we're not going to hand you a
finished plan in six months. I'm okay with that.
Chief Laude said he and Kelly Hartman have been brainstorming already about how to approach
it and that's basically what we came up with. We haven't pitched it to the directors yet. The
important thing is, hey, we have a dollar amount for each cesspool. It's $40,000. The state
needs to give us that amount times however many cesspools we figure out there are. And that's
a starting line for a budget they need to provide.
Commissioner Acasio said the CCWG had come up with some pretty clear direction. Because it
wasn't passed in the legislation in this session, we can still utilize that expertise and all of that
energy that was put into the working group to begin with, and go from there.
Commissioner McIntosh said that because it’s a resolution, it's not a mandate to comply, right?
It's more like they're asking for it. But if you can't deliver, you can't deliver. Just tell them it's
unreasonable.
Yeah, well, that's a good point. It's a resolution, Chief Laude said. But we should be
constructive. We need to leverage the work that's already been done to have a consistent
approach. But yeah, they need to pass some legislation to make this happen and they also need
to figure out how they're going to fund us.
Well, the idea is, it is a resolution, it's non-binding, but the challenge that every county faces is
we have to partner with the State, Director Mansour said. Even though it's a resolution, we
cannot just shrug it off because it may put us a black dot on the County of Hawai‘i for future
financial assistance. So we don't want to do that.
No, I certainly don't think it should be blow them off, but it's give them the bones of what we're
already working on, Chair Adams said.
It may be their passive-aggressive way of asking us for support, Chief Laude said. If we reiterate
what everyone else has already talked about yeah, we agree this is the way to go, then I think
that helps them.
Commissioner Acasio said that it is important because it's just showing that the County is
indeed supportive of the work done by DEM and CCWG. While they do already have that
evidence, for whatever reason, they're asking for more details and more specifics according to
each county.
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DEM has demonstrated support, Chair Adams said. She has been one of the more vocal
testifiers to support a lot of the legislation, so she doesn’t think there's a problem. Plus Rep.
Lowen is from here. They know we're working on it and so just write up what we're working on.
We're headed in the right direction. And just do what you can. Don't go too crazy. You do have
to sleep at least a couple of hours.
Ms. Hartman added it's a good opportunity just for us to communicate from this County's
perspective. The Big Island is going to have some unique challenges, so it's just coming to the
table, providing that information to see.
2. Solid Waste Division Projects and Updates
1. Recycling and Landfill Diversion updates
2. Next studies: curbside collection, new landfill locations, operations analysis
3. Status and content of Request for Information on landfill diversion and recycling
re Resolution No. 73-23.
(Note: Discussions for agenda items under VII.2(1), (2), and (3) are combined below)
Director Mansour said the intent of this operational analysis that we're trying to do is to analyze
the current system, the solid waste system that the County has, and be able to give
recommendations about where the weaknesses are. Is the current system adequate and where
should we put our energy to modify it to be better and more efficient? And the intent is to look
at the possibility of curbside collection versus the current system that we have with 21 transfer
stations countywide. Is that possible and what would it take to implement and how much
would the cost projection be? Also we are looking at the possibility of landfill locations. Is it
possible to continue with what we have now versus revisit the idea of an East Side landfill
needed to become more efficient, carbon emission reduction, environmental protection, less
traffic on the highways and provide redundancy? We’ve seen that during the last eruption we
have when we consider Saddle Road to be closed down. So the idea is, how would you
transport the waste from the east side all the way to the west? So the idea of that operational
analysis is to get into the weeds and evaluate the current structure. He would like for all
commission members to add inputs to this study because possibly it could be driven to lead to
policies and procedure changes. And we have to be transparent. We have to get everyone
involved, all stakeholders, for the idea that, if the system itself is going to change, we need to
get everyone on board from day one so there will be no surprises down the road. So this is the
vision the Director had. When he first started, we didn't get the money last year. This current
year we got the money. So the idea is he wants to use it before we lose it to make sure that we
move it on the right track when it comes to our current system.
We have one subdivision with 12,000 one-acre lots, Vice Chair Olson said.
EPA rule of thumb, the Director said, is usually 5 tons per year per house. So the idea is, yes,
you're right, that's going to increase the amount of solid waste generation countywide. And
that study is going to look into it because we have not expanded our transfer stations since they
were constructed.
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Well, and it's going to have to be inside the subdivision because you can't get out on the
highway, the Vice Chair said.
Director Mansour said he floated the concept of, let’s do what Europe does with these 3 cubic
yard bins at the end of the subdivision and one of our trucks will go pick it up once a week. So
you have three different colors of 3 cubic yards. Or you could have an enclosure within the
subdivision. You treat it like an apartment complex where you, in apartment settings, they have
refuse collection through the association. So a garbage truck comes in to accept the 3 cubic
yard bins twice a week or once a week. And maybe that's how we need to set up these new
subdivisions rather than them driving to the transfer station. Maybe it'll be set up as a
requirement in the subdivision code. That's why he reached out to EMC before about
commenting on the subdivision code that is being reviewed and being changed as we speak.
Because to him, that's when the change is going to take place is, if the code is being revised,
under the subdivision code, they should allow developers to include solid waste enclosures
within the subdivision and maybe either create an association just for collection within that
subdivision or you do what Europe is doing. Put it outside the subdivision, where as you driving
out to your work, you carry your garbage back and you dump it in that 3 cubic yard container
that will be picked up. So there's many things that we could do. It's a matter of just changing
the codes and get everybody’s buy-in.
Vice Chair Olson said that as far as HPP is concerned and as far as in Ainaloa is concerned, there
were set aside lands for public uses in those subdivisions when they were approved, but the
County has never gone to get theirs, as it were. Those are TMKs set aside for public purposes.
Well, see, it goes back again to the concept of property, because now everybody's paying
property tax, the Director said. That service becomes part of that obligation as well. We've seen
the same thing with the Ocean View Transfer Station. The money was set aside prior to the
subdivision, but the amount of money that was set aside, it became pennies in comparison to
the cost of construction. We spent $2 million just allowing the right turns from the highway. It
took all the money that's supposed to go to the transfer station. So, yeah, the equation is not
there to be able to generate enough revenue to offset the cost to build the infrastructure.
That's why we need to look at a smaller model that could achieve the same objectives, but
more efficient and cheaper than just building another transfer station. Because you just said it,
if you only have one road in, one road out, it's going to even make it harder for our guys to
drive in and out with their big vehicles as well.
The transfer stations have to be inside the subdivisions, the Vice Chair said.
Yes, Director Mansour said. that's why if we start controlling it at the source, start doing home
composting, start doing diversion, and encouraging, through public education, the residents to
start reducing before it comes to us, that's the intent. Especially you have 1 acre, it's hard to get
there. How are you going to become sustainable? And a lot of people are already doing it when
it comes to leftover food, green waste, and what have you, they are doing it within their
13
backyard and they doing compost and what have you. We just need to control it and provide
public education at the source itself. It's a challenge, but we'll get there. It's not only solid
waste, you're going to see the challenge with the wastewater as well.
Director Mansour asked Recycling Coordinator Craig Kawaguchi to provide an update on the
used motor oil situation.
One of the Council Members had a call about their garage or their mechanics who stopped
doing oil changes because the pickups weren't coming, Mr. Kawaguchi said. Hawai‘i Petroleum
or Unitek were backed up due to inventory. So they were trying to find an end market for it.
And that was back in January. So after meeting with them and communicating with them, they
said they're slowly getting back to normal.
The Director offered kudos to Mr. Kawaguchi and Council Member Inaba for reaching out to
these commercial entities to encourage them and work with them to bring that program back
to life. Because a lot of people got worried about, golly, I cannot take my car now and do oil
change because nobody's taking that oil. And we were afraid that people are going to start
dumping it in the sewer or just dumping it in the gutter or the storm drain. Thanks to staff, it
took us about four months, but we are back on track.
4. Wai‘ōhinu Recycling and Transfer Station update
We're going to have a blessing ceremony June 9, the Director said. The facility is going to be 100
percent construction complete. If you want to attend, it's scheduled for June 9.6
3. Wastewater Division Projects and Updates.
1. Pāhala and Nā‘ālehu AOC
Director Mansour said we submitted the preliminary engineering report for Pāhala to EPA in
advance of the deadline.
Ms. Hartman continued: We submitted the feasibility report in October, held public meetings
and the April quarterly meeting with EPA. We completed the draft Preliminary Engineering
Report ahead of schedule, and that's currently being reviewed by EPA. The Environmental
Information Document contract scope is being developed right now and the Nā‘ālehu PER
contract is in negotiation. We're working on an MOA with State Historic Preservation Division to
streamline how we do state historic preservation reviews for such a large scale conversion. So
the milestones on deck for Pāhala and Nā‘ālehu are: The EPA is reviewing and will hopefully
approve the Pāhala PER. We have the July semiannual report coming up in two months, and the
EID for Pāhala is due 180 days once the PER is approved, and then we'll start working on the
cesspool closure implementation plan, which is due 30 days after the approval of the
information document.
6 Video of remarks and blessing ceremony: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMwbd8j7jgs
14
It's great you're ahead of schedule on things, Chair Adams said. And the website, are people
using it? It's really cool.
So we have the Pāhala website on the DEM website right now, and we can't do analytics with it,
Ms. Hartman said. We're currently in the middle of a website upgrade, and so about eight
months from now, we'll be able to run analytics and we'll have a section for all of our projects
on the website.
Any questions, comments about that project? You getting good vibes from EPA, the Chair
asked.
Yeah, they've been really happy with what we've done, Ms. Hartman said. Our team that we
put together for this project is really solid. We meet at least weekly, just internally, and we're
ahead of schedule and we meet with EPA and kind of deal with anything we anticipate, any
issues to kind of work those things out. So good vibes from EPA.
2. West Hawai‘i wastewater projects
(No discussion)
3. Hilo WWTP upgrades
(No discussion)
4. Wastewater plans
1. Addition of wastewater services for the Puna District 7
Ms. Hartman said the Puna project is on schedule. We have finished the project definition
report. We filed the draft PEIS to the state Environmental Review Program last month. So we're
currently in the comment period for that. So if you want to leave comments, you have until
June 7, and you can go to the website for that. There's a link, you can directly submit a
comment there. We would appreciate that. Our consultant completed the draft facility plan. It's
currently under county review. We recently held a workshop to discuss some of the rates, the
milestones on deck for Puna. After the 45 day comment period ends June 7, we will submit the
final PEIS. It's after the facility plan, which is due August 31. That's our target deadline anyway.
And then the final facility plan is also going to be drafted in August.
We had our meeting with the consultant, the Director said, so we are planning on presenting
that report to County Council, the administration, and the commission as well. Once we set the
date, the Director encourages EMC to tune in either by person or Zoom, because they did a
very comprehensive report and options. Things are not cheap, we are talking in the range of
tens of billions of dollars. He is sure you have seen the report because trying to build something
from nothing, it's very expensive. You're going to tear up roads. You're going to build up a
whole structure after the fact because everything has been built. So definitely it is going to
bring a lot of discussion.
7 VII.3.4.1: Puna wastewater website: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/50e624065fa641598326febe6316327b
15
Vice Chair Olson said you got 80,000 vacant lots in Puna that have been paying property taxes
since 1960, vacant land for which the county has been collecting property tax. So we want our
money back. Show me the money. Yeah, it's like we didn't pay for it already in spades.
Everything that you look at in Hilo today was built with Puna's property taxes. I had that from
the woman who was the chair of the (Board of Supervisors) when that was done, Helene Hale.
My understanding her intention was to subdivide, to generate revenue, the Director said. What
was the intention of Hawaiian Paradise Park?
Twelve thousand one-acre lots, the Vice Chair said. People paid property taxes long before
anybody ever moved in there.
Yeah, because the idea was they never thought they're going to move in there, the Director
said.
They were counting on it, the Vice Chair said.
Remember, property tax gives you the services from police to parks and what have you, but it
doesn't give you wastewater services. That wastewater services should have been provided
during the subdivision by the developer who subdivided it, the Director said.
Hilo got the money to build theirs, the Vice Chair said.
I hear you. I know, the Director said. Where is Hilo getting the money now to rehab? That’s an
ongoing discussion. That's why he recommended maybe we should do the entire county as a
sewer district, so everybody get piece of that pie because you're already paying for it.
Well, again, people paid for infrastructure that they did not get and still don't have, the Vice
Chair said. There's not one acre of public park in HPP. There's not one acre of public park in
Nanawale. There's not one acre in, pick one. Pick a subdivision. It isn't there, does not exist.
Maybe that's a discussion you could have with Zendo Kern, because that's a planning issue, the
Director said. It goes back to the zoning. Because that's within Zone 1 and Zone 2 of the lava
hazard inundation zones. So the idea is even you spend $35 billion building a facility, two years
later it is going to get buried under lava. So these are the challenges. That area, should it
continue going or, I don't know. It's a big challenge. Is the property tax worth the infrastructure
cost, that potentially has a very high risk factor?
But they knew the risk when they allowed the subdivision, the Vice Chair said.
I don't know if they did, the Director said. That's my understanding. Way back in the old days,
16
I had a face to face with the geologists that told the County what the risks were going to be, the
Vice Chair said. Just like again, we go back to Helene Hale, who was the Chair of the (Board of
Supervisors) back then. They knew. Have you read “Land and Power in Hawaii”?
The Director said he bought the book. So yes, it's a tough one.
Chair Adams said she would like to bring the discussion back to, so what can EMC do about it? It
is a huge political issue of stupid decisions made decades ago. And here we are. What are we
going to do? How are we going to pay for it? I mean, it's the cesspool issue- none of the bills
passed. Well, decades ago, before I moved here, I'm sorry, but you did a bum deal. It's kind of
like the Superfund program in a way. It was perfectly legal to bury a lot of that stuff back when
they buried it. They had permission, they got permits to build, so they did.
But the funny thing with the Superfund sites, the Department of Energy and Defense paid for it,
the Director said. This one, who's going to pay for it?
And it's big companies. We have hardly any big companies here, the Chair said. We don't have
anybody to stick it other than tourists. We can always stick it to the tourists, right?
Director Mansour recommended that EMC review the report, look at the analysis and the cost
and the options and start generating feedback.
So just to be clear, Ms. Hartman said, the facility plan has not been published publicly yet. We
needed to discuss that internally. We need to have a follow up meeting with County Council. So
what you're going to find on the website is an explanation of the project, links to the
programmatic impact statement. Yeah, just kind of a summary. But the facility plan with the
cost is not public yet. She would be happy to share that with the EMC, but understands maybe
once we do it's public, so she is not too sure.
Vice Chair Olson said the point is that the people who own the lots, who are building on the
lots, living on the lots, paid for services they're not getting. They paid their taxes in good faith.
This is a big legal issue, the Director said. In California, we call it the 218 process. Prop 218
prohibits any funds from a non-user to go toward people that receive the service. So if you're
not paying for the service, you should not be charged. And that's what Prop 218 was. But here
we don't have it. So unless somebody ends up suing the County or the State and it becomes a
State case, then that's probably being enforced. But currently everything is getting funded by
General Fund, either through obligation bonds or through some type of funding mechanism
that we all pay for it. I hear you loud- I know exactly what you're referring to when you say
everybody's living there, paying for Hilo and Kealakehe WWTP users, but they are not getting
the service. I understand it. I've been there with the 218 process. There are different cited law
cases but I don't know how it's going to apply to Hawai‘i because we don't have any Hawai‘i
Supreme Court or regular court citing a decision pertaining to that example.
17
Chair Adams asked DCC Tavares whether we are within the Charter for EMC to talk about the
mistakes made in the past and how it gets funded. It seems like it's a legal and a political issue
and I'm not sure we're the ones to solve it or address it.
You're not, DCC Tavares said. And you're not going to be able to reverse something that was
done 30 or 40 years ago. You can advise the Department on current policy and things going
forward but you don't have a mechanism to fix what happened in the past.
We're here to point out the need, the Vice Chair said.
I think what the Vice Chair is referring to is not going back 30 years, the Director said. What he's
saying is the continuation of everybody else’s paying for services not received. But who's going
to pay for the infrastructure for the Puna community because they have been paying for it.
That's what he's saying.
DCC Tavares asked if it was developed as a private subdivision.
Yes, the Director said. But even if a private subdivision is not connected to sewer, they
eventually indirectly are paying for sewer by covering general obligation bonds because it gets
covered by the general fund. And that's what the Vice Chair is referring to. Indirectly, everybody
on the island is paying for sewer services, they're not getting. I hear you, but it's very
complicated. Unless we get sued and the court finds- and then it's going to wake people up.
I don't think it's the role of EMC to recommend somebody sue the County, Chair Adams said. So
I'm going to pull the plug on this discussion. The fact that we need to fund wastewater
management infrastructure in Hawai‘i Island-
We need to be putting in the sewers, the Vice Chair said. We need to be putting all of those
things. The people who in good faith bought the property with the understanding that their
dollars would go toward-
I understand the argument that you made, the Chair said. And the reason to that is we have
asked the Department and the Council – we've asked for an integrated wastewater
management plan. We've got an integrated solid waste management plan and identifying the
infrastructure we need, the services that we need to keep the island going. And we're looking
at, the focus of this one is how do we get that infrastructure to happen? You need to have an
overall plan for it. And that's a big part of the need, and I think everybody knows it. It's just
okay, we got to figure out how are we going to get from here to there, right?
Director Mansour said Hilo WWTP was constructed based on a lawsuit. It's complicated, but
we'll share with you the study and hopefully the intent is not- like I said, I know you think the
County is going to fund a $35 billion facility. It's a complicated issue.
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Commissioner Otsuka wanted to add a couple of things based on all this discussion about
knowing what we've done is disservice or an injustice to the people paying for services they're
not getting. What about, rather than not do anything and say we can't do anything, maybe
looking towards something on a credit for the people who have been paying. It's all
complicated, but that's something that we can do to kind of remedy or at least in good faith,
address it so that they don't have to continue paying and once they do get service, they're
being credited for that service. That's just a thought.
Commissioner Otsuka shared one more thought on the trash pickup at subdivisions or new
developments coming up. If they were to put a designated place to pick up the trash in a
residential development, how would they do that? Would the trash pickup place be considered
residential or public use?
Vice Chair Olson said that using HPP or Nanawale as the model because those were two of the
earliest subdivisions, the set asides in terms of the property itself exist, and are in the charge of
the existing associations. So you're not going to have to buy land, but you are going to have to
put in the infrastructure.
Commissioner Otsuka said that maybe we should invest in doing that because after all, they did
pay for services they're not getting. We can probably redirect it to that.
The other thing is, once they build on it, you start getting property taxes for which you are only
getting a minimal amount, the Vice Chair said.
Commissioner Otsuka said that maybe that's where they would apply the credit or figure a way.
It's complicated, but if there's a way, they can try and credit them or at least do something so
that they don't have to pay for something they've already paid for.
It's going to be the cheap part because you're not buying the land. The land was set aside, the
Vice Chair said.
Chair Adams said that the idea of one way to recompense the people is to provide them with a
credit. The deeper thing is, where are we getting the money to build all this stuff?
I would be curious, Commissioner Otsuka said, to know then how much revenue the County got
from all those fees that actually were paid for and no services given. I mean, they must have,
after all these years, got a lot.
I can tell you that, the Vice Chair said. It sounds ridiculous, but in 1960, $5 would buy you a tank
full of gas.
Yeah, it's been several decades, so I'm just saying, where are we going to get the money for
that? Well, they paid so much into it, and I'm curious to find out now how much money was
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collected from all of them, Commissioner Otsuka said. And so now it's looking to find money to
put something there that should have been there is all I'm saying.
Okay, we need to move on, Chair Adams said. I appreciate the idea and the concept of credit. I
think the big issue that we've beat on forevermore is trying to figure out how to do it for solid
waste. I mean, the same thing with how do we fund our wastewater services? And right now
we're trying to grab money from all the grants that the feds are doing, but (with a possible
default) they crash our credit in a week or so, and we won't have to worry about anything
anymore. Anyway, I'm not sure, and I guess I would ask you to think about, okay, what are
some specific actions that EMC can do to help address the need? I don't think it's a secret to the
Council that there's a lack of infrastructure. I don't know that it's within the wherewithal of the
EMC to come up with the answers.
So if you've got something concrete, bring it to next meeting and we'll talk about whether or
not it's something that we should move to put together recommendations to Council and DEM.
You're welcome to come up with some ideas as well for us to review and decide if it's
something EMC should propose.
2. Puakō and South Kohala Regional Wastewater Master Plan
(No discussion)
4. DEM input to draft Integrated Climate Action Plan 8
Director Mansour said the Mayor was working on an action plan.
We've got the link to the Draft Integrated Climate Action Plan, Chair Adams said, and there are
a couple of sections in there where DEM has put things that they're already planning for. You're
taking away from future emissions to help with climate action, but the Chair wanted to hear if
there were any additional things that you've done. And there was a convoluted budget
amendment that would fund a new Office of Sustainability, Climate Equity, and Resilience. So
they got money approved. But the final budget hasn't been approved, has it? No. So it's still got
another round. Anyway, they approved the budget, but they didn't approve establishing this
office that would take out some things from R&D that's being done and create more things. The
only thing they were missing there was “and coconut pie,” but they had climate action. DEM
has contributed to that plan. Is there anything you're comfortable with or uncomfortable with
that you'd like EMC input on climate action, she asked.
So far it's okay with DEM, the Director said. If you have not reviewed and want to add
comments, it's an opportunity to review what's out there and what the Planning Department
had put out. Planning worked with all departments and they got comments as well.
Chair Adams noted the link is there to the plan (footnote 8). You can go through it. If you
personally want to submit comments, you're welcome to. You’ll see what Chair Adams
8 VII.5: Planning Department’s Integrated Climate Action Plan https://cohplanning.konveio.com/
20
submitted. Basically, anything anybody does affects climate. So most of our programs where
we're looking at reducing waste or managing or recovering the generation of methane or
whatever it may be from DEM operations would help to mitigate climate change. So, just
wanted to make sure you were aware of it and if there was something we needed to do. I don't
particularly see a big need for DEM to change or do what you're doing. I think you appropriately
identified your activities. But climate is everything now. That's where all the money is. It's
where all the politics are. It's going to end life as we know it on the planet. So it's something to
pay attention to and be aware of how it could impact DEM.
5. Information requests to DEM from Commissioners
1. What is the scope of work for the Solid Waste Division operations analysis
contract? (Adams)
(See VII.2, Page 11)
2. Please background us on the 23-05-05 Solid Waste Management Plan -
Guidelines for Submission 9. How has this changed review of construction
projects compared to past practice? (Adams)
Chair Adams said she was trying to chase back through the code issue, the zoning code issue,
and she got kind of a response, pointing fingers both directions, that that's not the Planning
Commission responsibility or the Department. It's DEM that looks at construction projects, new
construction projects, and they've got a review process that if someone's going to build a new
building, you need to have a solid waste management plan, and it has these components, and
DEM approves it or not. There was a new guideline that was just signed May 4 and it wasn't
clear to the Chair, what did you change and what do you do to approve these solid waste
management plans for big construction projects?
Are you talking about construction projects or are you talking about subdivision projects, asked
the Director.
A subdivision, the Chair said. They're putting in a new subdivision or they're building a new
building, there's a requirement that the contractor submit a solid waste management plan. And
it's just been rewritten or reissued and had a little bit more detail in it. And she was just
wondering what the background on that was. And if you don't know, she will bring it back next
time. But it appeared to her that the contractor will write one up. But it's kind of you write up
what you want to write up and you need to follow what you wrote up. But DEM really isn't
instructing, “you've got to do this” or “here's a way that you can recycle, here's how you can
reuse and reduce the amount of construction waste you're generating.” So she was just curious
how that is actually processed or whether it was just a rubber stamped, “oh yeah, they did up a
plan. You can go ahead and build.” So there are components that need to be in there and you
need to explain what you're going to do with it. There's a required plan, but not necessarily
particular standards or goals that need to be met.
9 VII.6.2: SWMP guidelines https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=123186
21
The current process, now, is that any project that comes through Planning, they send it to every
department for review and comments, the Director said. And as far as how it's going to impact
the solid waste versus the wastewater, if the intent is- and that's the review process for
development, subdivision, commercial, industrial, whatever that or zone change. So it comes to
us to dictate, okay, how is it going to impact the solid waste facilities, our operations. So we
comment on it through that process. But if there's a construction and demolition, currently we
don't have any county ordinances saying that any construction project within the county shall
be subject to diversion and recycling. So maybe that's what we need to do. If we need to start
encouraging construction projects within the county to start implementing diversion and
recycling programs, maybe we should do it as a county ordinance. But that will bring the cost of
construction up. It's already sky high. Our projects have come four times the engineer’s
estimate. And that's without diversion requirement and recycling but we need to think about
inert material. We need to think about construction and demolition material that's taking space
in our landfills. We need to start giving incentives to these private entities that wanting to come
and turn that to something useful. It's a matter of just attracting private entities, recyclers, to
come in and start taking that and putting it to recycling and diverting it away from the landfill.
So one way of achieving that is through county ordinances to make sure that any construction
project within the County has to go through plan submittals regarding diversion and recycling
for approval. I don't know if I think that it's kind of Catch-22, right. We don't have the
infrastructure and manufacturing to take that product and convert it. Therefore, could we really
ask a contractor to do that?
That's back to the Chair’s concept of banning landfilling and requiring recycling, but only if
you've got a way to do it. And C&D was down on her list, we're not ready for that yet, the Chair
said. We keep trying to get Reuse Hawai‘i, who does C&D recovery for reuse, to show up here
at our meeting. And we just need to keep working at them. Maybe she will stop there on the
way home and say, guys, come on, come and talk to us. Tell us what you're about. We've got
one outfit that will do that on island right now, whether they can expand or whether we figure
out a way to incentivize competition. Because now we'll say, well, we're banning it. So you've
got guaranteed business coming to you. I don't know the ins and outs of that, but that's sitting
there on the list of, it's something that in the future we ought to be able to require. So I was
just curious as I was doing some backgrounding on just how hard you come down on people to
reduce the amount of waste going to your landfill.
6. Correspondence
1. EMC letter to DEM to DOH (copy to Council) requesting studies on advanced
dispoal and point of sale fees for solid waste management 10
Chair Adams said we asked DEM last time to ask the State DOH solid waste group, have you
guys ever looked at the concept of expanding fees, advanced disposal fees? The Director did
write the letter. We'll see. I expect the answer will be no, we haven't done anything looking at
additional advanced disposal fees. Thank you very much. Nor do we plan to. But we'll see what
10 VII.7.1: EMC letter to DEM re studies on advanced disposal and point of sale fees
https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=123335
22
they come back with. But I think what we learned was maybe a dead end there. But you can try
thinking about state- we would probably need to get a state law passed.
Well, it would come from a portion to property tax and a portion from sales tax, Vice Chair
Olson said.
This is talking about your point of sale fee idea. That would have to come from the state, Chair
Adams said. The state would have to issue the regulation or the law that says, thou shalt pay in
advance.
At our last meeting, DCC Tavares said, DCC Keyra Wong presented her research on the
advanced point of sale. EMC asked the Department to inquire with the state about whether
they have done research or not, and if they have not, to do it. And so that has been done. We
sent it to them.
We'll see what the response is, Chair Adams said. I assume our next potential step would be to
go to Council and say, we think you ought to put this in your list of things to press for as a state
action.
When we get the response, then it would be an appropriate time to take the next step because
maybe they'll say they did it. We don't know. So we should wait for the response, and then
potentially, if they have done nothing, that could be something EMC can consider, DCC Tavares
said.
Then it comes back to us. And we could possibly do something on the County level, Vice Chair
Olson asked.
No, we cannot, DCC Tavares said.
No kind of sales tax or fee, the Vice Chair asked.
It has to be from the State, DCC Tavares said.
I have a clarification question on that, Commissioner Acasio said. The idea would be if they have
or have not, we analyze that information, and then we could push the County to recommend to
the State to implement more options for point of sale, which would be geared towards a
consumer.
Right, Chair Adams said. Retail purchases. You'd see it up front, kind of like the deposit for HI-5.
As opposed to pursuing something from the producer end, which their business models are the
ones that are producing the waste that folks are consuming, Commissioner Acasio said. And so
it is, of course, multifaceted in terms of who's driving the waste, but in terms of the business
models that are producing it, which is why I continue to go back to a model of extended
23
producer responsibility and the capacity for EMC to perhaps push the Council. If it's all these
steps going towards ultimately state legislation to begin with, we also would want to look at
really pushing for producer responsibility also in conjunction or in lieu of putting more tax on
the retail end and the consumer end.
What we were looking at was what are the avenues that are open to the county, Chair Adams
said. The County is not the place to do an EPR or point of sale. That would come from the state.
And there are State bills that have been in process, and are still working forward, trying to
figure out how to do an EPR. The effort the Chair was looking at was, well, what could the
County level do? The county can ban the sale of certain materials if it wants to go there, but
that's probably not the most efficient way to accomplish things. But it's trying to look at where
are the point of authority, basically, and impact. And some have got to be at the state level. So
it's supportive of a state level effort.
And it would perhaps be a resolution to the State to say, please support this, the County feels
like it's important, Commissioner Acasio said.
VIII. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
1. Follow up on action items determined today.
1. June 23 - Invite to Douglass Adams, Director of Research and Development, to
discuss site visit to Yummet and the possibility of resource recovery from waste.
Chair Adams said we've got a couple of things to bring forward. She will come back and talk
with Commissioner Acasio with some drafts on how to begin to scope out a County ordinance
dealing with certain recyclable wastes that we could start pushing for restricting from
landfilling. And if there are some ideas you guys have about the wastewater issue, go for it.
We have invited Doug Adams, the Director of Research and Development, to come and talk
about what he knows about this, Yummet biochar resolution that was passed by Council. And
we may expand some of the questions we ask since we'll have him, but we won't only have him
for like 20, 30 minutes, so we won't have to be able to go too deep. But it's a resource.
And obviously if you've got any other topics you want to discuss, welcome to send them to me
and Peter and we'll try and figure out how to put them in the next agenda.
2. Other (Commissioners may suggest items they would like placed on the next agenda.)
Commissioner Otsuka recommended that Stacey Breining from the Hawai‘i Wildlife Foundation
talk to us. She just got back to me, and so she said she'll be able to probably do the June 23 one
if you want to add her on to the agenda.
Commissioner Acasio asked for information about the polymer that's added to the sludge at the
wastewater treatment plant and more detail on what that is and why it's put in there. And
some of those details, but for the next agenda, in case they need to do some looking up.
24
Commissioner Otsuka also asked about Kristine Kubat’s letter provided to EMC at the April
meeting and said she had questions about it.
Commissioner Acasio said that Ms. Kubat, representing Recycle Hawai‘i, is currently en route to
the intergovernmental program at the United Nations on plastic reduction for the climate
issues that we face. And so it would be nice also to, at some point in the near future, ask her to
report on that in terms of if there are any intergovernmental recommendations for us here in
the EMC relating to reduction of plastic pollution.
Chair Adams asked if there are any other ideas for future agenda. It's easier if you send it to
her, and then we can go back and forth and clarify just what we ought to put on the agenda.
IX. ANNOUNCEMENTS
The next meeting is scheduled for Friday June 23, 2023, at the Puna Conference Room of the
Hawai‘i County Building, 25 Aupuni Street, Hilo, and via Zoom.11 Please contact the Secretary
for the Department of Environmental Management or review the agenda posted on the County
Calendar within six days of the next meeting for confirmation.12
Chair Adams said the next meeting is Friday, June 23, in Hilo and Zoom as well. We went to
Friday partly because we are not going to have the Secretary. The survey looked like June 23
would work for most of us. Chair Adams might even be willing to drive to Hilo. We're still
struggling to be able to find a day that we can all make. It's getting frustrating. We've been too
close to not having quorum. But she appreciates all of you who showed up today.
X. ADJOURNMENT
Motion, second, and vote: Vice Chair Olson made a motion to adjourn, to which Commissioner
McIntosh seconded, and the motion was adopted. Ayes: 6 (Acasio, McIntosh, Olson, Otsuka,
Norris, Adams); Nays 0; Absent 2 (Burns, Cardwell). Meeting adjourned at 11:06 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Sur, Secretary
11 IX: 2023 EMC meeting schedule: https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=120846
12 IX: Hawai‘i County Calendar: https://www.hawaiicounty.gov/our-county/county-calendar