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Home My WebLink AboutLEPC Meeting Minutes 081723Hawai’i County LEPC Meeting Minutes Civil Defense EOC and via ZOOM August 17, 2023 Members Present: Gerald Kosaki/LEPC Chair, Ha Chi/ Hilo Medical Center, Darwin Okinaka/HFD Fire, Matthew Ho/HFD Hazmat, Kili Kanae/HFD EMS, Thomas Gilmore/DOH HEER, Barry Periat/ County Civil Defense, Ron Quesada/PGV, Casey Kishimori/HELCO, Eric Honda/DOH Hawaii District Health Office, Chris Leonard/Media General Manager New West Broadcasting Corp., Grant Kow/Department of Agriculture Pesticides Branch, Alfred Leung/ Pacific Biodiesel, Pomai Bartalome/Mayor’s Office. Members excused: David Cummings, Thomas Shopay, Phil Carper, Terri Napeahi, Non-Members Present: Sharon Leonida/DOH, Alexey Katko/Mayor’s Office, Cory Harden/Public Representative, Liz Galvez/DOH HEER, Jordyn Mantz/Fire Admin., Cody Frenz/ Corp Council I. CALL TO ORDER: Meeting called to order 9:07am by Gerald Kosaki. II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: May 18, 2023, Chief Okinaka motion to approve and Alfred Seconded. III. COUNTY REPORTS: a. CIVIL DEFENSE: Barry Periat reported that ongoing support for Maui recovery is being provided, offered EOC support, in the process of figuring out transportation for 20 law enforcements to head over to Maui. After the Mauna Kea beach brushfire, working with radio station, looking to improve public messaging, want to focus more on improving radio emergency alerts over text- message alerts. b. HFD: Darwin Okinaka gave an update of being on standby currently for Maui. Updates on Kohala and Mauna Kea beach fires, several structures damaged; Golfing maintenance facility, one of the pesticides buildings might have been damaged, maintenance vehicles, locked containers, entire facility was lost. Groundskeeping area/nursery partially lost. One roof structure damaged in Mauna Kea Beach and one roof structure damaged in Kohala Ranch. Lots of dry grass, trees, and leaves helped fuel brushfire along with 67 mph winds due to nearby Hurricane. Made the brushfire one of the more difficult ones to contain, but the firefighters did a great job. No casualties. i. Kosaki and Okinaka: Discussion about laying down a type of mulch around houses to act as a fire retardant and slow fires from spreading in the future. c. HFD-HAZMAT: i. Matt Ho stated a flyer sent out this morning about chemical safety training. Dept. of Water Supply & Hazmat doing functionals on Sept. 13th 9:00am-2:00pm in Waimea. Lithium-Ion Battery training was a success, brought down a San Diego fire chief to share information with the class on the issue, attendees were very pleased with the information that was taught and shared. Also reported the Walmart Hilo car crash that caused a battery spillage of 200 gallons was contained and cleaned. Response to related incidents was a Hot Coal Mix caught fire, mix was too hot and not regulated with concerns of toxic plume coming out of it, fire was handled and covered in Industrial area. ii. Kili Kanae reported about bad batches of fentanyl making rounds in Hilo and Kona, trying to track the origins and gather more info but information is limited on scene of these cases such as hotels, bars, and private residencies. Kimo Alameda’s Task force spreading awareness and information about fentanyl poisoning. Discussion about Narcan to help combat, discussing to place them in public places for easy access (vending machines, access in schools, hotels, etc.) Must be careful of misinformation being spread to first responders on exposure to overdosage, exposure, and effects of Fentanyl. IV. INDUSTRY PARTNERS: a. PGV: Ron Quesada reported being finished with KS22 drilling (production well). The well is now developing and heating up on its own. In process of removing drill rig and adding piping, project not done until it is put into the Geothermal processing system. Once it is in service, they will update their maps to include KS22. Currently no plans of further drilling for the rest of the year, but the KS22 is ready just in case. Community PGV meeting for transparency to public of future plans as well as voicing any concerns, Tuesday August 22, 2023. b. HAMAKUA ENERGY PARTNERS: Not Present c. HELCO: Casey Kishimori reported currently rotating employees from different islands to assist with Maui relief efforts, email media@hawaiielectric.com for any more questions and information. d. MEDIA: Chris Leonard reported on discussion of immediately improving the State Emergency Communications Committee (SECC) communications alerting plan. Brought up concerns about the failures that need to be improved on after the current situation of emergency alerts not reaching the directly impacted during the Maui fires. Plans and protocols that were in place for events such as these were no executed properly. Phone and Text message-based alerts are not useful during emergencies like these due to the telephone poles and internet access being down, should’ve utilized the 20 radio stations as another source of information being spread to the public. Alert systems should not be opt-in via text, instead be mandatory. Press conference was held on Maui fire situation but was broadcasted to outside viewers due to fact the directly impacted have no access to internet. i. Chris Leonard and Thomas Gilmore: Concerns of how elderly folk have difficulties with accessing things on their phone, will be unable to access emergency alerts on their phone properly. V. STATE: a. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Thomas Gilmore reported being invited to the Big Island GMAC game end of June, had lots of questions about Hakalau Bridge Park and mediating of dept. of transportation. Excavating soil over there, Notices put up in newspaper. So little coastal access to Hamakua coast, access or clean- up has not been made since 2017. Willing to answer more questions later. b. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH OAHU: Sharon Leonida requests for September 22nd meeting up for discussion, requesting to have a member added. Concerned on technology and more information on Lithium-Ion batteries, hopefully more info on that in December. Asked Kosaki if check was deposited, Kosaki mentioned handing the check to Nikol in person along with certificate. c. DOH HEER: Liz Galvez reported from Maui, request of a military personnel. d. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Eric Honda reported no updates. e. HILO MEDICAL CENTER: Ha Chi reported no updates, having staff being deployed to Maui for support. f. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION: Orasa Fernandez reported to be continuing to receive funds for hazmat, trying to correlate for collecting containers of mass waste from Hilo and Waiakea Complex. g. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE PESTICIDES BRANCH Grant Kow reported on checking up and monitoring pesticides safety procedures within community, offering services on how to manage and dispose of pesticides and chemicals properly. Pesticides Disposure Program event coming up within next year, handed out papers with more information on it. Making plans to start collecting from commercial and schools, looking into restricted pesticides as well as cleaning them up. Doing investigations into homeowners currently. VI. CORP COUNCIL: Cody Frenz concerns about uploading finalized May draft to Laserfiche, already past 40 days, e-mail was also sent out about Agenda for May 18th, 2023, and today’s August 17th, 2023 meeting also not being uploaded to Laserfiche and all of these being a violation to Sunshine Law. VII. OLD BUSINESS: a. Lithium-Ion battery training class overview and briefing. VIII. NEW BUSINESS: a. Upcoming Continuing Challenge workshop, Fire bringing 3 personnel, sent out to committee if anyone else would like to attend. b. Emergency response guide coming out every 4 years. All police, fire vehicles, crash crew etc. will receive, ordered enough for committee and fire dept. to have. IX. DISCUSSION: a. Representing the Public Cory Harden: Concerns on the opt-in messaging for emergency alerts with a link to click on for more information, such as evacuation routes, tsunami, earthquakes, etc. alerts through text message not very effective if telephone lines and internet access are down. Concern to how people who do not have good access to internet, live remote, elderly, and off-grid with will receive emergency alerts. X. NEXT MEETING: November 9th, 2023, from 9:00am-11:00am at EOC. XI. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting Adjourned at 10:05am