HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-01-24 EMC minutes draft1
ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION
COUNTY OF HAWAIʻI
MEETING MINUTES
Wednesday, January 24, 2024
9:11 a.m. to 12:20 p.m.
Hawai‘i County Building, Hilo, and Zoom
Commissioners present:
Georjean Adams, Chair
Dot Norris, Vice Chair
Jim Beets
Laura Acasio
Dell Otsuka
Erica Perez
Lee McIntosh
Gonzalo Garcia
County staff present:
Ramzi Mansour, Director
Craig Kawaguchi, Recycling Coordinator
Peter Sur, Secretary
Sherilyn Tavares, Deputy Corporation Counsel
Others present:
Jennifer Navarra, Chris McKay, Cari Ishida, Gary Deis, Stuart Coleman, Jon Olson, Rick Anthony,
Tracy Wiegner, others.
I. CALL TO ORDER
Chair Adams called the meeting to order at 9:11 a.m.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR NOVEMBER 29, 2023
Motion, second, and vote: Commissioner Acasio made a motion, to which Commissioner
Garcia seconded, to approve the minutes as presented. Ayes 8 (Acasio, Beets, Garcia, McIntosh,
Otsuka, Perez, Norris, Adams); nays 0. Motion carried.
III. STATEMENT FROM THE CHAIR
Introduction of new Commissioners
It is almost amazing that we have a full set of commissioners, minus one, Chair Adams said. I'll
get to that shortly. John Burns - I wanted to pass along what he sent since he wasn't able to be
at our last meeting. He had some kind words for everybody, so I decided to read it off:
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“It has been a pleasure working with you all over the last several years. I have enjoyed all the
discussions and creative input we have provided to the County to help with our waste
management needs on this island. I appreciate all the hard work you do and thank you all for
your service and being such enjoyable individuals to work with. I wish you all the best in years
to come.”
So that's John Burns, whose term ended, and that leads me to the new members on the group.
And one is Jim Beets, who's taken over District 1. And welcome. Excited to have you here. And
another one who knows about our waters. That's good. I'll go through everybody and then
come back and ask you guys to maybe make some comments. Laura Acasio from District 2 is
here. Dell Otsuka (District 3) is on the Zoom. Erica Perez is our new District 4 representative,
replacing the irreplaceable Jon Olson, who is also here as a testifier. Melissa Cardwell
represents District 5, and she's just informed us that she just cannot do the kind of participation
on the Commission that she would like to. So she will be withdrawing, however that process
works. So if anybody knows someone who is in District 5 that might be a candidate, she's going
to be looking around as well so that we could have a full slate. District 6 is Lee McIntosh. Thank
you, Lee. District 7, Gonzalo Garcia has already made a motion, so that's great. District 8, Dot
Norris. And then I am Georjean Adams, the Chair and also District 9 representative. And I
thought maybe we could ask the new people on the group - we got Gonzalo, last meeting, I
believe to give a little bit of his background. But Jim, if you wanted to let us know, why are you
here?
Why am I here? That's a good question, Commissioner Beets said. So I retired from the
University last year and my position there was in marine sciences, but most of what I've done
over my career is in fisheries and fisheries science. So I started my work actually in the U.S.
Caribbean way long ago, almost over 45 years ago, almost 50, and worked in - my first job was
working in water quality within Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. So I'm very familiar with
water issues, water treatment especially. I worked on that on both sides, both on the
management side and the review side. So I have several years of experience in that with
different permitting process such as the NPDES permits, et cetera, and the dark underbelly of it,
which can be some of the more challenging parts, which is the consulting projects that are done
positively and negatively. And then after that I worked in government as a government
scientist, mostly in fisheries, but also water quality, and subsequently moved to Hawai‘i and
have been working at the university researching fisheries, still water quality. A lot of water
quality projects around the big island, including Puakō, which Erica is very familiar with, and I'm
sure we'll share more about that later.
Chair Adams asked Commissioner Perez to introduce herself.
Aloha and good morning, Commissioner Perez said. Thank you so much for inviting me and
encouraging me to be here. I have a background in marine science and conservation biology
from the university. I have also really been heavily involved with water quality and sanitation
across Hawai‘i County as well as the State for about 10 years. I have worked with multiple
different nonprofit state and government organizations to develop water quality sampling
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community efforts that we work with closely with Department of Health, filling water quality
gaps around sanitation and (Beaches Environmental Assessment And Coastal Health Act)
methodologies. I also have worked really closely with the Puakō community. So for the past 10
years, investigating alternatives for wastewater treatment, which was great to hear the Carollo
update yesterday and the Director’s update. I have sat at the State level on the cesspool
conversion working group, so worked with the folks on that working group to put together the
plan and identifying kind of missing links of information needed to arrive at a thoughtful place
to try to move cesspools and transition them across the state. So I have really been invested in
personally as well as professionally, in kind of moving sanitation and clean water for community
and in regards to community health and coral reef and environmental safety.
IV. PUBLIC STATEMENTS ON ITEMS ON THE AGENDA
(See also Stuart Coleman, agenda item V.2, Page 11)
Jon Olson, agenda item VI.1: So, basically, I've worn a number of different hats in my time here.
Probably because I have a background in building. I'm a union trained carpenter, and I was
there for the buildout of Los Angeles. I've had some practice. I've also become educated on the
issues of wastewater. As part of that, my name is also on a federal civil rights complaint against
the State of Hawai‘i and the County of Hawai‘i for the manner in which they have done
development. That is, if you know anything about the federal civil rights, it's a creature that
does not die. All you have to do is shake it a little bit and it wakes up. And the question is, do
we want to shake it? And I think we've come to the point where we have no choice but to do
that. I don't know if you've been out to Puna lately, but the building, of course, is moving along
exponentially, filling in the 50,000 lots that are there and more that could be subdivided out.
There are many parcels that are sitting there in larger states at the moment, but they own the
right to subdivide. So I started with transportation. That's what the original civil rights
complaint was about. And that is no less of a problem today than it was back then,
unfortunately. … (I am speaking on) the wastewater management part, because that is a
purview of this body. One of the purviews of this body is to oversee that. And that ties correctly
to that civil rights complaint that we filed back when the County was not doing, and it isn't
doing now- it's supposed to be doing. So anyway. You're going to hear more about that. We're
putting together another committee to move forward in that, and we'll keep you posted as to
where that is.
Jennifer Navarra, agenda item V.4: So I did submit testimony on the agenda item addressing
extended producer responsibility legislation for packaging, and I just wanted to update the
Commission on what's likely to be the bills that will move this year. So there's been, I guess for
about three years now, extended producer responsibility legislation that's been introduced. It's
been difficult to pass something like an actual full program. So Rep. Lowen, who has been our
champion on this issue, thought it was best that this year a needs assessment bill be
introduced. And essentially it's going to kind of look at what is the landscape of packaging
waste currently and what types of infrastructure and costs and education needs and all of that
sort of thing we need to put in place going forward to design a system of extended producer
responsibility. So it's something that some
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States do when they fail to pass a full program bill. We did have the opportunity to work with
trade associations and lobbyists to actually have them review the bills and give input. Of course,
it's not a full program, so they're a little bit more supportive. The timeline on this all seems
really sad to me personally, but I don't know. Bureaucracy moves very slow, there should be
companion bills being introduced in the House and the Senate, I think that will be addressed. I
think a wrong version was introduced on the Senate side or submitted. It's SB 2368 and then
the House bill is 1688. And so we'll see how it goes this year. If the County and counties can be
supportive of this legislation and submitting testimony, that will be really helpful. I know
Hawai‘i County DEM has been really good about submitting testimony, but it's harder for some
of the other counties. They have to get permission up to the level of the Mayor. So that's kind
of the scoops on the EPR for this year.
Jennifer Navarra, agenda item VI.2 I also did submit testimony just on the officer elections and
just recommending that we continue Georjean Adams as Chair. I think she's doing an awesome
job and brings a lot of energy and a lot of desire for solutions and actually moving things
forward rather than just talking about the needs, like actually trying to define and address
problem or address the needs to improve our solid waste management. And I don't remember
if I said it at the beginning, but I want to welcome the new commissioners. You guys sound
awesome, I think Erica, I've run into you at the community college (Work-4-Water). My interest,
solid waste is my background. But having participated in these meetings over the years and I
have become interested in how do we address our wastewater management issues. So I know
you bring a wealth of experience to the commission. (Commissioner Beets) also brings a lot of
background. So welcome, guys. Happy to have you.
Commissioner Discussion: I have comment to add, Commissioner Acasio said. Thank you,
Jennifer, for your testimony. A lot of good details in there. I do want to add for the record that
there is a bit more history as well that was not in the testimony. And that SB 1458, I think it's
important to acknowledge, because it's somebody that is often at the EMC and involved in
waste and resource management, that the predecessor for Senate Bill 1458 was introduced and
drafted by our State Senate office in 2021. And Rep. Lowen did have another bill as well. And
the two had different levels of traction and input. And that the actual drafter of the language is
Kristine Kubat in her capacity as my chief of staff. And so it's important, I think, just for the
record, because there is a lot of knowledge in that drafting and why it was drafted that way,
especially as we go into the details of different versions of EPR and the whole discussion that
has its own history and timeline for the last three years, and that our office had drafted that
original parent bill to SB 1458 in 2021 and asked Rep. Lowen if she would introduce it in the
coming year, 2022. So I just wanted to also add that in so that it's in the record.
For those of you are new, Laura Acasio was the State Senator for District 1, Chair Adams said.
And just to be clear, Commissioner Acasio said, the reason why I say it's not my bill is because
there are many drafters and a lot of input in it, but to give credit to Kristine Kubat, because she
actually did draft that bill before we sent it to Senate drafting.
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And as far as the procedures go, Chair Adams said, is it formally introduced for this year?
Commissioner Acasio said there is a different draft. There is a whole different version or
approach to the current bill, which is more of a task force or a study, is what she said. A study
for the needs assessment. So it's a different bill, but again, they're all related on the subject
matter and have similar intentions. But there are some differences.
Commissioner Perez understood that what Ms. Navarra submitted are SB and HB bills that are
different than what Laura is speaking toward. And so are all three of these different? I mean,
House Bill, Senate Bill, and then the old Senate bill 1458. Those, all three are around producer
responsibility. And then there's going to be another one that's new this year drafted.
Yes, because 1458 is technically still sitting in WAM, Commissioner Acasio said. Because it's a
biennium, they're still alive. But oftentimes they will introduce new bills as well.
Chair Adams said we will cover it when we get to it on the agenda.
V. UNFINISHED BUSINESS
1. Presentation by Rick Anthony, Zero Waste advisor to the California Resource
Recovery Association, on achieving Zero Waste in Hawai‘i County. Postponed from
November 29, 2023.
Mahalo for being here, Commissioner Acasio said. Rick Anthony, it's an honor. And there is an
extensive history of involvement. Rick has been involved in helping to develop our zero waste
policy here for Hawai‘i Island, and he will give more information about that. But it's an
informative opportunity for us and for the public. Thank you for being here.
Aloha, Mr. Anthony said. I'm glad to be in front of this Committee. I spent a good period of my
life on the Big Island. Working for you or with you started in about 2008 when the Mayor was
seriously looking at a waste to energy plant. And he had Dr. James Weatherford go out and look
at what the possibilities were. And Weatherford ran into Neil Seldman and myself, and we said,
there might be a better way to do this than burning it. And Council Member Bob Jacobson was
a council member who had designated money toward him. And he said, I'll put up $25,000 if
Rick and Neil can bring a team to the island and talk to us. And that's what we did. There was a
big meeting with HIEDB at one of the big hotels on the Kona side. And then we went with our
team, and we had a composter and Dr. Paul Connett, who was a chemical engineer, and a
bunch of staff, and we had meetings around the island. First meeting was in the Mayor's office
in Kona. And bottom line is that there was improvements, because there was community
meetings. They were looking at improvements at the transfer stations. There wasn't any, really
representatives from the condos or the business, but we came up with some
recommendations. And what we said at the end was that to get this done completely, we have
to change some of the rules. And one of the rules would be mandatory source separation,
including the businesses, the downtown, Hilo and Kona, the condos, to be part of this. And we
got approval from the Council to go ahead and do this.
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And the economy fell in 2009. Those of you around remember that some of the bigger banks
failed, and there was no business going on for three or four months. And the Council had
decided they had other priorities, so they never went through that part of it. About 2015,
Mayor Kenoi again was looking at waste to energy. So three or four of us who loved Big Island
anyhow, and Captain Charlie Moore, who had a home in Waimea, he's the one who came up
with the marine debris and talking about plastic in the ocean. And so we put together a
workshop and invited the other islands to come and talked basically on composting it. About
two weeks before the meeting, the Mayor decided that he didn't want a burner. He wanted to
go with anaerobic digestion, which is the last resort. It's not a bad idea. Also, I wanted to say
that during that first round in 2008-2009, we got hired by the Hawai‘i Island Economic
Development Board and primarily was to look at the possibility of organics being composted
and using the islands and lava bed, they were importing soils from Seattle at a couple hundred
dollars a ton. Why not make our own compost? And a part of my job was to find out what was
available. And what was amazing to me is none of the grocery stores were putting out any
organics. When we went to the packing houses, you could see the lines of farmers behind
picking up the coal. And the reason is, as a lava based island, there's not a lot of soil. So any
kind of organic that you could put in the ground and make that work, that's pretty much it. I
don't have to tell you, the Big Island 1,000 years ago was the feeding island for the entire chain.
And everything you see about it, you know, that can happen today. One of the things we notice
is nobody's going to starve on the Big Island. We're just going to go across the park and get a
papaya and a banana, and some macadamia nuts, and we'd be on our way. But the study that
we had was that we needed to actually build a culture of composting on the island. We tried to
work with the universities to train a couple of students, and one of them dropped out, but the
other one turned out to be a really good composter. But the fact is that the farmers want this
stuff. They need it, and there should be something about it. Again, when the economy failed,
we did write a curriculum for the development board on how we could train people coming
back from the military to work on these ideas to get to zero waste. Rather than getting that
contract, they gave it to some local nonprofit, which I don't think much happened.
Well, back in 2015, the waste to energy thing popped up again. And so Charlie and Paul and
Ruth Abbey and myself came down, put on a workshop, had lots of islands there. They canceled
his idea, wanted to go with anaerobic digester, which one of the things we found when we did
the first round was that hog guts, because of all the hundreds and hundreds of feral pigs and
slaughtering of pigs for ribs. There was a lot of offal around. And a digester would be a good
idea. Actually, a digester is also part of your sewer treatment, if you didn't know. The other part
was, think about that, the big issue in sewer treatment is what do you do with the sludges, the
wastewater sludges afterwards? And if there's no metals or heavy metals in it, it's a terrific
component to your agriculture. It adds a lot of nitrogen to the soil. Ms. Kubat asked Neil and I
to update the plan based on the fact that times have changed and we are out of COVID and
we're still looking at it. And I think we came up with some interesting recommendations.
I want to point out that the landfill itself is a polluter. It pollutes the groundwater. And no
matter how tight that one is in Kona and how new it is, is still generating methane from the
landfill. Even if they have a gas collection system, they can only get about 20 to 30 percent
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back. In fact, 16 percent of the methane that's going into the atmosphere that's causing global
warming is coming from landfills. To the point where the UN said to all the countries in the
world, stop landfilling. Don't do it. Go to zero waste. In fact, I was in New York on the 31st at
the United Nations as the chair of the Zero Waste International alliance. And we spoke to 31st,
the Mayor, the First Lady of Turkey, basically asked the UN to declare the 31st of March to be a
zero waste day. And we had a little panel and we talked to the entire delegation. It was pretty
amazing. And bottom line, part of it, part of my presentation about zero waste, which is the
responsible production, consumption, reuse and recovery of products and packages and
materials without burning and no discards to air, water and land, was the way we ought to go
about it. And one of the main points is that we have to change the way we handle our
discharge. And that means require source separation. That's the answer for Hawai‘i, as far as
I'm concerned. That's a missing piece on this new plan they gave me: “Okay, Rick, deal with the
multifamily and the businesses.” And I was doing an Introduction to Zero Waste lecture in the
WASTECON in Las Vegas. And one of the guys in the audience was a vice president of Western
Waste Services. And I said, “Well, you know, I've been looking for you for five years. My God.”
And he was interested in the MRF process. They wanted to do it. The key was that you can't just
set up a system and guess if people are going to participate, you have to require people to
participate so that the system will work. I also talked to Nick Riznyk, who also is one of the
other collectors in here. And he would be glad to set up a source separation system in his
condos and business pickups. Now, it doesn't have to be a single stream, which is all recyclables
mixed together. It could be a dual stream where you separate the paper from the glass and the
metal, or you can do more. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, when we started recycling, we picked
up newspaper in one bin and glass in another bin, and aluminum cans together with metal cans
in the third bin, because a magnet could take it out. So local ordinances are really important.
We also wanted to turn the- and they're doing it now, but the idea is to take the transfer
stations and turn them into local parks where you can get education and information. I know
when I was there, you could redeem your bottles and cans for the HI-5. And I think that's all
good. I think other deposits in California, we just added wine and liquor bottles to our deposit
system. And I heard they had something like $600 million in their account. And the key is,
though, to make sure that the people who are doing the work are recovered. Turn the transfer
stations into educational kiosks and your shop and drop. I talk people around the world about
what's happening on the Big Island in terms of the shop and drop, because what I found out is
most of that stuff doesn't stay on the shelf for more than three or four days. People are taking
it. And that's really the reuse economy that we're talking about.
Thirdly, training. We have people who are running our systems, who have not been trained in
resource management. It's just the way it is. I taught classes at community college in resource
management, and it was amazing how many people showed up. Now, this was 2009, and we
were recruiting from the unemployment office. But the fact is the typical administrator for a
program is actually trained in wastewater management pretty much, somewhat on energy
conversion or energy, and then nothing really on resource management. And it's really a big
deal because with a little change in the rules, you're going to have commodities flowing that are
going to be ready to support businesses. So training is really important. We're working on in
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San Diego, there are about six counties now that have this, but it's called a wasting fee, and it's
$10 on the black bin. And that goes to a regional education, waste reduction and toxic
programs throughout the area. It comes out to the individual about 35 cents a year because
you generate less than a ton a year and it's going to be $10 a ton. I just want to make an aside,
and I don't know if you're still doing it, but you were giving Business Services $80 a ton,
whatever the avoided cost was to remove the mixed recyclables and cardboard and send them
to Portland where they could be sorted. Well, when I was there the second time, they stopped,
they were just doing cardboard. It seems to me that anybody that was moving materials,
whether they were taking the glass and using the glass for an aggregate or even a small glass
plant to make bottles, they should get that subsidy as well. I mean, if you're budgeting $80 a
ton for landfilling, they ought to spread it around. So that's an incentive, especially on the
organics side, to get these businesses to work out whatever the shipping fee is.
And then finally, I want to say two things. One, I think the idea of local businesses is fine. I think
the transfer stations and the MRFs can be sources of feedstock to local industries that are
making things out of products. If you're around on the 28th of February, Zero Waste San Diego
will do our 11th annual symposium. It's virtual as well as live. And this time, Laura, my
daughter, who runs it, focuses on reuse. And we probably have 20 different small businesses
that are taking stuff that would have otherwise gone to the landfill and turning it into products
and businesses. So this is adding to your local wealth. It's also creating businesses and some
independence. And finally, there's millions of dollars right now available for these kinds of
projects. Serious effort in going after some federal money from EPA. I know Kristine will tell
you, I think you just got one. I heard she landed something about a month ago, but it's out
there. There's funding out there. You can do this.
You brought up the sludge for compost, Commissioner Acasio said. I just recently went to a
presentation put on by the Environmental Caucus of the Democratic Party. They had some
guest speakers and talking about that. Oftentimes, the sludge is now loaded with PFAS and
PFOS. And then also, I still haven't gotten a lot of clarification about our polymer that's added.
But if I'm not incorrect, our County adds polymer to the sludge. And so that would be
something to address in terms of if we were to use that as any kind of resource recovery and
diversion, that would become an issue kind of immediately for farmers because we're adding
polymer and it contains the PFOS from other sources.
PFAS is a new one, Mr. Anthony said, and it's a terrible thing. And the whole plastic industry is a
real cause for concern. What's going on in terms of just population? I'm not a chemist. And so
Paul Connett would tell you, though, maybe the heat of the compost typically burns off most of
the organic additives. And so PFAS would be in there. But the best thing is just to ban PFAS and
not let them spray that on our containers and our receipts and wherever it shows up in our
environment. That's why I say the 35 cents a piece for a regional waste reduction education
program could let people know what's out there and how it's going to harm them and what
they can do to stop it. And the major power we have in this country is that if we don't buy the
stuff, they go out of business. So we should think about that. If they make products that don't
have any use or have toxic materials that end up in the environment, then we should boycott.
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Commissioner Beets asked if the EPA requires sludge treatment before it can be used in
agricultural compost.
They grade it, Mr. Anthony said. It's Grade A, Grade B, Grade C. So a clean compost that doesn't
have any heavy metal and meets the EPA requirement is okay for land application. If it has the
heavy metals, then that's a problem. And there's lots of incidents of putting on just sludge that
hasn't been checked out on soils and caused a lot of damage. But when we ran the San Diego-
we built their resource recovery system so successful that the County sold the landfills. I can't
even get into it, and the whole system was sold to Allied Waste for $300 million cash. “We'll
mail you the check by Friday.” And they did. The issue is that we can control this. We don't have
to give it away. It should be public ownership. You have the power to make the adjustments.
Where are you guys going from here, Mr. Anthony asked. Are you going to recommend the
Council to do something? Have you looked at the updated zero waste plans?
We are in the process of trying to implement our integrated solid waste management plan that
we issued in 2019, Chair Adams said. And there are several components and recommendations
in there, including to look at expanding the reuse centers and the transfer stations and
improving how we divert waste. And in fact, the Commission just recently sent to our Council
encouragement to look at banning the landfill of recyclable materials. And I wrote up a draft bill
that would look at what can we recycle now, and who can cost effectively participate in
recycling? The resorts, for example, here, and businesses will have to find a way to divert
resources, basically, instead of taking it all to our landfill. So we're just in the beginning of that
process that we'll be working with the Council on how to develop those kinds of actions. So
there is a whole series and we're plugging through and discussing how to move forward. The
biggest issue that is different, I think, of this island is just we don't have an industrial base, we
don't have a lot of users of the recovered material here on this island. So it's a much bigger
circle in the circular economy, the world, which drives the cost crazy. We allow residents, for
example, to throw away their waste for free. Well, it's kind of hidden in their property tax. To
say, we're going to throw $10 charge on you for every bin of waste you have, eh, we'll probably
get some pushback. So there are a lot of political, cultural hurdles that we need to do, but we're
working on them. So I at least would hope that everybody feels like we're not doing nothing.
We are looking at how can we pace it and how can we manage it as an island, a county within a
state in the middle of the Pacific.
In addition, Commissioner Acasio said, Commissioner Garcia and I are also working on a zero
waste ordinance or opportunity because it may or may not end up being an ordinance if it
doesn't need to be, for film industry and construction, repurposing within the film industry for
permits and require it as part of the permit so that they can budget it into the whole
production.
Well, two things to watch out is in California, and we have rural areas too, that have to be
complied, Mr. Anthony said. So one is the current mandate that no compostable organics will
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go to landfill. And part of that is the capturing of the edible food. And my company, one of the
things we've been doing with the cities is identifying the big generators of edible food and tying
them with the pantries. With the conversion of organics out of the landfill, you solve the
leachate problem and you solve the methane problem, but you also create a whole new
industry of making compost. And I know that you need that stuff on the island. The other one
was SB 54, which we tried to get bills to regulate plastic. And we get beat by them in downtown
Sacramento. So we put together an initiative and got the signatures and we're rolling until the
very last day of the meetings. And the industry came forward and said, we'll do everything in SB
54, but we don't want it to be a law. We don't want it to be the way the initiative is, which has
the government running it. We want to run it ourselves. Producer responsibility organizations,
some of the more radical, said, that is not going to work. But the fact is they all signed on and
the governor signed it into law. And Californians Against Waste, the lobbyist group, pulled it
from the ballot. Now today we're looking at the rulemaking, and you might just take a watch
out on what's going on 54, because that's plastic. And in my 50 years in this business, in the first
five years, there wasn't that kind of plastic out there today or maybe if you looked at plastic in
the composition, it was like two, 3%. Today it's a good 10 percent, 15 percent. And that's
amazing when you figure out how light that stuff is. So these are two good things to watch for
that you could apply. Especially, I think, the banning of organics from the landfill. I think you do
that in my mind, for the environment that you recognize the landfill is producing methane and
that's causing global warming. And because of that, you're going to divert it and byproduct is
going to be- you're going to make good, healthy soil to use on the farms throughout the island.
Chair Adams said she would have to wrap up this session. Mr. Anthony has plenty of stuff
online if you wanted to check out what's happening with the California Resource Recovery
Association. And the zero waste report has a lot of good information for everybody. So thank
you very much.
It's zwia.org, and that's our website for all the international groups, Mr. Anthony said. We now
have 25 affiliates on the international group. And just aside, finally, is that Rossano Ercolini
picked up on this one in Italy. And there's now over 100 cities in Italy that are over 80 percent in
terms of diversion. I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you.
2. Wastewater code and rules update
Stuart Coleman, agenda item V.2: My name is Stuart Coleman. I'm the executive director of
WAI, Wastewater Alternatives and Innovations. And I've worked with Laura (Acasio) and Erica
(Perez) for a long time as part of the plastics movement and then also as the Cesspool
Conversion Working Group. And I just wanted to mention two things that kind of tie these two
issues together that we were just discussing. One is in terms of recycling. … the one thing in
terms of sludge waste that we were talking about before, and the issue of contaminants with
PFAS and PFOS and others, pyrolysis, which is high heat, low oxygen. There's a new technology
that removes up to 98 percent of those contaminants and then all other contaminants, and it
produces biochar. So this is not only removing those contaminants, it's avoiding trucking sludge
to the landfill, which the former speaker was talking about, how dangerous that is. And our
landfills are already full, and they can be leaching those chemicals into the groundwater. But
11
also, the great thing about it is it's a carbon sink, it's a soil amendment, and it can be a fire
retardant. So you can also mix it in with invasive grasses, which are a big problem across
Hawai‘i Island. And you can replace those very flammable invasives with something that is good
for the Earth and doesn't have contaminants and can be a fire retardant. So that's super
important. The other thing regarding recycling is with glass. We're basically losing money
shipping glass every time because we can't do anything with it here. There are efforts in Maui
County to crush that glass to levels that we need for individual wastewater systems. For leach
fields, it's C33-size sand, which we don't really have much of. And we need the quarries to
produce it. But then crushing the glass can be a huge thing with the 48,000 cesspools that need
to be converted, because it's a great filtration system for these leach fields.
(EMC discussion deferred)
3. Recommendations, if any, to the September 2023 draft of the General Plan 1
(Commissioners may propose specific comments for GP section 3.5, Wastewater
Treatment and Reuse 2, and section 4.3, Solid Waste Management 3). Postponed
October 24, 2023 and November 29, 2023.4
We were asked to look at the General Plan draft sections 3.5 on wastewater treatment and
reuse and 4.3 on solid waste management, Chair Adams said. This was postponed from earlier
meetings. And as part of the package, the Secretary had sent out the couple of comments that
he received. I'm digging through here, and whether anyone has additional recommendations to
consider. I know we were talking about maybe putting that up on the screen and edit or
comment as you wish. And also, just a reminder, as individuals, you are more than welcome to
comment on the General Plan. The Planning Department is soliciting public input until, I believe,
March 1 of this year. So you can go in there and put your own things in. The question was
whether EMC, as a body, wanted to provide specific commentary. So I think we talked last time
about, there's reference in there about the West Hawai‘i Sanitary Landfill lasting 100 years.
Well, forget that. So either strike that or put some new language. We're well below that. The
last time when we submitted the recommendation to Council on banning recyclables to the
landfill, the Director had told us 20 to 25 years at the rate we are filling it up. If DEM is not
wanting to specifically use that number, we could certainly say, just say significantly less, and in
the not too distant future, our landfill will be overwhelmed.
Chair Adams asked the Director if he wants EMC to make a comment on the General Plan
saying 20 to 25 years is the estimated lifetime of our one and only landfill.
You can, the Director said. It's an approximate lifespan, and it depends if the diversion program
gets successful or we get more population and growth and it could deplete it faster. But just as
a reminder, our consultant Element Environmental, is working on analyzing the entire solid
waste operation, including looking at the landfill and confirming the capacity remaining for that
1 V.2: Draft General Plan: https://cohplanning.konveio.com/gp-draft
2 V.2: Draft GP – Wastewater: https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=127686
3 V.2: Draft GP – Solid Waste: https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=127685
4 V.2: Draft comments re General Plan: https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=127715
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landfill. So as long as you kind of make it general, maybe we, you know, because we don't have
it could change. It's very dynamic.
I understand the reluctance to put a number in there, Chair Adams said.. And I think maybe a
more general statement, which is sort of in here- if you give us flexibility to reword this, to just
say that we have a shorter expected lifetime on that landfill.
Why can't we just make the modification based on the previous statement of 2025 years,
Commissioner Beets asked. Because if it's incorrect, then it should be corrected.
The 100 years is definitely wrong, Chair Adams said. We need to have that struck. But it was
kind of background information the way they had stated it in the General Plan draft. And so I
think it's just taking out that misstatement and whether we need another sentence in there
that says how long or expected to be.
I think DEM will correct that, if you don't mind, Director Mansour said. Because remember, this
is 100 years based on that General Plan when it was drafted, even prior to the landfill
activation. So we're talking about what's remaining.
I would rather DEM put in the language that you're comfortable with, Chair Adams said.
The Secretary will note that DEM will adjust the language as it sees fit within the studies taking
place at this time, the Director said.
Okay, next one is there are a series of recommended actions, Chair Adams said.
I’m recommending a sentence to follow the 24.i, Commissioner Norris said. I was discussing
with EPA about injection wells and their influence on nearshore waters, and I got a response
from one of the hydrologists from EPA, and he mentioned that they had a draft guidance for
future injection wells, and it comes from the Supreme Court. I asked them to look into what
they're going to recommend for injection wells, in nearshore waters from Maui. There was a
lawsuit that was brought to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court gave some guidance on
how EPA should react to the vicinity of injection wells, near shore waters. And essentially, if you
can prove that your injection well will not influence nearshore waters, shoreline communities,
then the EPA will not impose any kind of NPDES requirements on your injection well. But if we
would think ahead and think about where we put the- I got a phone call that we would ensure
that these new injection wells would not impact the environment. We would save ourselves a
lot of headaches in the future. So that's the reason for the recommendation, is that we do
these kind of studies ahead of time before installing a new injection well to ensure that the
placement and the plume does not extend to the near shore.
Director Mansour said he wanted to make sure that as Commissioners, when you reach out to
these agencies, I hope you are not reaching out in the name of the Department or the County,
because there's a lot of issues. My department is very cognizant of the lawsuit, very cognizant
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of the requirement and the calculations and what it would take to do it. So I just want to make
sure that when you guys do that, if you do it on your own, don't do it under the representation
of the County or DEM because that could impact potentially any current project or any current
discussion that's going with EPA. So that's to all commissioners. You are in the advisory
commission, but we cannot prevent you doing your research. But just keep that in mind
because it's very dynamic as a government entity, we work with EPA and the Department of
Health on ongoing projects, litigations, et cetera. So I just want to make sure.
We've gone down this path with Maui all the way to the highest court system of our nation,
Commissioner Perez said. And then they sent it back to Hawai‘i and we had a substantial- we
being the state- had substantial amount of research of the impact of injection. I'm wondering if
this is the best path or if this is even necessary with the amount of research that Maui did in
Lahaina and the amount of know how that the Director and DEM already understand the
impacts that injection wells are bringing with that guidance from the Supreme Court coming
back to Hawai‘i saying we need to kind of fix our NPDES process. And I am curious if this is
needed.
Commissioner Norris said she did not mention any affiliation with the EMC, so that's not an
issue. I was just doing my own research.
The purpose of this was to look at whether or not EMC should file or send to Zendo Kern
comments on the General Plan as the Environmental Management Commission, Chair Adams
said. We spotted the one, correct that, but we will let DEM do it. So I guess maybe we are even
asking the question, does EMC want to submit comments to the General Plan as the
commission? Is there a real purpose to doing that?
I think it's very beneficial, the Director said. You bring a lot of issues to DEM and the County and
we just talked about it earlier, right. Commissioner Perez was talking about development and
septic versus cesspools and what have you. This is your opportunity. If you don't attend
meeting and voice your stand on issues, it's not going to get heard and it's not going to
potentially get corrected. The Vice Chair is bringing a good point. I mean, in the private sector,
you're doing a resort, they may end up doing an injection well, but the Department of Health,
just to let you know, it's being very stringent and very hard on issuing permits for injection
wells. But that's good to keep it as a reminder for resorts and private waste treatment plants.
But is it a Planning issue? It's really a Department of Health issue.
I just have a clarification point, Commissioner Acasio said. So our EMC input is due because they
did extend the date, correct? We're still good. We could still have one more discussion. I mean,
discuss and then do a little bit more.
But seeing the kinds of issues that are being raised and the right context, Chair Adams said, and
is it back to the discussion that you had that what we really want to see is where do we put in
this thing that you're not going to allow a development that encourages or allows septic unless
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it has jumped through lots and lots of hoops, saying that's the last resort? So we could think of
it in that term.
I like that a lot, Commissioner Perez said. And I also think that there is merit to thinking of
injection wells, at least in a preventative way. I know that DOH is really inspecting them and if
there is an additional layer of precaution that we have a chance to interject, I think that there
would be, if a development is proposing a new injection well, yeah, it would be great if they
don't already do this through NPDES. I mean, NPDES is going to look at all of this anyway, right?
Well, yes and no, because injection wells are still allowed by the state, Commissioner Beets
said. In many states, they've got groundwater. So groundwater will be increasingly dependent
on, especially sea level rise, et cetera, and with our own population growth, so just another
potential source of pollution, whether you want to call it a point source or not, that gets into a
bit of controversy. I think it's imperative that we put in, we make a recommendation like this.
The other issue is these two sections the DEM asked us to focus on are strictly municipal solid
waste and wastewater, Chair Adams said. What you're talking about in terms of injection wells
is DOH and general development. And it may not fit into these two sections. It may be a
broader part of the General Plan where you've made comments about anytime you're looking
at allowing a new development, there needs to be significant hurdles to putting in any new
septic and evaluating injection. And frankly, my view of what DOH looks at it, they're just
looking at drinking water. They don't care a heck of a lot about marine water.
Well, presently that's true, Commissioner Beets said. But here's my question to you. Do you
think it's our responsibility to ensure that the state DOH considers future government injection
wells because they have not ruled that out?
That's interesting, Chair Adams said. I'm wondering if we step back and look at, are there other
places in the General Plan to comment about some of this as opposed to these two sections are
what DEM is claiming for their areas of responsibility.
I know we talked about it, Director Mansour said, the Commission exists to advise the
Department on solid waste and wastewater. And over the last three years and since the
existence of the Commission, there's a lot of issues brought up by you and the constituents and
the Department that are pertaining to, how could we create policies and procedures that could
benefit and deliver on what you all wanted? And this is your opportunity to comment on all the
issues that has been surfaced through your Commission. A good example from the Solid Waste,
we keep talking about having a transfer station at each corner. Is that something that's going to
continue? Are we going to allow for better hauling of the waste or could we allow developers to
start building their own area of waste collection similar to an apartment complex in a
subdivision? These are things that you could suggest from a development point of view, from
your experience, from all the discussion since I started three years ago under the current
administration. So you need to capture your issues and concerns over the years and trying to
address it, as it's your opportunity. Because this is the General Plan 2045. And if you want
15
change, if you want implementation to potentially become policies and procedure to fit your
vision of where you sit, now is the time to write it on ink and submit it to Planning so you can
be heard. I keep hearing a lot about cesspools, wastewater, reefs. This is your opportunity if
you want things to change from a Planning point of view. I heard that also in the Planning
documents they say you cannot build- you have a sit back of 50 feet from the shoreline to build
a septic or some type of wastewater system. Is 50 feet adequate? I don't know where the 50
feet came from, but if you are stewards for the environment, then speak out now and let it be
known. And you have a lot of good comments over the year. Jot it down and present it to them.
So you could know that your comments are being submitted and heard rather than just we
have these meetings and continue talking about it. But if we cannot impact change, and this is
the way to impact change, take opportunity and do it, capture it. It doesn't have to be to two
bulleted items. It could be everything that you been working on from an environmental point.
I wonder if a good place to start, Commissioner Perez said, because I really appreciate what the
Director is saying and I think that he has done so much and has tried to really- he's just done a
lot. I see the amount of work that his office is doing. And what I'm wondering is, I'm not as
familiar, obviously, with the solid waste as I am with the wastewater, but I can absolutely very
well begin a list of barriers that I see as being barriers that are preventing movement forward.
And maybe if we could look at it from a barrier standpoint of solid waste and wastewater, and
maybe work with the Director and DEM on identifying what regulations from a DEM
perspective could help move that needle forward and then try as much as we can look at it also
from obviously a Planning perspective and see if we could outline some solutions or at least
recommendations to send to the Planning Director for the General Plan.
I think that would be great and appreciate you offering to do that, Chair Adams said. And I
guess I would like to say the next meeting because we've beat on this a couple of times now,
guys, not maybe focus so much on the specifics that are in the solid waste and wastewater
listings. I mean, if you've got some problems with individual items that are listed there, but look
at it at a bigger picture of the General Plan. What do we want Planning to be thinking about? I
mean, one of my little pet peeves is they don't reference the 2019 Integrated Solid waste
Management Plan. They're talking about the 2009 because that's when they did the last
General Plan update, and look at the recommendations that are in there and that find DEM has
listed these priorities that they want to look at, but there's this huge body of work that's there,
and I don't know if Planning has even looked at it. So back off and see if there are big issues that
we want them to try to incorporate. The way they've set up the comments for the General Plan
is you're going online, you're editing and putting comments into specific language that's in their
draft. That's awkward. You can try looking at where there are places to do that. But for
example, one of the things I'd like to see in there is supporting the recommendation that we
sent to Council that we are planning to achieve diversion from landfill for things that we can
use, reuse and recycle. So that ought to be in the General Plan because by 2045 we ought to
have a lot of stuff out of the landfill and be using it. And there is language that's already here
about the resource recovery park concept, but we can get a little bit harder on, do what we've
already recommended. Another big piece that we had in the ISWMP is planning for any
business, whether it's operations or building permits or any kind of permits that planning gets
16
involved in. A piece of that should include waste prevention. Preventing the creation of waste
in the first place, that you're managing the resources that you didn't happen to need when you
built your place or you knocked it down and refurbished, whatever reason you got a permit for.
That would be a different kind of statement. It doesn't quite fit into the two sections here
about solid waste and waste management, but it is part of the development, planning process
and permitting process should have these elements to it. And one of my pet peeves is there
ought to be a requirement that you're thinking about the waste you're going to generate and
how you're going to reduce and reuse, recycle. And have a plan. And somebody that you're
going to hire at DEM is going to have to look at it and see whether or not it's adequate. But just
asking somebody to do, to think about it will help even a little bit. So bigger picture, I think is
what we're hearing the Director saying what I love doing. Okay. Next time. That's the
assignment. I'll help you write it up. March 1 is the end of this, so go ahead and add it in. I will
say that we need to keep it somewhat within our Charter, what the EMC is about, which is the
area of waste as it's managed by the County. So there needs to be some nexus for us to call it
an EMC recommendation. Each of you individually, whale on the thing.
I don't disagree with this insertion that's been recommended, amended at all, Commissioner
Beets said. It may be in a different place in the future. I'm completely open to that. I'm a little
concerned with only mentioning injection wells because there's plenty of other sources in other
states that aren't addressed. And I'll just use one. The state of North Carolina opened pools for
holding waste from different sources that usually get flooded and go directly into their rivers
that are used as water sources for cities. We need to think broader than our present sense.
DCC Tavares restated that the Chair is asking the Commission to make a recommendation, send
it to the Secretary so that we can update this and you guys can have an open discussion and a
vote at next month's meeting so that we can move on.
And feel free not to be constrained by the individual items and editing that specific language,
Chair Adams said.
4. Adoption of position regarding support for extended producer responsibility
legislation such as SB 1458 SD1 (2023) in the 2024 legislative session.5 Postponed
October 24, 2023 and November 29, 2023. Open motion made by Commissioner
Acasio and seconded by then-Vice Chair Jon Olson to support SB 1458, extended
producer responsibility legislation, and bills that focus on reuse, refill, and resource
recovery.
We postponed this, had some previous discussions. So the topic is, do we want to do something
about extended producer responsibility legislation and how do we cast it, whether this is a
specific language, do you want to still make a motion for this language or are we open to new
language?
5 V.5: SB 1458 SD1 (2023):
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/session/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=1458&year=2023
17
Commissioner Acasio asked if this allows EMC to recommend to the Council to either look into
supporting this or directly saying the EMC supports it. I'm just wondering the protocol is.
This would allow EMC to send testimony directly to the Legislature, provided there are drafts of
the communications of the testimony that are posted online, the Secretary said.
So we could file specific testimony with the Senate or House if we wanted to, or we could
provide it to DEM, their testimony because we know they'll be testifying on whatever
applicable bills. Or we could send to the Council and say, when you get your two cents in.
Commissioner Acasio made a motion that we adopt a position of support for extended
producer responsibility, and recommending to DEM, our Council, and the State Legislature, but
it was neither seconded nor recognized.
Chair Adams asked about striking references to a specific bill number.
That would be for discussion because Senate Bill 1458, for example, is sitting in WAM. And I
think also, I'm not 100% sure, but it sounded like from earlier testimony, public testimony, that
the same House bill is also in some position, maybe in FIN, and so those two are still alive. And
it's very different from this new bill. So I think it would have to be specific to SB 1458, or we
would open up more general and say, supporting the concept of EPR as it is specifically being
worked on, because they might not pick this up.
Chair Adams asked for a second.
It would be good if you just make a motion, DCC Tavares said, and I would recommend that the
motion be to adopt. The EMC will adopt a position regarding support for extended producer
responsibility legislation during this 2024 legislative session.
Motion and second: Commissioner Acasio made a motion, to which Commissioner Perez
seconded, to adopt a position of support for extended producer responsibility legislation in
2024 legislative session, to the Legislature, DEM/County Administration, and Council.
Discussion. It's all in terms of flavor and detail, Chair Adams said. I did support testimony
opposing the House version, for various assorted reasons. I thought it was not ready for prime
time and didn't really hit the EPR definition and intent. I do like the one that Jennifer Navarra
had talked about, and I would really like to see some experience coming from California and the
other states that are working specifically on packaging EPR legislation regulations, and they're
working through the weeds and dealing with how do we make this work in our state. And
California is not Hawai‘i county. So learning lessons as we can, and I think some EPR legislation
goes a step too far for us. But the general concept of EPR is one of the solutions to certain types
of waste and how we can construct it and make it work in this island is a worthy effort if it can
result in significant diversion from the landfill. If it keeps a ton of plastic straws out of the
landfill, eh, I'd rather work on something that's bigger. Construction and demo, organics. So
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how it gets framed, how big it's going to be, and then working the individual language is a
whole other step. So as far as general support, yes, extended producer responsibly has to be in
that kit that we use to tackle these problems. But it's not the only answer. And individual
examples may or may not work. If we can keep it at that high level, as you stated, support, and
then we get to the point that all right, specifically, we've got a bill that looks like it's going to
live. We can detail it out. So that would be my nature of support, of a general support.
Commissioner Acasio agrees. And also with the caveat or the acknowledgment that there are
different kinds of EPR that are very different. So again, where you're talking, there's the pro and
non pro. That's very different. And bringing up California, for example, and you brought it up
earlier, we don't have industry that's doing the recycling. So again, we are an island state, very
different than California in terms of that kind of recycling capacity, and with that
acknowledgement that there are different kinds of EPR, as opposed to thinking all EPR is the
same. Therefore, putting out that general support gets a little bit scary almost because it's very
different.
Chair Adams asked for a restatement of the motion.
Support for EPR legislation in 2024 for state, DEM, and County Council matters.
Can we add the acknowledgment that there are different, that gets confusing- Commissioner
Acasio said.
It's basically the approach or the concept, the thing that EPR- Chair Adams said.
Which then the state does their job, if they're doing their job in public hearings and working
through and having the stakeholders, right holders, et cetera, contributing to the conversation
in those constitutionally mandated public hearings, Commissioner Acasio said.
Commissioner Perez said that if we submit a general statement - I like the general component
of this - if we submit a general statement in support and wait at least until we know more of
what is being introduced, how it's going to be written, if it is very different from the original last
year, 1458, or different than what we have, we can then make more edits to our
recommendation, right? Or change our recommendation.
This isn't to send anything at this point, DCC Tavares said. It's just EMC is taking a position of
support. But what you are doing is you're looking at what's going to be coming down in this
legislative session and deciding what specific items, if any, you folks will be submitting as the
EMC. Because nothing prevents you from submitting individual testimony. But if there's going
to be, just at that time, a general statement of support coming from EMC and whether or not
you folks would, as EMC, submit recommendations for changes or whatever it may be, that will
be done at that time. At that time. Because this could also go nowhere and there won't be an
opportunity to submit testimony.
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It makes complete sense to just say as a concept, we are- Commissioner Acasio said.
We could say we are opposed to anybody wanting to open burn trash on this island, Chair
Adams said. So it's a position of, yeah, we like the idea and the devil’s in the details. We'll deal
with that when we get to it.
It is a direction we need to be going in. It's something that we need to explore, Commissioner
Acasio said.
Vote: Ayes 7 (Acasio, Beets, Garcia, Otsuka, Perez, Norris, Adams); Nays 1 (McIntosh). Motion
carries.
VI. NEW BUSINESS
1. Discussion and feedback on the presentation by DEM consultant Carollo Engineers to
the Council’s CRCO Committee on January 23, 2024, regarding the Integrated
Wastewater Management Plan and public engagement.
Director Mansour said some of the Commissioners have seen the presentation yesterday. I
invited the consultant to address, rather than going through the whole presentation again, just
to address some questions or concerns or ideas you guys may have. But we could just give you
a brief description of the presentation, which is to address the County's direction into
complying with House Concurrent Resolution 208, in addition to implementing the integrated
wastewater management plan for the entire island. This topic has been in discussion since I
started pretty much about three years ago. Some of the commissioners that were around back
then understand the direction that we committed to take, to create a better roadmap for the
County of Hawai‘i to utilize from the wastewater perspective. And we introduced that
yesterday, the why and the how of why we're doing it now, and the reasons. So with that, we
would love to entertain any questions from yesterday's presentations.
Commissioner Perez said one of her takeaways from the presentation yesterday is that the
recommendation from DEM is that basically it's going to drive Individual Wastewater Systems
as a solution for our County. And maybe I should just ask, is that the recommendation that's
coming from DEM from this study?
I don't think we came to any recommendation, the Director said. The intent for the
presentation yesterday is to start engaging the public and we got two public engagements
coming up next month. I'll have Dr. Ishida talk about the timing of these meetings, but the
intent is no. To answer your question, no. We don't come to a recommendation of determining
IWS versus connection because we haven't done this complete study yet. Some of the areas
would require connection because they're going to be within the sewer service area. Some may
be a decentralized system if the community is willing to create a district. Some could be IWSs.
But the intent of the study is to drive that discussion and also potentially come up with policies
and procedures that we as a County could start implementing as a roadmap for the future. So
that's the intent. And to create that roadmap and policies and procedures requires everyone's
involvement. And that was a draft, just to get the communication going.
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And that's why I actually started with that question, Commissioner Perez said. Just because the
three of us have had exhausting conversations about this. And so I just wanted to make sure
that I didn't misunderstand or I wasn't confused in what direction, hopefully, we're going in just
because I think that question in itself is so important because of the role our coral reefs play,
the importance of our groundwater. Looking at Florida as an example, driving individual
wastewater systems forward, and then historically having to transition them to collection
systems. I guess that- is there a component of this research that is going to look beyond just
County owned, current County owned systems, but look at the potential of connecting
communities that are nearby private systems-
I'll have Dr. Ishida talk more about it, but the intent is to identify all the private systems,
Director Mansour said. And if there's policies, legislation, resolutions, bills need to be driven to
change the current law. The current law allows connection to municipalities only. So we need
to work with the State. It's going to take legislative action to change the current law to allow
connection to private wastewater systems. And that also is going to be discussed and is going to
be laid out in the report as we dig deep into it. The report is not going to give you a solution for
every possible scenario, but it's going to trigger the discussion of policies and procedures,
because it's not going to go into the engineering details. So it's just going to be a document, a
roadmap, where you could enter your address and it kind of gives you your option if it's already
determined that you're so far away from any system, you don't have to wait on us. You could
do IWS because you're so far away and it's impossible to get to you. So we don't have to hold
up our constituents to conversion, because as you guys heard yesterday, it takes about 2,000
conversions per year starting today to stay in compliance by 2050 for the County of Hawai‘i. So
our intent is to get the education out there, work with our constituents to create an ease of
transition for them, rather than wait to the 11:30 hour and everybody will be panicking and say,
God, how am I going to finish 48,000+ cesspool conversions by 2050 if we wait till the end of
that period? Because we only got 26 years. And like I said, within that 26 years remaining, we
have to start doing 2,000 conversion per year to meet that deadline.
Thanks, Erica, for that question, Dr. Cari Ishida said. This integrated wastewater management
plan will act as a roadmap. It will go over- there are three solutions, right? The individual
wastewater systems, decentralized or cluster systems, and connecting to the County system.
Three ways for people to convert their cesspools and it just is not feasible for the County to
connect all cesspools to their system. So individual systems have to remain as one of the
solutions. So it is a plan, it's not research. So it will act as a roadmap for homeowners to have
some guidance as to what the County is thinking for extending their sewer system, as well as
potential areas for decentralized or cluster systems. And the County can only do what they can,
what's within their purview. So connecting to private systems, it's just a conversation starter. So
there's many more conversations to be had around those types of conversions.
Chair Adams said EMC has provided guidance to DEM on what we expect to see in an
Integrated Wastewater Management Plan. And from what I've reviewed against the different
components, you're doing it. But in that recommendation, we're supportive of private-public
21
partnerships, of being able to use what works for the place you're dealing with. So having that
flexibility, I think you've already gotten the official EMC input: Go for it. And if you've got
specific legislation that you would like us to also support that would recommend changes to the
law to allow private wastewater treatment, is a perfectly fine option that we want to make sure
happens as much as it is possible. The whole idea is to have sustainable systems, whatever
people are deciding works best for them. So I think we've got the flexibility that we've already
provided to DEM on that regard. And if you'd like to go back through, we could send out that
list of the things that ought to be part of an Integrated Wastewater Management Plan. But part
of that is also, it's evergreen. You're constantly updating and adding in detail as it matures and
evolves, and you're not going to have it all laid out. My understanding is that the state
legislation said you will have an Integrated Wastewater Management Plan for every county.
Well, it's not as detailed now, but it is focusing down on how we're going to do it and the
process and the considerations. And I really like the way it's been laid out, that it is recognizing
we've got to be flexible and we got to hurry up. So anywhere you think you want to bounce it
off of us for something that isn't already included in that guidance we provided, just let us know
and we'll beat on it.
Director Mansour said the input is important as we move and finalize that. I keep hearing the
Hawai‘i Administrative Rules for the state are hard to change, and it takes forever. But we need
to get started. If there is potential for our constituents or any constituents within the state,
nearby private waste treatment plant, they need to have the option to be able to connect. It's
no brainer, because why would you go on septic if your next door neighbor is connected to a
private system? So whatever it takes from legislative action, we need to lobby with a state
elected official to drive that. And, Erica, I think your organization would be great for that.
I fully support that, Commissioner Perez said, and then the other bills of the Cesspool
Conversion Working Group spent four years putting together too. I mean, I think that we've
discussed a lot of the potential of public private partnerships in many different ways and what
that looks like, or opportunities to change current standings of county or state regulation in
order to allow those to take place. And I am in full support of moving that or proposing that
move forward. And that's all in hopes of addressing the cost and ownership of these
recommendations that we're putting forward. And putting recommendations forward is
challenging on its own and then dealing with the ownership of those recommendations and the
actual costs of who those then trickle down to, it's worrisome if we put all of those costs and
those burdens on the homeowners of Hawai‘i. Hawai‘i County has the most cesspools across
the State, and there's huge opportunity here to think of successful transitions not as singular
households, but as community sections. And 80% of our county's wastewater is not sewage. So
that means 20% of Hawaii County's wastewater is actually sewage. Of that 20%, Hawai‘i County
has municipalities-
We have six waste treatment facility plants on the island, the Director said. Even though we
have six plants, they are all being underutilized and under capacity, because it's just, we're not
allowing for connection as we plan forward. But with this document, hopefully it could set up
the stage for future development within a service area that they must connect. So for us to be
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able to increase our customer base, we just need to be proactive during the planning process.
Otherwise, we're going to continue on the same road that got us here. We literally outpriced
ourselves for sewer waste treatment plants. It is expensive. You've seen the number yesterday.
We're talking about $14 billion to sewer the entire island. That's a lot of money.
It's an uphill battle in trying to put all of this together and trying to map it out, Commissioner
Perez said. After doing so much extensive research in Puakō regarding all of these different
components of wastewater transition, it really, in my regard, often comes down to cost and
ownership of these recommendations and who's going to be the carrier to move those things
forward. It's a hard thing, and I appreciate you guys trying to tackle it.
You hit it right on, Director Mansour said. Puakō is going to be the example of how the County
got involved to bridge over the communication between the private and the community. And
it's working. American Water committed to allow for connection. The community set up their
own task force and they’re moving forward with laying out the financial option. Dr. Ishida has
been working with the community as part of assisting that community to connect to American
Water. So I think that's coming to fruition. I talked to Barbara Bell yesterday prior to that
presentation because she did submit testimony and she is a member of that task force. So we
start seeing the light through the tunnel. It's coming to fruition. We've been working on it. Your
report laid out the options. And I think one of the best option and more feasible options is to
connect to the nearby private waste treatment plant. And that's moving forward. So something
to look at as becoming the model for the entire County.
And I would say to you, Chair Adams said, if there are things that you want to bring here as
proposals or things that you think the weight of EMC has to advocate and support finding
solutions, do it. We're more than happy. I'll get you on the agenda. You can have a forum here
to help DEM get things.
I'm in full support of finding avenues that the private industry can support our County in
moving these things forward in a more expedited fashion, Commissioner Perez said.
At our scale. We've got so many cesspools that we're unique, as usual, Chair Adams said. So you
wanted to give out the dates for the public meetings?
It's on Slide 26 from yesterday's presentation, Dr. Ishida said. The first round of outreach will
be- there's February 13 in Kona at the pavilion from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., February 15 on the Hilo
side at Aunty Sally's from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. And then February 27 at the Nā’ālehu Community
center from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. And February 28th at the Kohala Intergenerational Center from
5:00 to 6:30 p.m.
And that also is going to be on our website, the Director said. You all know that we, DEM
branched out to have our own website because in the past, we used to be linked to the County,
and it's hard to navigate through the department website. But now we have our own DM
website, so information will be shared as well on that.
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Well, Chair Adams said, I would also encourage the commissioners, if you can attend in your
district, to hear what the concerns are, and again, think of ideas of, well, what could this
Commission help with?
Commissioner Gonzalo said it must be variable data depending on which district. But are there
maps of where these facilities, the public and private facilities are, trunk lines, laterals, et
cetera, by district or just across Hawai‘i? Because I'm trying to better understand for District 7
how big of a bite it is. When I moved in here, I had to convert my cesspool over to septic. If I
knew where a trunk line was, I would have been more than happy to tie in, and maybe there's
others in a comparable position. So it would be just really useful to have some maps or
something like that to understand how big a bite it is within each district.
I think the short answer is not yet, Dr. Ishida said. There are maps of all the different sort of
aspects, from locations of the current cesspools to the locations of the current county service
areas to the locations of the private systems. But our plan will integrate those maps. And help
to put them together. So we're working on it right now. All that information is kind of spread
out between county databases, Department of Health databases, and whatnot. So we're
working to integrate that. So stay tuned.
Just to let you know, Director Mansour said, how the State of Hawai‘i works when it comes to
wastewater, different than any other states I've seen, at least from my experience, because you
mentioned the trunk line. So here is, No. 1, the County of Hawai‘i. We don't even charge
connection fees. Keep that in mind. And private systems are run and administered by
Department of Health, not the County. So sometimes we don't even have access to the data
unless we get into their database and try to get the information and that creates a lot of
challenges because the state administers that, not the individual county. Even the septic tank
conversion, it's state driven. The state issues a permit, not the county. So I just want to make
sure that's clear, because I know to some other people may think the County oversees all of
that, but in reality, Department of Health oversees that. Once we build our treatment plant, our
collection, then it becomes County. If anybody within that service area needs to connect, they
have to come to the county, not the state, but if any private entity wanted to install any type of
wastewater system, they have to work with the State. Just to give you an idea. I know, Gonzalo,
you asked the question, and maybe that could clarify some of that. But it's a great question. Are
you willing to connect? I want to hear from every developer, everybody on the island. Where's
the trunk line? Let's get it in. Let's connect. Let's have a sewer service rather than doing septic.
If you have a nearby sewer line.
It makes sense, Commissioner Gonzalo said. And to me, it's a facilitating and enabling tool for
planners, whether they're private planners, construction developers, et cetera. Without that
mapping, we're kind of in the dark.
Yes, the Director said. And like Dr. Ishida said, we’ve got to work with multiple entities and
agencies, try to bring that mapping into our GIS. Hopefully, it will be successful. Most of these
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resorts, I don't know. It's because the only collection line you're going to see, it's within their
facility, doesn't go outside that resort area. So we may end up getting challenged on getting
that data, but we're going to continue searching.
Commissioner Beets asked what is the expected timeline or completion date for the maps.
The draft integrated wastewater management plan will be issued to the Department of the
Environmental Management by the end of this year, 2024, Dr. Ishida said. The draft cesspool
conversion plan will be issued to DEM in March 2024. The draft maps will be in the draft
cesspool conversion plan, and that will be ready in March 2024.
Is there any way to uncouple those, Commissioner Beets asked. I’ve seen several ArcGIS maps
for the State and the County and districts, et cetera, that have various amounts of data in them.
And it would be a great opportunity to get input from all those different sources just to follow
up on. So that's the only reason I asked that question and I'll leave it as a statement.
I just want to reiterate draft because we need to make sure that we have time to iterate with
county staff. We don't want to put anything out there that's inaccurate. So we need time to
make sure we QA, QC that with staff, Dr. Ishida said.
Commissioner Beets said to the Director, I understood what you said in that all permits for
conversion require state, but are you informed on all of those permit applications?
No, we're not, Director Mansour said. The only time County gets informed through probably
the Department of Public Works, when they get a home improvement permit to add a bedroom
or to modify current existing housing, then the Department of Health requires the conversion
prior to any improvement. And I would imagine that goes through the Department of Public
Works. But our Department does not get notified of these conversions. Like Dr. Ishida said, we
need to log in to the Department of Health database site and see if they even have the latest
and greatest. We know that Department of Health is lacking staff as well and whatever data
they have, that's what we're going to depend on.
Goodness, Commissioner Beets said. I know that in many states, Florida being one, is that when
you apply, you're actually doing an application that's concurrent with districts as well as State.
So maybe we ought to pursue that if that doesn't exist or make it a recommendation from this
commission.
I would support that recommendation, Commissioner Perez said. I don't know how things work,
but I would totally support that recommendation. Regarding future development. I know that
the Planning Department is also looking at development codes and planning of how
communities are built out and seeing across the state or across our county how much
development is taking place. Is there collaboration between the Planning Department as they
look at these development codes that are basically impacting exactly what you folks at DEM are
trying to now deal with in this current timeline? Is there currently collaboration taking place?
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And if there is not, or if there is, how can that be supported, in order to not continue this way
of development into the future, where we're relying on homeowners to cover multibillion
dollar projects and manage wastewater, which is something that I receive a continual remark to
from community members and other folks that constituents think that this is a government
responsibility. Whatever hand of the government that be. It might be confusing, but very much
a government responsibility and not individual homeowners to correct community problems.
That's a good question, Dr. Ishida said. So at the end of yesterday's presentation, we did have a
slide in there that included what is and isn't included in this integrated wastewater
management plan. I think what you're speaking to are kind of the policies that would follow,
and there's a lot of work that needs to be done in that area, whether it's changes to building
codes, whether it's new bills proposed to the Legislature, what have you. So there's a lot of
work to do there that's not all going to be done in this plan. There may be recommendations for
policies or rules to be changed in this plan, but we're not going to be able to make those
changes. As far as coordination with Planning, I believe the County is in the midst of updating its
General Plan.
I'm actually not speaking about the General Plan, Commissioner Perez said. I'm literally talking
about Community Development Plans. It's separate from the master plan
There are two things, Director Mansour said. There's the General Plan that also considers the
current Community Development Plans. So they go hand in hand, and the Planning Department
has been doing a lot of public engagement. And once again, you as commissioners, as public,
our constituents, you guys, it's your opportunity to participate in these planning meetings. They
had half a dozen meetings, if I recall. I know I attended three to four of them at least. And I
think it's very important to start voicing out what you want. But when I go to these meetings,
and that's the reason Planning does this meeting, is they want to hear what the public has to
say, what their preferences are. But when nobody shows up to voice these types of plans, then
you cannot just expect change without fighting for that change, because it's not going to
happen on its own. So from as far as developers, usually when somebody submits for a
development, go through zone change or go through Planning Department for a big project,
they run it through every department within the County. And we are involved in seeing the
process for a new development. But as you know, and we talked about it a lot, the current state
laws allow you to do septic tanks for less than 50 lots. Unless that has changed, we cannot
continue talking about it. The law needs to change to be able to enforce what your vision is and
if anybody comes in and says, I'm going to build 49 homes the Department of Health is going to
approve it, not the County, because it's a State law.
I've attended those community meetings and stuff for those opportunities to be able to
participate, Commissioner Perez said.. And I definitely encourage the communities that I work
with. One thing that I have noticed is that sometimes, because it's so complex, they don't know
how to recommend or what is needed to be changed. People just know at the end road what
they want. They want clean water, they want improved- they want the end goal. But how they
get there is also a little confusing to community members because we don't know the
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regulations and the laws and the specifics of that law that you just said, of the 50-lot buildout-
those things, community, I don't think can come to the table with saying this is what needs to
specifically be changed. I think that that's the give and take of all coming together and looking
at that end goal and trying to figure out who plays what role in order to collectively get the
collective there.
And it's going to take a State level change, Director Mansour said. So it's going to require every
County and I know during the cesspool committee these issues surface. But if we don't get
every County on board to pressure the State because it's a State mandated change, or unless
State elected officials are willing to take that on and change the law or propose a new changes
to the Hawai‘i Administrative Rules, that's going to continue.
Chair Adams asked the Commission to go back and think about what are the list of things in the,
specifically as we're talking about the cesspool conversion working group, identified barriers
you're running into, barriers that require State law to change. Just get them on a list. If you
could pull that together, Commissioner Perez, I think that would be great. And say these are the
things that are State law and we're going to have to by a process and I'll let these two at the
end of the table tell us protocol. But as EMC for this Hawai‘i County, our job is, well, we can
make some comments to Council, but Council has to be pushing on State to get changes. So I
think we need to start lining that up and we can write letters and try to move that. But maybe if
you could take a whack at it and get some input from Dr. Ishida and Director Mansour on what
are the State law changes that you need and maybe we can start leaning on our
representatives. The other thing I wanted to comment on is that each of us can go to these
public meetings for Planning or for DEM as representatives of our district, but not as EMC
representatives. And as individuals, you're welcome to go, but please do find out what your
constituents care about and maybe talk about, well, that's something maybe I could bring up to
the EMC, but don't talk like you are EMC.
Commissioner Beets thanked the consultants for their presentation. It was fabulous. His
question was, if we go to a public meeting, but we're asked a question because they know
we're Commissioners, can we answer?
You can answer, but not in the capacity as you're speaking on behalf of EMC, DCC Tavares said.
But as a knowledgeable citizen that is also a Commissioner. Then we can make a statement,
Commissioner Beets said.
If that is what you want to do, with the clear understanding that you're not speaking on behalf
of EMC, you're speaking for yourself, DCC Tavares said. And you can acknowledge that you are
a Commissioner on EMC, but it's not that you are speaking on behalf of the Commission
because the commission has to take a position and issue some kind of statement as a whole
during one of these meetings that we have. But if you attend a community meeting or a
Planning meeting or whatever it may be, then, yes, you're free to speak. Just not, “I’m saying
this is EMC’s position and this is what we're trying to do. That is not permissible.”
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2. Annual election of EMC officers.
Motion, second, and vote: Commissioner Beets made a motion, to which Commissioner Acasio
seconded, to elect Georjean Adams as Chair of the Environmental Management Commission.
Motion approved by voice vote.
All right, you're stuck with me for another year, Chair Adams said. This is my last year on EMC. I
term out. So if you know anybody from District 9 who want to be on the commission, let me
know.
On the nominations for Vice Chair, Commissioner McIntosh said he would do it if nobody else
would.
Commissioner Norris said she would nominate herself for Vice Chair.
Commissioner Acasio nominated Commissioner Perez for Vice Chair, who declined, and
Commissioner Acasio withdrew her nomination.
Motion and second: Commissioner Acasio made a motion, to which Chair Adams seconded, to
nominate Commissioner Norris as Vice Chair.
Discussion: Commissioner Acasio explained her nomination as being on the condition that
Commissioner McIntosh would only nominate himself if nobody else would. Was that still his
mindset?
That’s fine, Commissioner McIntosh said.
Vote: Ayes 8 (Acasio, Beets, Garcia, McIntosh, Otsuka, Perez, Norris, Adams); nays 0.
VII. REPORTS/CORRESPONDENCE
Director’s Informational Report 6
1. Legislative update
2. Solid Waste Division Projects and Updates
1. Landfill tonnage
2. Recycling and Landfill Diversion updates
There was new information provided on organics, green waste, Chair Adams said.
I appreciate the fact that we're bringing it up as a monthly kind of agenda item, Commissioner
Otsuka said, because I think it's important. From what I understand, there's still an abundance
of inventory at Pu‘uanahulu on the green waste. So I wanted to ask about that and the mulch.
So I understand that the trucks are not bringing back the mulch. Or if they did, they only
brought back 48 yards of it for the whole month of January. So I just want an update on that.
6 VII: Director’s Report: https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/DocView.aspx?dbid=1&id=127714
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And what we can expect every month to see a more substantial movement of that mulch to
East Hawai‘i because the need is more in East Hawai‘i. That's kind of it for that.
They're going to start moving mulch again, Mr. Kawaguchi said. It's when the trucks are
available and time wise, because they have to go over, drop the trash, and then load up the
mulch and then come back. I think the drivers go at least twice a day, up and over.
I thought it was more like eight times a day, Commissioner Otsuka said.
It's four trucks. Sorry, four trucks. So they're just going back and forth with the trash.
Do you suppose maybe the last of the two trips they could bring back mulch, Commissioner
Otsuka asked. (Mr. Kawaguchi’s response via Zoom was unclear).
I raised this before about the hazardous condition by having the amount of green waste there,
Commissioner Otsuka said. I was the only one there that visited. And at the time, the levels
there were so high, there was no room, and it was a potential threat. And so that's why I want
to be on this all the time. That was on the movement of the mulch to East Hawai‘i, since the
need is greater in East Hawai‘i, although they are moving it to Kealakehe, which is a good thing.
They're going to start moving in January, Mr. Kawaguchi said. He then explained the purpose of
his graphs:
For the East Hawai‘i organics facility, the first column, it's what residents drop off at the site,
Mr. Kawaguchi said. The next column would be the commercial green waste drop off at the
site. The third column is the amount of green waste dropped from the different transfer
stations. Chipping is for Volcano.
So overall, East Hawai‘i Organics Facility is receiving 4.6 tons of mulch per these dates between
these date range, monthly, Commissioner Perez said.
Obviously, the majority of the green waste is coming from West Hawai‘i, Chair Adams said. And
the issue of what's happened to the mulch is a separate issue that, if I'm remembering
correctly, you said you didn't quite get all the numbers.
I haven't gotten all the numbers confirmed, Mr. Kawaguchi said, for the mulch that goes out to
the public and commercial.
We run out frequently over on our side, Commissioner Perez said.
But the difference between is huge, Commissioner Acasio said.
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And the issue with transportation, again, I'm just trying to understand this a little bit more. I'm
sorry, Commissioner Perez said. The issue with transportation is just that we just don't have
enough trucks. Is that super simplified?
I think it's the backhauling, Mr. Kawaguchi said.
And then one more question, Commissioner Acasio said. But also it seems like more is getting
dropped off in West Hawai‘i. So it's not so much the- I mean, my question is not as much the
transport of mulch after the fact, but just looking at this data, they're collecting more mulch or
more green on that side, if you think about the.
This data is gold for further discussion about what our whole system looks like and also who is
responsible and who's putting into that system, Commissioner Acasio said. Awesome. This is
great. This is gold. Thank you.
There was comment, Chair Adams said, and we heard last meeting, $1.5 million is going to the
reusable foodware program over in Hilo. And Ms. Navarra gave us an update at our last
meeting. And as they're going through getting public input on their design of the program. And
so I think we still would like to get some periodic updates from her on how that's going.
3. Solid Waste Operational Study update
The solid waste operational study is chugging along, Chair Adams said. Could you tell us again
when some report outs should show up on that?
They're looking at October of this year, Director Mansour said, I believe they did do a
presentation to you and they're going to have public meetings and they will report, tentatively,
October of this year.
Everything seems to be off sync or being able to use the results of that study in some of the
legislation and the General Plan and all that good stuff, Chair Adams said.
3. Wastewater Division Projects and Updates
Any significant updates you want to make on the wastewater division projects, Chair Adams
asked. It's really nicely laid out on what is being covered and when the dates are getting a lot of
public input. I'm really pleased to see how that goes.
1. Pāhala and Nā‘ālehu Large Capacity Cesspool Closure AOC
1. Update on Pāhala Draft Environmental Information Document (EID)
2. Update on Nā‘ālehu Draft EID development
2. West Hawai‘i wastewater projects
3. Hilo WWTP upgrades
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VIII. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
1. Follow up on action items determined today.
We've all got some more homework, Chair Adams said, on the General Plan. We should see
some juicy stuff coming from legislation beginning to move. The Secretary is the expert in
tracking which bills are going where at the State level. So we'll have that. Mr. Kawaguchi will get
some more data to give us on the actual mulch transfer and logistics of getting it east side, west
side. So if you have any questions you would like to see the director respond to in his report.
We tend to get these quarterly rather than monthly, but they'll answer questions. So just ship it
to her and the Secretary and we'll work it into the agenda, if that is appropriate.
And I have to look through the minutes, Chair Adams said, if there are any other items we
called out today to get into the agenda. But you're welcome to make suggestions for what we
ought to cover at the next meeting.
2. Other (Commissioners may suggest items they would like placed on the next
agenda.)
1. Provide an overview of the current management of greenwaste and future
improvement plans
2. Provide accounting of transfer of mulch to east side vs apparent need.
IX. ANNOUNCEMENTS
The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 28, at the Community Meeting Hale
(Building G) of the West Hawai‘i Civic Center, 74-5044 Ane Keohokālole Highway, in Kailua-
Kona. 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.
Chair Adams said she was given four minutes to make a description of what EMC is up to at the
Waimea Town Hall. The other thing, I'm working with a couple of people, specifically Harvey
Stone, on putting together a workshop as part of the sustainability summit that Mayor Roth
holds. And looking at what we can talk about regarding waste management. And I won't be
pushing EMC specifically, but probably drawing on when I was a member of the committee that
wrote up the integrated solid waste management plan. So we're trying to figure out what do
we want to come out of that. Also beginning more as a “cc” so far, but getting closer to talking
with Council Chair Heather Kimball on the recycle ban, landfill ban, and how do we want to
organize that. So we're still talking about who, when, what, how. But she's interested in moving
on that. So I think it's just gearing up for it.
Commissioner Acasio said that this past Saturday, Hānai Kaiaulu, who presented on their
compost cardboard shredding to mulch program, brought over students from Nanakuli, O‘ahu,
and they worked with Waiākea High School Key Club and their agriculture department, and
they held an event called Sustainable Saturday. I don't have the exact number that was
diverted, but it was an incredible amount of shredding that happened. Folks went home with
cardboard weed mats after the shedding and bedding for animals and such to turn into their
compost. And I will have the data later. But there were a lot of different sponsors in our
community that contributed. Folks would bring their cardboard. The students would shred, and
volunteers were shredding. They could go home with shredded cardboard, and they also went
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home with boxes of produce. So it was also a joint collaboration with Kokua Harvest, who works
with the Food Basket. But they source. So from Lamalama Ka Ulu, which is a wellness center in
Pepe‘ekeo, they got three days before, volunteers harvested over 700 pounds of fresh produce
and donated it to the event. So folks went home with tons of fresh produce. And it's going to be
an ongoing event, resource recovery community education day. And so in the future, it'd be
great to partner more with the County on that level. But many, many sponsors. There's a lot of
sponsors. I don't need to list them at this moment, but just keep an eye out for that in our
community. There's a few projects underway.
Commissioner Gonzalo said he was so impressed with the cardboard presentation, I've set
them up to give a presentation tomorrow for the Thursday Rotary. And there's a great deal of
interest in the Rotary group to fund one of the shredding machines for them to use potentially
down in Ocean View to help with the Marshallese community down there. So it's a really
exciting opportunity. I didn't do it as a representative of the EMC or anything like that. I just
was so impressed, I set it up as a Rotary function tomorrow, and hopefully Rotary will provide
funding for that piece of equipment.
Commissioner Acasio said we are also working with individual Council Members, to work
through some of the questions that were posed about the film industry diversion or zero waste
plan. So just an update. It’s still happening, just slow going.
X. ADJOURNMENT
Motion, second, and vote: Commissioner Acasio made a motion to adjourn, to which
Commissioner Perez seconded, and the motion was adopted. Ayes: 8 (Acasio, Beets, Garcia,
McIntosh, Otsuka, Perez, Norris, Adams); Nays 0. Meeting adjourned at 12:10 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Peter Sur, Secretary