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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLEPC Meeting Minutes 080824 DRAFTLocal Emergency Planning Committee August 8, 2024 Page 1 Hawaii County LEPC Meeting Minutes Civil Defense EOC and via ZOOM August 8, 2024 Members Present: Gerald Kosaki/LEPC Chair, Darwin Okinaka/HFD, Kilipaki Kanae/HFD EMS, Mattew Ho/HFD HAZMAT, Talmadge Magno/Civil Defense, Chris Leonard/Media, Ha Chi/HBMC, Jeremie Evangelista/HPD, Dave Cummings/Hamakua Energy Partners Members Present via Zoom: Jordan Hara/PGV. Alfred Leung/Pacific Biodiesel, Casey Kishimori/HECO, Neil O’Heron/BEI Hawai’i Non-Members Present: Lauren Williamson/Fire Admin., Bill Hansen/Civil Defense, Jesse Sceppe/Civil Defense Non-Members Present via Zoom: Mark Gordon/JM Decker Group, Andy Kendrick/PHMSA Hawai’i Pipeline Safety Association, Mike Diehl/PTA US Army Garrisson, Sylvia Wan/Corp. Council Members Absent: Terri Napeahi/Keaukaha Action Network, Makalani Pina/Dept. of Agriculture, Eric Honda/DOH I. CALL TO ORDER: 09:03AM Called to order. II. STATEMENTS FROM PUBLIC: None III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Darwin Okinaka moved to approve, Talmadge Magno Seconded. Minutes passed. IV. COUNTY REPORTS: a. CIVIL DEFENSE Bill Hansen on behalf of Talmadge: Working on the All- Hazards Mitigation Plan for revising and updating. Working on a fire evacuation study for the Waikoloa Village. Civil Defense along with Fire, Police, and Dept. of Public works for tsunami evacuation plan. Planning to do a Disaster Preparation Fair in Waimea on Saturday, September 20, 2024. i. Mark Gordon to Bill Hansen: Could we get more explanation on the evacuation plan and an estimated completion date? Wanting to share this with my Leadership Council Meeting tonight. 1. Bill Hansen: It’s a study to look at the volume of traffic versus the roadways, the evacuation routes, and to see how that all fairs out. Not sure on a completion date currently. 2. Talmadge Magno: We’re only working up to the scope of work being determined for bids currently at this time. b. HFD Darwin Okinaka: Looking at trying to host another Hazmat Technician class in early 2025. Working with instructors right now to see if we can secure a Local Emergency Planning Committee August 8, 2024 Page 2 class and put a notice to the department. Working on re-certifications for confined space rescue for Hazmat and Rescue personnel. Haztech certifications are ongoing, scheduled to be completed by the end of September. Finally moving forward with procurement of new Hazmat 4 apparatus replacement. Documentation on my desk as of yesterday. c. HFD HAZMAT Matthew Ho: No large incidents since our last meeting. Did a full-scale exercise with National Guard, Civil Support Team HPD, SRT. Did an active shooter lab with Waiakea High School. i. Gerald Kosaki to Matthew Ho: What was the biggest challenge? Would you say communication is one of them? 1. Matthew Ho: They were trying to overwhelm us, work with managing 5-6 different labs while also still having SRT sites clearing the buildings. Just coordinating with them and doing our job at the same time. Usually, communication is always one of the main challenges in every exercise. 2. Gerald Kosaki: That’s why it’s always good with media helping. Just communicating between agencies is challenging even when we now have clear text communication. I know HPD always still has the 10 codes. Does HPD still do 10 codes? 3. HPD Jeremie Evangelista: Yes, we do, but we do mostly plain language. d. HFD EMS Kilipaki Kanae: Nothing to report since last meeting. e. HPD Jeremie Evangelista: We are working with Civil Defense to finalize the tsunami maps which will allow HPD to finalize their own internal tsunami plan. Will be pushing out their annual hazard training in the next few weeks. V. INDUSTRY PARTNERS: a. BEI Hawai’i Neil O’Heron: Nothing to report at this time. i. Gerald Kosaki to Neil O’Heron: Do you physically work on Oahu? Is there a safety representative here on Big Island? 1. Neil O’Heron: Yes, I’m in Oahu right now. No, we only have an operations manager and a branch person in Hilo. It’s all on Oahu. 2. Gerald Kosaki: I just have a question, because of the chlorine incident that happened in the past, who would be the person of contact from BEI in Incident Command with our Hazmat team and Fire initial responders? 3. Neil O’Heron: It would be myself and also our bleach plant manager, Dave Schaefer, that deals with that type of chemical. 4. Gerald Kosaki: Can you e-mail their contact info and pass it on to HFD Hazmat? It must be on the tier II. 5. Neil O’Heron: Yes, and yes, it is also on the Tier II. b. PGV Jordan Hara: Just an update for the plant, everything is as normal. We got six top side units running right now, two bottom units. We did get our PPA squared away so we are looking at doing our re-power, in progress of a design Local Emergency Planning Committee August 8, 2024 Page 3 review right now. Hope to have that finalized by November and start breaking ground shortly after. This is in anticipation to go to two large units and decommission our existing plant, so it’s a big transition. Looking to complete this project by end of 2026. We may have a small production drilling campaign next year. Of course, we always hold our meetings with the State and County officials who try to give everybody a heads up in preparation for the campaign. So that will also be done if we start our drilling campaign again. i. Gerald Kosaki to Jordan Hara: The last meeting I know you said you wanted to reach out to Pahoa Fire Station for an invitation of a walkthrough at any time? 1. Darwin Okinaka: I don’t know if they went, but yes, they are always aware of the invitation. We can always pass it on and let them know, especially with new crew members. 2. Jordan Hara: I am the contact; you can call me to schedule. Invitation is also extended to Civil Defense staff as well. ii. Mark Gordon to Gerald Kosaki: Question, a while ago there was a petroleum spill at the Maui airport but there was difficulty with getting somebody to clean it since there was nobody at the airport. They were looking towards the Big Island, spoke with the HFD Fire Chief, he was unsure who would be responsible. In the future, does anyone know if the Maui Airport have any type of spill response? I think they said they may have to get somebody to come from Oahu to do the spill response. 1. Gerald Kosaki: Just a little bit of information. Depending on the type of spill and who’s responsible, if the spill happens at the airport, the State is responsible. However, usually they don’t have the capability of doing their full clean up with cleaning it, bagging it, and shipping it as hazardous waste. They would probably have to contract it out and the contractors would come and do the clean- up, but it’s pricey. I know I reached out at that time to the Maui Chief and asked them if they knew of any clean-up contractors. Who calls the contractors here? Does Hazmat call them or is it the State or County? Do we have a list of clean-up contractors for hazardous waste? 2. Talmadge Magno to Gerald Kosaki: It would have to go through Dept. of Finance probably. They would probably have a contract if it’s contracted with the County. 3. Gerald Kosaki: Got it, thank you. When I was with Hazmat, there was a couple companies that were doing clean-up and were working with HPD too. A lot of crime scenes needed clean up, especially if you have dead bodies and things like that. Level B minimum suits were needed. For private businesses, they would have to purchase their own suits which are expensive, about $1,500 Local Emergency Planning Committee August 8, 2024 Page 4 today. At the Hazmat Continuing Challenge, we can check out the equipment and share any information on it. c. HAMAKUA ENERGY PARTNERS Dave Cummings: We have Combustion Turbine 1 back in service, as well as the steam turbine. Combustion Turbine 2 will be back online by the end of the month. i. Gerald Kosaki to Dave Cummings: What percentage do you guys’ feed into our electrical grid? 1. Dave Cummings: We have the capability of providing 30% which is the island’s highest energy needs that we’ve ever had. So that’s 60 megawatts. ii. Gerald Kosaki: I have a question. There’s a lot of solar panels on Saddle Road and down in Waikoloa, where are those panels feeding? Would you know? Is it feeding Waimea or Waikoloa? 1. Dave Cummings: That is HECO’s projects. I guess with the power shortages they’re anticipating these units coming up online because that’ll kind of help the shortfalls and stuff like that. 2. HFD Darwin Okinaka: The panels are just feeding to the grid in general. 3. Gerald Kosaki: Okay I see, if Hamakua Energy goes down and it’s 30% or like, PGV and HECO wouldn’t be able to provide enough energy to the island. So that’s when these panels would come into play? 4. Dave Cummings: Yeah, but that’s only during daytime. 5. Darwin Okinaka: They do have battery storage, but I don’t know how long that lasts. d. PACIFIC BIODIESEL Alfred Leung: We do have a wastewater project that is about 75% done. We’re still waiting on contractors to come in to finish the rest of that project. We are at that point in the year to invite HFD for a tour to come and walk around and get familiar with our site, especially for new personnel members. We are having a homeless problem up in the area at the Business Park. Had a couple break-ins right next to us, and some were theft. What we’re worried about is people coming into our facility and getting hurt. We’re aware and monitoring, HPD is doing a good job of chasing away the homeless and addressing the thefts. There’s been a couple of thefts in the middle of the night. So, there are concerns of people loitering and we’re watching that. i. Gerald Kosaki to Alfred Leung: I know they have moved the new homeless housing from Ponahawai street to Kuawa Street. I don’t know if that will help anything. ii. Jordan Hara: PGV has also been experiencing an increase of trespassing in the last couple of months. People came in and try to steal our ATVs that we use in the plant. Going to have to try put up a radar for motion detection and better security on site. Coincidentally after we stopped our security at the gate it has increased. Local Emergency Planning Committee August 8, 2024 Page 5 iii. Gerald Kosaki to Jordan Hara: They don’t stop at anything. I mean, if they’re brave enough to break into HFD Ocean Safety’s storage at the beach. It’s crazy, it’s for public safety and yet they’re stealing it. It drew back everything, having to scramble and now purchase all new equipment for them. It’s a problem, and a challenge for the police and everybody. iv. Darwin Okinaka to Alfred Leung: For the facility visits for HFD, do you have a point of contact at least at Kea’au station in district 5? If not, you have my contact e-mail on the thread and I can send them out to the station, either way. 1. Alfred Leung: Yes, we just call the Kea’au Fire Station. Thank you. 2. Gerald to Alfred Leung: The facility you’re talking about is the one in Shipman? Do you have another facility in Kona? 3. Alfred Leung: Yes, and I don’t have a facility in Kona, only a fuel station that’s at the harbor. e. HELCO Casey Kishimori: Maintenance crew will be taking down our hill six unit for overhaul coming next week. They’ll be working on that for about a month, so we should be getting that back by mid-September. That’s part of our overall schedule right now. f. MEDIA Chris Leonard: Met with the Mayor’s Office in Honolulu last week to address the shortfalls over there, but it was on behalf of the State association. It highlights a couple of things. We do things I think a lot better in this county than they do in a lot of other counties across the state. They don’t get a lot of real- world opportunities to practice together just due to the nature of our island. I think it would be beneficial for all of us to be able to have those relationships to reach out and have tabletop opportunities together. Like Gerald pointed out, often communication failures are a big part of that, we need to reach out and have those relationships because it translates to real-world scenarios. Even though we do it better, we’re always looking to improve and set our own bar of what we expect. Currently working on our State association with Power Safety Program Shutoff (PSPS) and concerns where there are shutoffs in West Hawai’i Kaloko in particular. Basically, every radio station in West Hawai’i is located at the top of Kaloko. If there is a power shut off at the bottom, there is no way to back feed that. Everything is also shut off at the top of the mountain and that’s our last line of communication and that’s huge. Also, obviously various departments have areas where their communications are potentially impacted as well, so we’ve been discussing it in a separate meeting here. Something that we need to be aware of. We have a back-up generator at Kaloko, but it only has about 2.5 days’ worth of fuel when it is topped off. However, we have the same fuel contractors as the County, so it is a challenge to get refueling. So, we’re trying to address some of those issues and how we can mitigate other consequences of a shutoff. i. Talmadge Magno: Like Chris brings up, the County has been organizing our operations and partners, but during this discussion it became evident Local Emergency Planning Committee August 8, 2024 Page 6 that they need to be making plans like Chris was talking about for backup, generators, stuff like that. Their website shows the PSPS zones on a map of Hawai’i Island. You can plug in your address, and it'll tell you if you’re in that zone and if you should make plans to deal with power shutdowns. It’s kind of tied to Red Flag Warnings with fire danger, high winds and wind damage and so forth. PSPS will preclude any impacts, but that doesn’t mean that power is going to come on as soon as everything is finished. ii. Darwin Okinaka: We should create a map for secondary and tertiary effects, this relates to our mitigation efforts as well. iii. Chris Leonard: One of the things we’re also doing is trying to have a study completed that will pull from the federal filings every communications point on this island. There’s a communication site at Kohala Ranch, the FAA is up there. Will be discussing these things in one of our PSPS meetings possibly next week. g. PHMSA: Andy Kendrick: Reminder and for information, Dept. of Transportation regulated pipelines, of which there are Hawaii Gas on the Big Island, the IES downstream terminal in Hilo, and their onsite piping. Hawai’i Electric’s fuel oil pipeline that runs from the IES terminal up to the hill plant. Those are federally regulated by DOT and requires that group of operators to have formal liaison with public officials and emergency responders, with the LEPC being in DOT’s recommended method to perform that liaison. We also attend Honolulu LEPC, this LEPC, as well as California, Alaska, and many other LEPCs all on behalf of the pipeline operator. IES is having a PHMSA DOT inspection this fall. All Pipeline operators get inspected approximately every three years or more often. Hawaiian Electric had theirs earlier this year or the end of last year. Hawai’i Gas had theirs last year, and IES is having theirs this year. All pipeline operators are part of Pipeline Association for Public Awareness (PAPA). An e- mail might have been sent to Gerald regarding pipeline safety and response that is targeted towards emergency responders. They mail out every year an emergency response brochure, guideline, training material specific for fire and police responding to pipeline emergencies that should come out in a month or two. In 2018 we came to Hilo and provided emergency response liaison, face to face training with a 30-minute presentation to local Fire Battalion. The Fire Department thought it was very helpful. That was pre-covid, have not done anything since then. If you’d like to refresh and update that, we can make that happen, just let me know. Also worked with HFD back in 2018 with their emergency response capabilities. Example is knowing if foam trucks are removed from service. DOT only has IES. DOT has tanks, is HFD willing and capable of handling a tank fire? Can we set up meeting with HFD? Need to close this gap because it has not happened since 2018. i. Gerald Kosaki: We could start planning another workshop or training with HFD regarding that. It could go through LEPC or straight to HFD, Local Emergency Planning Committee August 8, 2024 Page 7 but I think that’s a great idea that’s important since many people don’t know that there are pipelines around. ii. Andy Kendrick to Gerald Kosaki: Honolulu Fire Dept. was very receptive to the maps, where pipelines are and what is in them, who the contacts are for each pipeline. Practical response and data table found to be helpful. A hope and expectation of DOT. VI. STATE REPORTS: a. DOH HEER/HSERC Gerald Kosaki on behalf of Sharon Leonida: There was a State Emergency Response Committee meeting on June 21st, there were several things discussed. The most important was the lithium batteries emergency workshop which was a presentation on how to handle lithium batteries. Especially with the Maui fires and how they cleaned it up, deactivation, and transportation. We also talked about the unknown sample of the month. I would like to congratulate Captain Matthew Ho and his crew for being the runner-up in the unknown samples. As a brief outline of what it is, every month the Dept. of Health and University of Hawai’i come together, and they find a sample that they send to the hazmat teams in the state. Hazmat teams look at it and they can try and figure it out what chemical it is or what product it is by using this hazmat categorization kit. They use it, look for the samples of if it’s flammable or different properties of the chemical. Once they conclude, they send their results in and that’s how they get tallied for who has the most correct diagnosis on the chemicals. So, our guys took second place and been taking second place, even winning one year a while back. Makalei Shift C with Matthew Ho, but now he’s at Kaumana, so Kaumana can feel safe in Hilo. HSERC is sponsoring a Marine Firefighter workshop on August 22nd. Beginning stages of talking about administrative part and what logistically they can adjust firefighting in the marine realm. I wanted to ask HFD if anyone wanted to attend this. It’s only a three- hour class workshop on Oahu. If the committee is okay, I would like to put it out to get approval for myself and two other personnel from Fire Department, because it's a marine firefighting situation, to attend this administrative workshop. Request from LEPC to make a motion to cover the costs of three people to attend this workshop. i. Talmadge Magno to Gerald Kosaki: Does anybody know if Hilo and Kawaihae Harbor have dockside fueling? I know Honokohau Harbor does and that could be one major cause for fire, right? ii. Gerald Kosaki: Yes, I know Hilo had a fire for a year a while back. A barge fire. iii. Darwin Okinaka: Motion to approve LEPC to cover travel expenses and funding for three people to attend this maritime firefighter training in Oahu. One person for LEPC which will be the Chair, and two personnel from HFD. 1. Jordan Hara: Seconded. 2. No Discussion, Motion passed. Local Emergency Planning Committee August 8, 2024 Page 8 b. DOH: Not Present. c. HBMC Ha Chi: Back in June, we participated in the same exercise that HFD did with the 93rd CST, simulating that we were receiving patients from their event and deconning them. The process was about 40 patients coming over a two-hour period. July, we participated in RIMPAC, where we medvac six simulated casualties via Black Hawk helicopter. Part of that was testing a new patient tracking system that they’re implementing at the state level. They get the casualty card with a barcode, we enter their information, and then we load them on the aircraft. We change the status so it shows that they’re being transported, and when they arrive on Oahu at the mass triage, they can scan the barcode again, and we could see live that our patients arrived and what tent, building, and facility they were being put into. Two weeks ago, we also did our emergency response training. We did another class for our hospital staff. Certified another 19 people, which brings us to about 120 total staff at the hospital training. The problem is that we have 100 people trained, but only 20 sets of PPE. As of yesterday, both CT scanners down. Notified HFD and Civil Defense, we have plans in place. If emergency or life threatening, can be medvac to North Hawai’i or Maui. They will re-schedule patients as necessary. Risk is that we could not handle a mass casualty incident. Civil Defense Talmadge Magno is tracking and willing to support if we get to that point, but the new parts are scheduled to come in at noon today for one CT scanner. The other CT scanner will receive parts tomorrow. i. Gerald Kosaki to Ha Chi: Does Kona hospital have capability? CT? Not for mass casualty though of course. ii. EMS Kilipaki Kanae: Yes, North Hawai’i Community Hospital in Kona. Board of stations are aware, Medic 11 or Medic 8. iii. Ha Chi: Have AMR on standby to support the transports and stuff, but also, we have our own transporters. One or two we can have them, unless something major happens. iv. Gerald Kosaki to Kilipaki Kanae: Do you guys still do relay? v. Kilipaki Kanae: Yes, we can. d. Dept. of Ag: Not present VII. OLD BUSINESS: a. Military Representative on LEPC: Mark Gordon E-mailed Gerald regarding the military representative. Lani Pascual is the new Public Information Officer. She wanted to know if you need a specific person from PTA to be on the committee? Did the committee need a report from PTA? If you have any specific questions, the current PTA Fire Chief is on call with us today. i. Gerald Kosaki to PTA Mike Diehl: That’s right. We’re trying to get a military representative on the committee, in case we have any questions on military transports or looking at some radiological incidents that might be happening on your property. So, are you willing to be on the committee? ii. Mike Diehl: Yes, I am willing to be on the committee. I will run it to the Garrison commander, Colonel Alvarado, he was supposed to attend today Local Emergency Planning Committee August 8, 2024 Page 9 but was not able to due to visitors. Colonel Alvarado received a message from Lani Pascual. iii. Mark Gordon to Gerald: I think PTA did not have a PAO or Public Affairs Officer for a while. Having Lani there and Lieutenant Colonel Alvarado will help Chief Diehl to stay involved. It was difficult without a PAO position. iv. Mike Diehl: Currently nothing to report regarding hazardous transports, radiological incidents, or near misses. We did receive our salamander system, and we are waiting the training, so that will hopefully help improve some of the interoperability that we can have with his civil defense team as well. v. Gerald Kosaki to Darwin Okinaka: Did you get Chief Deihl’s contact? vi. Darwin Okinaka: I think so, we got it from Chief Moller last time. vii. Gerald Kosaki to Mike Deihl: I will get your contact info then and put you on our committee member list. Confirm with the Garrison commander that you can be on the committee. Then I will revise and submit our community member list to the Mayor for approval. viii. Mike Diehl: Thank you. Also, Chief Todd and Chief Moller have my contact info. Lauren does as well. VIII. NEW BUSINESS: a. HAZMAT Continuing Challenge: Gerald Kosaki wanted to clarify who will be attending from LEPC and HFD, it is coming up in September. People attending are Gerald Kosaki and Captain Matthew Ho for LEPC. For HFD it is Jay Igawa, Michael Hirae, Mark Spain, and Kevin Tamura. Also, if we could amend the amount that we approved earlier, because I got an e-mail yesterday from HFD Fiscal requesting a little higher amount approved as a caution in case there are some higher expenses than what was anticipated and beyond their control. We need to make a motion to approve the names attending and amend the amount we’re allocated from $3,000 to $4,000 per person. Not saying they will spend that amount; it is just a safety net for Fiscal in the case of unexpected expenses. i. Darwin Okinaka: Motion to approve the people attending and the increase to $24,000 total from the $18,000. ii. Matthew Ho Seconded. iii. Motion passed. Gerald Kosaki will contact Makena Ahuna from HFD Fiscal to advise of increase. IX. NEXT MEETING: November 7, 2024, 9:00AM at EOC. Request responses for attendance to make sure we are meeting quorum for each meeting. X. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting Adjourned at 10:20AM.