HomeMy WebLinkAbout2025-06-25 EMC Testimony - Alan Fukamizu (6-23) Agenda Item V.1.C.i
To the Environmental Management Commission and the public.
My name is Alan Fukamizu, I’m astatelicensed wastewater
operator, drinking water treatment and distribution operator and the
United Public Workers Unit 168 chief steward. I represent Hilo’s
Wastewater treatment plant personaland a member of the public. I
have regularly attended these meetings for over a year. I have seen
the hard work the commission puts in to help with transparency,
protect the environment and public health. I here to give testimony
per section V. C, Wastewater Integrated Management Plan update.
I have seen that through the two previous administrations that the
approach to anything for wastewater has been reactive instead of
proactive. I understand that there is numerous steps to take to
funding. The Hilo, Kulaimano, Papaikou wastewater treatment
plants and the additional 8 pumps stations did not just become
unsafe and deteriorated in a short period of time. This was what I
op
years after these systems were put in place. The last administration
focused on the Administrative Order of Consent for the Kau Large
Capacity Cesspool closures and the Hilo treatment plant but did
little to nothing to address the concerns of employees or gather
input for the plants that the operators would be running daily.
Department of Environmental Management is their intentional lack
of communication with personal. There have been several
invitations for them to come down and speak with personal to
discuss concern
. We
have no Standard Operating Procedures for anything including Lock
Out Tag Out. The previous 607,000 gallon wastewater spill on June
st
21
chlorination valves were incorrectly positioned when bulk chlorine
totes were switched over which caused no chlorination to the
. After this incident I sent communication numerous times
to Deputy Director Brenda Moses and acting Division Chief Chris
Sparber regarding implementing SOP’s with a valving diagram.
th
Nothing was done. On April 6 2025 there was a similar issue with
Fortunately, there was a
.01 Mg/L residual so there was no violation, and it didn’t endanger
the public. With a residual any lower as .01 is the bare minimum,
then it would have been a spill larger then then previous spill in April
2024. Since then, I have sent emails with no response and
eventually internal complaints regarding issues like these and safety
concerns to the division and no one wants to address them as
Revised Statues.
To give perspective on how bad morale is, many personal wanted to
walk out due to the ongoing
comments the previous Director made to Civil Beat on April 7th
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2024. Ultimately a follow up article on April 29 2024 seemed to
shortlyimprove morale as people felt they were being heard. Nothing
did improve after that, nor the large concerns from personal
addressed in the article by any level of management. In closing, the
personal of east and west Hawaii’s wastewater treatment plants
and pump stations are the last line of defense for the public’s health
and safety and there needs to be open communication with
personal to help mitigate another eventtalling
automatic Chlorine monitoring systems and ultra-low Chlorine
monitoring systems tied into the auto dialers that have been asked
for over many years by operators.
Thank you, Alan Fukamizu