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Home My WebLink About2025-08-27 EMC Agenda C. Kimo Alameda, Ph.D.Erica Perez MayorChair Wesley R. Segawa Director, Department of Environmental Management County of Hawai‘i ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION -- MEETING AGENDA Pursuant to Hawai‘i Revised Statutes Chapter 92, this meeting will be online with a location available to the public. The public may attend either in person, online, or by telephone. DATE:Wednesday August 27, 2025 TIME:9:00 a.m. IN PERSON:Hilo Council Chambers 25 Aupuni Street, Suite 1401, Hilo ONLINE: Via Zoom https://www.zoomgov.com/j/1612028078 (Meeting ID: 161 202 8078) PHONE: +1 669 254 5252 (Enter the meeting ID, see above) : To ensure timely delivery to commissioners, written testimony must be submitted before 12:00 noon on the business day prior to the meeting by (1) email to cohdem@hawaiicounty.govor (2) facsimiles to (808) 961-8086. When submitting written testimony, please specify for which agenda item it is being submitted. All written testimony will be part of the permanent record. Pursuant to HRS §92-3, interested persons who want to provide oral testimony may do so either at the time the Commission takes public statements on items on the agenda, or at the time the specific agenda item is called, subject to applicable statutes and rules of procedure. I.CALL TO ORDER 1 II.APPROVAL OF MINUTES FOR June 25, 2025 1 II –Minutes -https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/Weblink/1/doc/150113/Page1.aspx III.INTRODUCTION OF NEW COMMISSIONER: Welcome new Commission Member Justin Canelas, District 6. IV. ELECTION OF VICE-CHAIRPERSON FOR REMAINDER OF 2025 Former Vice-Chairperson Dorothy “Dot” Norris resigned due to a change of district; therefore, the Environmental Management Commission (“EMC”) will elect a new Vice-Chairperson to serve for the remainder of the 2025 term. V. PUBLIC STATEMENTS ON ITEMS ON THE AGENDA The public may provide testimony at this time or at the time the agenda item is called. Public testimony must berelated to an item on the agenda and pursuant to Commission Rule 1-5(i)(2), the Chairperson may limit the length of any person’s testimony as long as each speaker is accorded a minimum of three minutes. VI. UNFINISHED BUSINESS 1. Consideration of Draft Letter: The EMC will consider whether to adopt a letter entitled Recommendation to use the Cesspool Conversion Project as a model for cesspool conversion. The letter recommends that DEM take the Community proposal to the Cesspool Task Forcebe used as a model for scalable 2 cesspool conversion. 2. DEM’s Request for EMC’s Review: the Department of Environmental Management (“DEM”) would like the EMC to provide comment on documents related to DEM’s application for a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for the Hilo Wastewater Treatment Plant, which is due August 2025. Specifically, DEM would like the EMC to comment on DEM’s standard operating procedures related to pre-treatment and fats, oils, and grease. VII. UPDATES FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONEMENTAL MANAGEMENT 3 A. DEM’s final list of legislative bills enacted in 2025 that relate to DEM. Update regarding DEM’s preliminary priority ranking report submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency. The report details the priority status of certain 4 DEM projects. The final report is due Dec 31, 2026. C. Update regarding DEM’s public Communications and Engagement D. Cesspool Task Force update. E. 5 relate to DEM’s functions. F. Update regarding DEM’s budget for Fiscal Year July 2025 through June 2026: DEM will provide an update regarding which projects are funded; the dollar 2 VI.1 – Draft letter - https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/Weblink/1/doc/150573/Page1.aspx 3 VII.A – - https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/Weblink/1/doc/149747/Page1.aspx 4 VII– - https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/Weblink/1/doc/149748/Page1.aspx 5 VII– County Council - https://www.hawaiicounty.gov/our-county/county-calendar; Media Archive - Granicus Content; Council - Laserfiche WebLink amounts of each funded project; and necessary projects that don’t have funding. DEM will also discuss its budget process and ideal times for EMC to provide input. G. DEM will provide an update regarding its reporting requirements to the State of Federal Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). H. Staffing update: DEM will provide updates regarding current vacancies at DEM, 6 recruitment, and operators training program. I. Solid Waste Division Updates: i.Priority efforts underway ii.Follow up on planning to address the need for a new landfill J. Wastewater Division Updates: i. Update regardingEPA’s Administrative Orders of Consent, including the 7 2025 and 2026 deadlines. ii. Update regarding the Kahaluu Cesspool Study that focused on the South end of Ali’i Drive. 8 K. Integrated Wastewater Management Plan Updates. i. Schedule for completion of the plan. L.Update regarding areas where the EMC could provide comments and recommendations. VIII. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS 1. Commissioners and members of the public may email items for consideration on the next agenda to Chair Perez by Friday, September 5, 2025. IX. ANNOUNCEMENTS 9 1. The EMC has Commissioner vacancies for Districts 2, 5 and 8. 2. Closing Americas Wastewater Access provides no cost technical assistance to communities with failing septic systems or without existing wastewater 10 infrastructure. 3. The next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, September 24, at Kona Council Chambers , West Hawaii Civic Center, 74-5044 Ane Keohoklole, Kailua-Kona and via Zoom. agenda posted on the County Calendar within six days of the next meeting for 1112 confirmation. See the currentschedule for EMC meetings for 2025. 6 VII.H – Current Vacancies - of Hawai`i's Jobs Website 7 VII.J.i – - -309(a)-24-- Laserfiche WebLink 8 VII.K – IWMP - https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/Weblink/1/doc/143917/Page1.aspx 9 IX.1 – - 10 IX.2 - CAWA - https://www.epa.gov/water-infrastructure/closing--wastewater-access-gap 11 IX.3 - Hawai‘i County Calendar - https://www.hawaiicounty.gov/our-county/county-calendar 12 IX.3 - 2025 schedule - https://records.hawaiicounty.gov/weblink/1/doc/140699/Page1.aspx X. ADJOURNMENT Note: A meeting held by interactive conference technology shall be automatically recessed for up to 30 minutes to restore communication when audiovisual communication cannot be maintained with all members participating in the meeting or with the “in person” location identified in this agenda. The meeting may reconvene when either audiovisual communication is restored, or audio-only communication is established after an unsuccessful attempt to restore audiovisual communication. If it is not possible to reconvene the meeting as provided in this subsection within 30 minutes after an interruption to communication, the meeting will be in recess and will attempt to reconvene at 1:00 p.m. on the same day, using the same meeting ID listed on Page 1 of this agenda. If at that time a quorum of remote members and the in-person members are unable to establish and maintain at least an audio-only connection by 1:15 p.m., then the meeting shall be automatically terminated. The regular meeting place is accessible to persons with disabilities. To request an auxiliary aid or language translation, please call (808) 961-8083 five days prior to the meeting date. Comments may be sent to the Department of emailed to cohdem@hawaiicounty.gov. Notice to lobbyists: five days of becoming a lobbyist. \[Chapter 2, Article 15, Section 2- A lobbyist means “any individual engaged for pay or other consideration who spends more than five hours in any month or $275 in any six-month period for the purpose of attempting to influence legislative or administrative action by communicating or urging others to communicate with public officials.” \[Chapter2, Article 15, Section 2- and expenditure report documents are available at the Office of the County Clerk-Council, 25