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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLEPC Meeting Minutes 081425Local Emergency Planning Committee August 14, 2025 Page 1 Hawaii County LEPC Meeting Minutes Civil Defense EOC and via ZOOM August 14, 2025 Members Present: Gerald Kosaki/LEPC Chair, Lono Lindsey/HFD Spec. Ops, Kilipaki Kanae/HFD EMS, Talmadge Magno/Civil Defense, Clifford Victorine/Mayor’s Office, Chris Leonard/Media. Members Present via Zoom: Matthew Ho/HFD Hazmat, Jordan Hara/PGV, Eric Honda/DOH, Alfred Leung/Pacific Biodiesel, Non-Members Present: Jordyn Mantz/Fire Admin. Non-Members Present via Zoom: Sylvia Wan/Corp. Council, Andrew Kendrick/PHMSA- Pipeline Safety Liaison, Todd Jasper/PST, Jason Geneau/PST, Thu Perry/DOH HEER, Sharon Leonida/DOH HEER, Mark Gordon/JM Decker Group Members Absent: Ha Chi/HBMC, David Cummings/Hamakua Energy Partners, Sandor Finkey/HPD, Neil O’Heron/BEI Hawaii, Casey Kishimori/HECO, Mike Diehl/Military, Orasa Fernandez/DOE Members Excused: Cyanne Becker/DOH Public Health Preparedness, Makalani Pina/Dept. of Agriculture I. CALL TO ORDER: 09:10AM Called to order. II. STATEMENTS FROM PUBLIC: None III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: IV. Lono Lindsey moved to approve May 22nd minutes, Talmadge Magno seconded, Minutes approved and passed. V. COUNTY REPORTS: a. CIVIL DEFENSE Talmadge Magno: Our Multi-Hazard Mitigation Plan is in final draft after edits. It is getting pushed forward to FEMA and State and we should be able to hit the deadline of mid-September for the 5-year renewal performance. Once we hit the deadline, we will be able to provide the county and Public to submit proposals for projects that can get funded by the mitigation money. b. HFD Special Ops. Lono Lindsey: We had a couple propane leaks, I’ll let Matthew Ho talk about the second one. One was in the industrial area in Kona, it was letting off gas fumes from some 1,000-gallon tanks, HEER is following up on Local Emergency Planning Committee August 14, 2025 Page 2 it. It looks like the business was just releasing the propane and HFD went and shut it off. i. Gerlad Kosaki to Lindsey: What business was this? Was this a relief valve? Something pressurizing the tank or heating up? ii. Lindsey: AmeriGas. I don’t want to speculate as it could be a legal issue, but gas was being released, and we came to shut it off. iii. Kosaki: Also, Congratulations on your new promotion! Can talk with BC Matthew Ho who would like to continue reporting on Hazmat now that BC Lindsey is Special Operations and BC Ho is now an Operations Battalion Chief. c. HFD Hazmat Matthew Ho: We also had a propane leak over at the water treatment plant by the airport. This tank is essentially owned by the county. They bought a 1,000-gallon tank that they used to run the generators and pumps on. They have since transferred to a different system and the tank has been left 75% full for the last 10 years. The pressure relief valve is exposed to the elements, so the rain got in and corroded it, causing the valve to fail and release propane. It was a vapor leak, no liquid leak. There’s no way to shut those off. It is threaded at the top and you could screw something over it, but it’s pressurized so it wasn’t an option. We also don’t have that type of threading. We instead contacted Hawaii Gas to pump the liquid out of the tank instead. Otherwise, it would’ve let off gas for another week, the expansion rate is 270 times that of the liquid. So, Hawaii Gas came and pumped it out, apparently propane doesn’t expire, so they could actually resell it. Whatever residue that was left in the tank after pumping out 750 gallons, they recirculate it into the county lines. So that’s kind of how that was mitigated. i. Kosaki: I had a report from the airport in Kona, I don’t think HFD responded to it, but there was a Jet Fuel Leak that occurred on July 18th at 1:45pm. LEPC and the HEER office were notified because it was well over the reportable quantity of 100 lbs. The amount spilled was 160 gallons total. Each gallon for jet fuel is about 6.6-6.7 lbs. They had a cleanup contractor there to clean it up. What happened was that they were filling the plane and there were problems with the connection. It spilled right out onto the runway. Was HFD notified of this? 1. Kilipaki Kanae to Kosaki: Heard something over the radio, but we only heard stuff for medical. 2. Kosaki: Yeah, I think they already had the contract cleaners there so they didn’t have to contact Hazmat. I’ll bring it up at the next HSERC meeting next month. d. HFD EMS Kilipaki Kanae: Nothing to Report. e. HPD Sandor Finkey: Not Present VI. INDUSTRY PARTNERS: a. BEI Hawai’i Neil O’Heron: Not Present. Local Emergency Planning Committee August 14, 2025 Page 3 b. PGV Jordan Hara: From our last meeting, we were able to get a permit for one of our production wells. Average 30 megawatts, 8 units topside online and 2 on the bottom. Our repower is in progress for our new plan. Completing and waiting on a new permit. We received a lot of equipment, and 40 loads of equipment are coming in, so things are progressing well. c. HAMAKUA ENERGY PARTNERS Dave Cummings: Not Present. d. PACIFIC BIODIESEL Alfred Leung: Later part of this year, looking to call Keaʻau Fire Station if interested in doing a tour of our facility. We try to do it once a year. The new Safety Officer was supposed to join us in this meeting, but we’ve been busy today. e. HECO Casey Kishimori: Nothing to Report. f. MEDIA Chris Leonard: Mentioned this in a previous meeting, our Hawaii Association Long Rice Signal Study, including outside islands. The project helps find vulnerabilities where signals are not reaching. One vulnerability for our island was South Point. Yellow is across the state on the map, most of the state is well covered. Solid coverage in your home and car. South Point is going to be addressed in the next 60 days. This is a combination of all signals but varies on different signals. However, you can lose signals at the bottom of gulches, etc. Topographical satellite overlay, accurate for most areas except when you’re deep in a valley or behind a ridge. But if you go from Volcano to Pahala, a lot of stations will disappear, but there will be at least one station available to reach. This is a collection of all FM licensed radio stations. If you look at Kohala, soon as you get to the north tip of the island, all the Kona signals get clipped by the mountain range. One other thing, updating state plan to address some federal requirements that need to be in there. Be done before the end of the year. i. Kosaki to Leonard: Does Saddle Road have coverage? ii. Leonard: Saddle has coverage but it’s not coverage from all stations. Two stations have a transmitter right off the access road. They got solid coverage for most of Saddle Road, different stations cover different areas. We don’t talk enough about resources available here that are different to what’s available in Laupahoehoe, our technology is so terrain based. iii. Kosaki: What I’m understanding is that there is some type of radio connection, might be from the other side of the island, might be from Maui, etc.? iv. Leonard: Yes, we help Maui and Maui helps us a lot with sending out messages. g. PHMSA: Andy Kendrick: Requesting to add a Pipeline Safety 5-minute Presentation to the agenda next meeting. VII. STATE REPORTS: a. DOH HEER/HSERC Sharon Leonida: Wanting to confirm that you did get your check for LEPC? The one budgeted for last year? i. Gerald to Sharon: Yes, the department did get it. That’s why I asked for the letter showing how everything was reallocated. Local Emergency Planning Committee August 14, 2025 Page 4 ii. Sharon: Is Tom Bergman going to come over and do training in your county for CAMEO? He did contact me for information, that’s why I was wondering if the Fire Department knew. iii. Gerald: No, HFD also did not hear. iv. Matthew Ho: We haven’t done training with them for a couple years for CAMEO. b. Sharon: Kathy who announced the House Bill 242 passed. It helps develop a working group for the best management practices for recycling, reuse, or repurposing of electric batteries and lithium-ion. So far, the group is Solid Waste and Jonathan Chin from Energy Department. c. Gerald: At the last NASTTPO meeting, I was going to contact Charlton to come to the counties and write a proposal, more cost efficient if can have multiple islands to participate. We always need a CAMEO review, so I was for it. But I haven’t heard anything yet. d. Sharon: Can you tell Darwin to mail back the drive for Tier II Reporting? i. Jordyn Mantz to Sharon: Chief Okinaka made sure to have me mail back the jump drive to you before he retired July 30th. e. DOH Eric Honda: Nothing to Report f. DOH Cyanne Becker: Not Present. g. DOE Orasa Fernandez: Not Present. h. HBMC Ha Chi: Not Present. i. Dept. of Ag Makalani Pina: Not present VIII. OLD BUSINESS: a. Hazmat Continuing Challenge i. Gerald: Previous meeting we had 6 personnel approved to attend next month September 2-5. We had funding approved to send these personnel through like we have done in the past. However, at the last Fire Commission meeting, it was mentioned that Finance Department denied attendance at this workshop. We will be setting up a meeting with the Mayor and Bill Brilhante to help explain how the funds are allocated. Funds for LEPS, the budget is not county budget. It’s through private businesses who have Hazardous Materials on site, and when they submit their Tier II report, there’s a $200 fee. Those fees go to the State HEER offices, and they allocate the funding to every island LEPC depending on how many businesses report. That’s how we get our money and budget. That money and LEPC’s sole purpose is to comply with the emergency planning and Community Right to Know Act. Law basically states that we need to know is out in the community and letting the public know about these hazardous materials and the knowledge of how to respond to them. We respond through our Hawai’i Fire Department, and that’s why we promote the training to HFD on the limits of what we can afford. One of the main workshops is the Hazmat Continuing Challenge. It’s the best one because it has the biggest number of vendors in the country for Local Emergency Planning Committee August 14, 2025 Page 5 Hazmat. They always have new items every year. This is why we really support attending this workshop, but for some reason there’s issues with other commissions and committees for sending private citizens to these conferences and felt it was getting out of hand. So, they put a blanket that no one was going to be traveling now. I spoke with Bill and he said he understands and will speak with Diane about it. I never got notified that it got denied, I found out through Fire Commission and Hazmat personnel contacting me I was denied. Would like a meeting to discuss this more. 1. Clifford to Gerald: You nailed it on the head, they did a blanket review on all of the departments after several departments showed up suspicious during audit. 2. Kosaki: It’s too bad, because we have new personnel like Lono Lindsey who would be good to go and get exposed. Guess we’ll try for the next one. Just wanted to let LEPC know we’re addressing this. IX. NEW BUSINESS: a. HSERC update: HazMat Annex Project i. PST Jason Geneau: There’s the Hazmat Annex Project that is funded by the DOH HEER office. Thu Perry is one of the co-project managers and one of the contacts for the State. This is a continuation of the project, which was started before COVID when I was still with the firm Tetra Tech. They are the prime contractor on this contract as well. We were asked to do an evaluation to determine whether the LEPC and county needed separate emergency operation plans for Hazmat Annex. After doing research and discussions with the EPA, we were ultimately given approval to say “No.” If done correctly, the county can have a single plan that meets the requirements for LEPC and for the county for Hazmat Annex to the Emergency Operations Plan. Ultimately, we took the effort to draft these plans for all four counties, and the county stakeholders were in the driver’s seat for what those plans would look like. It just wasn’t formalized and implemented. Looking to go back and review where we left off and be able to expand on it. Also wanting to do a short workshop with relevant stakeholders to get together and discuss hazmat response within the county. Also wanted to expand on points of entry for hazardous materials such as ports and airports. This is an EOP annex, so we focus on the coordination aspect, not tactical planning. ii. PST Jason Geneau: An additional element to this, we’re doing a project under the umbrella of the Planning Project for the City and County of Honolulu, to reach out and discuss military and DOD what their potential assets are. We would like to understand what their potential resources are and how the county will work with them in the event something happens to their equipment or explosives. We’re on a tight timeframe, so hoping to once again have a 2-hour workshop. We would like to piggyback it off an Local Emergency Planning Committee August 14, 2025 Page 6 LEPC meeting to be respectful of your time, but we understand the next meeting is in December, which might not be ideal. May be looking to do a standalone workshop. Also, would like to do a tabletop exercise once the draft is in place. Happy to take questions now or offline. iii. Gerald Kosaki: So just to clarify, one of the purposes and duties of LEPC is to review the Emergency Response Plan for the county. Although we don’t do it on an annual basis, 2016-2017 I worked with Tetra Tech when I was in the position of HFD Battalion Chief Special Operations. I reviewed the plan with them, and it was supposed to be implemented after that, but it never really materialized. Then I retired in 2018, volcano eruptions, COVID hit 2020, so lots of stumbling blocks. Elizabeth Galvez from DOH HEER called me one day asking if we were still interested in pursuing it. We were really close to finishing the plan. Like Jason said, it is a coordination plan not a tactical plan. The tactical plan is from HFD Hazmat team as they enter the hazmat zone, and they determine their own protocol and how to respond to incidents. Our county has an Emergency Operations Plan and an Emergency Response Plan which are pretty much closely tied together right? Talmadge do you have anything to add to that? iv. Talmadge Magno: The only thing I’ll add is that we do need to update our plan, it’s due for a review. v. Kosaki: and that’s what Jason and PST are for! We can help set up something with everyone involved for a review. vi. Geneau: I’ll reach out to you Talmadge on reviewing the plan. b. JM Decker Group Mark Gordon: I have questions for HFD, lots of fires occurring recently. Does anybody know what the cause of these fires are? Seems too often in Hamakua Coast. i. Matthew Ho: The Pa’auilo fire had no official cause. We can speculate that someone set it, but there was no evidence found. Mana Road was the same thing, started on the north side. No witnesses, so no official cause on the fires. ii. Lono Lindsey: It is super dry. Pa’auilo was the dryest I’ve ever seen. Whether it was manmade or not, the grass was super dry in both areas. c. Gordon: I have another question regarding health cautions. I’ve been talking to people at Kaiser, just to let everyone know there’s been an increase in COVID cases occurring and new variant out. Need people to be concerned Covid is increasing again. There’s an anti-viral drug called “Paxlovid” that’s given to people after COVID. Heard that KTA cannot get it and the Longs in Waimea has been out of it. i. Kosaki: Is Paxlovid prescription only? Heard through people I know who took it and they said when they took Paxlovid, the sickness didn’t last very long and had good results. ii. Gordon: Yes, I heard the only side effects is it can affect those with sensitive stomachs. Local Emergency Planning Committee August 14, 2025 Page 7 X. ANNOUNCEMENTS a. None XI. NEXT MEETING: Thursday, December 4th , 2025, 09:00-11:00. EOC confirmed for location. XII. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting Adjourned at 10:08 AM.