HomeMy WebLinkAbout02 LEPC Meeting Minutes 042326 DRAFTLocal Emergency Planning Committee April 23, 2026
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Hawaii County LEPC Meeting Minutes
Civil Defense EOC and via ZOOM
April 23, 2026
Members Present: Gerald Kosaki/LEPC Chair, Lono Lindsey/HFD Special Ops, Vern
Hara/EMS, George Manuel/Civil Defense, David Cummings/Hamakua Energy Partners, Sandor
Finkey/HPD, Clifford Victorine/Mayor’s Office,
Members Present via Zoom: Matthew Ho/HFD Hazmat, Casey Kishimori/HELCO, Eric
Honda/DOH District Health Office, Logan Balingit/Dept. of Agriculture Pesticides Branch,
Alfred Leung/Pacific Biodiesel
Non-Members Present: Jordyn Mantz/Fire Admin., Sinclair Salas-Ferguson/Corp. Counsel,
Doug Adams/Hawai’i Community College
Non-Members Present via Zoom: Christopher Carvalho/HFD Operations, Mark Gordon/JM
Decker Group, Sharon Leonida/DOH HEER, Thu Perry/DOH HEER, Jason Geneau/PST,
Andrew Kendrick/PHMSA-Pipeline Safety Liaison
Members Absent: Ha Chi/HBMC, Jordan Hara/PGV, Neal O’Heron/BEI Hawai’i, Chris
Leonard/Media, Orasa Fernandez/DOE
Members Excused: Cyanne Becker/DOH Public Health Preparedness, Logan Rogers/Military
Representative
I. CALL TO ORDER: 09:02AM Meeting called to order.
II. STATEMENTS FROM PUBLIC: No statements from the public.
III. APPROVAL OF MINUTES:
a. Sandor Finkey moved to approve Special Meeting 1/21 Minutes. David
Cummings seconded. The minutes were approved and passed.
IV. COUNTY REPORTS:
a. CIVIL DEFENSE George Manuel: Planning for public education with IA
starting this Friday and going out to the community. Managing ongoing incidents
related to flooding and volcanic eruptions.
b. HFD Special Ops. Lono Lindsey: We had a couple of calls for chemical smells
that were resolved via gas monitoring in Hilo and Queen’s Shops. There was a
release of a product at the Four Seasons, Hazmat mitigated and worked with
DOH. A contractor was sent out to clean up the product. CST planned for May
29-June 6. Still in the planning stages and process.
Local Emergency Planning Committee April 23, 2026
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i. Gerald Kosaki to Lindsey: Are there Hazmat Technician classes coming
up? Lindsey: Yes, it is going on now. The class was condensed from 4
weeks into 2 weeks, 80 hours to train our personnel to the Hazmat
Technician level.
c. HFD/EMS Vern Hara: Nothing to report.
d. HFD Operations Matthew Ho: Nothing to report.
e. HPD Sandor Finkey: For Kilauea Eruption Episode 44, with the decision to
stage and close the road immediately, it made HPD’s job a lot easier in terms of
manpower. Incorporation of DLE was awesome by Talmadge. They were able to
assign personnel to assist. They only had two personnel in one car, hoping to have
two cars next time. We’ll get in touch with them earlier for the next eruption road
closure. It allowed us to establish roadblocks and have law enforcement there to
manage traffic and visitors there for the eruption.
f. Kona Low operations did not have any issues with response. Met with FORTNET
and they provide carry-on size conductivity boxes. They are similar to pelican
cases that include STARLINK 5G connectivity, internet, and radio. Each box that
is licensed and has a subscription is $10,000-$15,000 each. We’re looking to
secure grants to have one in each district. It is especially useful in dead spot areas
like Ka’ū and Puna. It’s small and can fit in the back of a van. Range is 100 yards.
Any large-scale disasters will require it.
g. Finished Hilo, Kona, and Pāhoa site surveys for access control, including key
cards and cameras at the stations. We have the ability to remotely monitor stations
if we have disaster issues.
i. Kosaki to Finkey: So, the volcano road closures, is it strictly for the
tephra and ashfall, or also for the SO2 emissions?
ii. Finkey: It is only for the tephra and ashfall. SO2 emissions haven’t been
too much, the wind is taking a lot of it.
iii. Kosaki: Is DOH doing any monitoring on it?
iv. George Manuel: They have a quality monitoring unit
v. Lono Lindsey: I don’t believe they have been maintaining monitoring
units since Leilani Estates.
vi. Eric Honda: DOH does have station monitors maintained. During the
Leilani eruption we had portable monitors, but those are not in use right
now.
vii. Finkey: Rangers used to have them, I can try and confirm on that.
V. INDUSTRY PARTNERS:
a. BEI Hawai’i Neil O’Heron: Not present.
b. PGV Jordan Hara: Not present.
c. HAMAKUA ENERGY PARTNERS Dave Cummings: We had the EPA, DOH
HEER, and HFD come for an RMP inspection. Working on following up with
paperwork for EPA. We still have some pending projects to switch over using urea
chemicals vs. anhydrous ammonia. It will be at least till 2030 that we switch over.
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d. PACIFIC BIODIESEL Alfred Leung: Nothing to report.
e. HELCO Casey Kishimori: Nothing to Report.
f. MEDIA Chris Leonard: Not present.
VI. STATE REPORTS:
a. DOH HEER/HSERC Sharon Leonida: Having audio issues on her side. Shared
the following chat messages:
i. Sharon Leonida: For NASTTPO, Greg Jenkins will be doing the Maui
Lithium-ion battery presentation on Thursday, April 30. The Maui LEPC
is paying his way along with Jeff.
b. DOH HEER/Thu Perry: Last week we conducted some risk management
program EPA compliance with PGV and Hamakua Energy Partners like David
mentioned. David was ahead of schedule and we already saw things being
implemented. Thank you David for doing that for notifying us of your EPA visit.
c. DOH Eric Honda: Nothing to report.
d. DOH Cyanne Becker: Not present.
e. DOE Orasa Fernandez: Not present.
f. HBMC Ha Chi: Not present.
g. Dept. of Ag Logan Balingit: Nothing to report.
h. Military: Not present.
VII. OLD BUSINESS:
a. Pipeline Update Including Reports on Any Pipeline Activities
i. Andrew Kendrick: No new update and everything is status quo. Working
on public education and communications. You should be getting in the
mail our revised emergency response guidebooks for 2026. Will include
oil, flammable liquid, and natural gas pipelines.
b. Hazmat Continuing Challenge
i. Gerald Kosaki: We talked about this last meeting, but we did not have a
confirmed list as HFD needed to send solicitation out to the department for
those interested to sign up. It will be from September 8-11. 4 people from
HFD can attend and 2 people from LEPC can attend.
ii. Lono Lindsey: The memo went out to the department since the last
meeting and we have confirmed the following personnel interested in
attending: Kalena Honda, Jordan Lee, Anthony Kim, and Kevin Tamura.
They are all from Kaumana Station which is our Hilo hazmat station.
iii. Kosaki: 2 more spots are open for LEPC members. Is anyone interested?
iv. All LEPC Members declined attending. Logan Balingit was tentative at
first for attending but ultimately decided to pass for this year.
v. Kosaki: I can attend as an LEPC member. Motion to approve 5 attendees,
that includes the names of the HFD personnel above and chair Gerald
Kosaki at $3,000 per attendee to cover additional and uncertain costs.
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1. Lono Lindsey moved to approve. David Cummings seconded.
Motion passed.
c. NASTTPO Attendance Update
i. Gerald Kosaki: Talmadge Magno was originally approved to attend since
last meeting. Although he was retiring, he could pass this information to
the next person taking his place. However, something came up and he
stated that he no longer can attend and stepped out. So only I will be
attending this year.
VIII. NEW BUSINESS:
a. HSERC update: HazMat Annex Project
i. PST Jason Geneau: The project we are facilitating with HSERC updating
hazardous materials response annex for all counties. All the counties have
working draft annex, and plan to have 2 workshops per county. We have
had for Kaua’i and Oahu drafted. We did one for Big Island already. We’re
doing scenario-based instructions instead of table-top exercises. Annex is
meant to be a strategic document, not an operational document. For Big
Island, the question we have is how do we complete updates and have a
follow-up workshop? We hope to tail after a LEPC meeting, we can have a
virtual or in-person meeting for 1.5 hours. Before this happens, we need to
meet with stakeholders and receive comments on the existing draft of the
annex.
ii. For LEPC, does the month of May give everyone enough time to return
comments by June 1? Upon finalization, we want it to go through the
chain smoothly without anyone being caught off guard or creating hurdles
for the people reviewing.
iii. Gerald Kosaki: So, for the meeting both virtual and in-person due to
sunshine laws, I don’t think we can meet together as LEPC members
outside of an LEPC meeting.
iv. Jason Geneau: It would not be LEPC related and no decisions being
made, simply attending a table-top exercise as stakeholders.
v. Sinclair Salas-Ferguson: Unfortunately, you cannot have more than 2
LEPC members attending the same meeting, even if they are meeting for
this, it is still considered a meeting with LEPC members, and the meeting
is related to conducting LEPC matters. However, you can have individual
meetings with up to 1-2 members for this.
vi. Clifford Victorine: You could possibly have non-LEPC committee
members who still represent the same departments be allowed to attend
that meeting and not violate sunshine law?
vii. Sinclair Salas-Ferguson: Yes, that is fine. 1-2 committee members can
meet with Jason. No more than that, it violates sunshine law and this is
considered LEPC related business.
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viii. Gerald Kosaki: We could also move our next LEPC meeting in August
up to June? If the committee is available June 18, 0900-1100. Confirming
that we can have Jason’s request for comments due by June 1 as well.
ix. George Manuel: EOC is available June 18th for this meeting.
IX. ANNOUNCEMENTS
a. No announcements.
X. AGENDA ITEMS FOR NEXT MEETING
a. Jason Geneau: Add to agenda Jason’s Hazmat Annex Project workshop.
b. Gerald Kosaki: Add to agenda discussion of by-laws for LEPC to be reviewed. I
will send the current by-laws out to the members for review and adjustments.
c. Andrew Kendrick: Requesting to have quick 5-minute presentation and contact
information for HPMSA Pipeline updates?
i. Gerald Kosaki: Since we will already have Jason Geneau presenting next
meeting, maybe can have this agenda be for the meeting afterwards?
XI. NEXT MEETING: Thursday, June 18, 09:00-11:00. EOC confirmed for location.
XII. ADJOURNMENT: Meeting Adjourned at 09:53 AM