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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-03-28 Meeting Minutes (EMC) ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT COMMISSION COUNTY OF HAWAIʻI MEETING MINUTES Wednesday, March 28, 2018 9:33 a.m. to 11:14 a.m. West Hawaiʻi Civic Center Building G (Community Meeting Hale) 75-5044 Ane Keohokalole Highway Kailua-Kona, Hawaiʻi 96740 Commissioners present: Richard Bennett, Ph.D., Chair Jon Olson, Vice Chair James Fritz Susie Osborne Jeffry Fear Luana Neff Staff present: William Kucharski, Director Keyra Wong, Deputy Corporation Counsel Mary Fujio, Secretary Also present: Several members of the public 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Bennett called the meeting to order at 9:33 a.m. 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 28, 2018 Motion and vote: Commissioner Olson moved to approve the minutes, Commissioner Osborne seconded the motion, and all commissioners voted aye. 3. STATEMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC ON AGENDA ITEMS Jerome Warren testified about the potential Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) in Nāālehu. ʻHe said the County hired consultants from Brown and Caldwell, and how much they are being paid is unknown. Brown and Caldwell then hired a subcontractor called Earthplan, which means the department won’t be interfacing with the community. A lady from Earthplan called him and said she was familiar with Dr. Bennett and worked with him on a Kealakehe project. The plan for the plant was completed in 2007 and was already paid for, but now these new people are calling him for information. He told the lady he already provided information, and she asked if he could fax it to her. He told her to call the department for it. The lady got his name from his councilmember. This whole thing is hide-and-seek. It’s just money in a downward spiral. The sister project in Pāhala will cost a lot of money, and Resolution 412-17 is another thing that is just hiding. He said he has the retraction statements made last time about EPA fines, because he spoke with a man in the enforcement division in regard to Pāhala. The man said well, gee whiz, if they’re trying maybe they can kick the can down the road a little more. As long as the County keeps saying they’re trying, the EPA will keep giving them some slack. As far as consultants go, he feels the County Council should be made aware before departments are authorized to hire them. The Council should be made aware of all this money being squandered on wastewater utopia, bus utopia, and the homeless village utopia. There is something wrong with the way things are done, and it should be brought forward to the Council level so the public can see what is happening before being burdened by the unnecessary hiring of consultants. 4. UNFINISHED BUSINESS a. Continued discussion and recommendations on policy considerations for the Department of Environmental Management pursuant to the February 1, 2018, Ninth Circuit Court ruling in Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund vs. County of Maui, No. 15-17447), regarding wastewater discharges to the sea and NPDES permitting. Chair Bennett said he took the liberty of drafting a resolution for the commissioners to review, and he read it aloud to them. He explained the NPDES is intended to regulate discharges such that they don’t degrade the quality of the receiving waters. Receiving waters are the oceans, lakes, and streams, with the emphasis in Hawaiʻi on the ocean. Large areas of our ocean water is impaired by turbidity due to the levels of nitrogen and sometimes phosphate. Commissioner Fear asked who has the authority to issue permits, and Chair Bennett said the State Department of Health does. The resolution is to try to give the County, at its discretion, the opportunity to rise above the state’s requirements and proactively implement a program like TMDLs (Total Daily Maximum Loads) rather than waiting until it is required. Commissioner Osborne suggested changing the word “may” to “shall” in the final whereas paragraph, since the word “may” did not hold weight, and Chair Bennett and the other commissioners agreed. Commissioner Osborne also suggested including both windward and leeward in the whereas paragraph about where subterranean groundwater discharges are extensive. Motion and second: Commissioner Fritz moved to accept the resolution and send it to the County Council, and Commissioner Fear seconded the motion, as amended by Ms. Osborne’s suggestions. Ms. Wong asked for clarification on the motion, and Mr. Fritz said it is to the correct the wording on the resolution to include Ms. Osborne’s suggestions and then send it to the County Council. Ms. Wong asked what the resolution’s original intent was, and Chair Bennett said that if they follow protocol, it should be forwarded to the DEM director with copies going to the Mayor and County Council. Motion amended and seconded: Commissioner Fritz amended the motion such that the resolution will be forwarded to Director Kucharski, and the Mayor and County Council will be copied on it. Commissioner Fear seconded the amended motion. Discussion: Commissioner Osborne asked Director Kucharski how the resolution sat with him and whether they were taking a proactive stance on pollution elimination. 2 Director Kucharski said a main issue is with the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), which is generally associated on the mainland to a watershed and surface waters. States have spent a lot of money to determine where pollution is coming from in their surface waters, because those are managed by the Clean Water Act. In Hawaiʻi, the impacts are not from rivers flowing into the ocean but from groundwater flowing into the ocean. He does not have an objection to the terminology, as it is a term of art that is probably appropriate. However, the issue of going above and beyond the regulatory requirement is not a decision he can make. It is very difficult to have a law laid out, from the federal government down to the state, which will impose a difficult financial situation, and then decide to exceed that law. It is easy to say yes, we’ll do everything, but if the money is not there, how do we follow through? In a perfect world with unlimited funds, he would fully accept this and move forward. However, in a practical sense, he cannot see the Commission’s resolution having much impact on the County’s decision- making process. It is problematic for DEM to go beyond the requirements of the law, because it would require significantly more funds. It is nice in theory, but given their financial restrictions, it would be difficult to come in and do more than is required when they’re struggling now to meet the standards. Additionally, the County’s plants and discharges are not causing the groundwater impacts, in his opinion. He believes the impacts are from individual home units and not from treatment facilities. DEM has six treatment facilities, and less than 30% of the homes are connected to those systems. What would make a difference in water quality is focusing on cesspool closures and modifications to ensure that when cesspools are replaced, they are replaced with systems that will improve the water quality rather than be a different source for the same negative impact. It is not his role to object to the resolution, but those are his thoughts. Commissioner Fritz asked why the cost would be so high, as chlorine is used to treat the water; and Director Kucharski explained the chlorine is to take care of the bacterial content of the water. It is his opinion that nutrients are impairing the water quality, and chlorine does not pull out the nutrients. Chair Bennett said we do not know what microorganisms are moving or not moving in our coastal water, because the appropriate technology is not applied there. In the absence of that data, we cannot make conclusions about anything. Director Kucharski thanked him for the clarification, saying he had expressed his point poorly. Commissioner Osborne asked whether there is a system gap between the state law mentioned in the resolution (Hawaiʻi Administrative Rules, Section 11-54) and the systems in place if the predominant polluters are not from the County level. Director Kucharski said there are significant areas of waters that are not Class A and which do not have discharges. The DOH makes the water quality determinations. Chair Bennett said this matter is on the agenda because the federal court said unequivocally that the groundwaters contaminate the ocean. The intent of the resolution is to have the County step up and say it will do everything in its power, time and money permitting, to contribute no further to the contamination. The state government, and to some extent the County, is going to ask the people to spend about a half a billion dollars, just for Hawaiʻi island, to upgrade from cesspits to septic systems. This is not a sound policy choice based on science. If people are being asked to step up, the County government should step up, too. In closing, the 3 resolution recognizes that absent funding, nothing is going to happen. There are programs in the U.S. where local governments partnering with nonprofit entities have decided to step up and exceed the legal requirements and not operate at the lowest common denominator. Suggesting here that we step up and raise the standard is not the law, but it would further the stewardship of our lands and waters. Vice Chair Olson said they needed to exceed the standard and not go below it. Commissioner Neff said the resolution would raise the bar. It would be a collective, unified way to address the problem. Education is key, and perhaps students could be used to take samples. Structure is needed. Commissioner Osborne said they needed an advisory council or something like it, and Chair Bennett said that was the logical next step. Commissioner Neff said you start with taking a step and progress is built on many, many steps. They were taking a step to help implement this. Commissioner Osborne said that if the County does not have the money, support mechanisms are needed, and an advisory council to address the constraints might help. The County needs some out-of-the-box thinking and support. It is the EMC’s kuleana to help Director Kucharski do the very best job he can do on behalf of the County. Vice Chair Olson said if you don’t ask, you don’t get, so they will ask and hopefully come up with ideas to motivate the broader community. Chair Bennett said the EPA has historically favorably looked upon community organizations to help with funding. They have an opportunity here to say, as a community, this is the ethic we want with our waters and we are willing to do what it takes to elevate the bar. He suggested placing on the next agenda the formation of subcommittees, which he believed he has the authority to appoint. Ms. Wong said committees would need to consist of two or more commissioners but less than a quorum, and the agenda would have to specify exactly what the scope of work will be. At the meeting after that, the committee would report back on their findings. Committee meetings are considered permitted interaction, and minutes are not required. Chair Bennett said he would be contacting Ms. Wong for more guidance on this. Vice Chair Olson said all the efforts they were talking about were made more than two decades ago. Files should be searched, and he will try to contact Peter Boucher, who worked on this issue for the department years ago. Chair Bennett said an organization called Waterkeeper Alliance International recently opened an Oahu chapter, and the editor is interested in forming a chapter for the island of Hawaiʻi. As a 501(c)(3) organization, they can request funds to do the kind of planning they were talking about. They may be able to facilitate a process that would be less governmental and more objective oriented. Their focus is stewardship of Hawaiʻi’s water resources, and they are very grassroots oriented. 4 Vote: Commissioner Fritz stated there is an amended motion and second on the floor, and asked who is in favor of adopting the resolution as amended. All commissioners voted aye. 5. NEW BUSINESS a. Discuss the need for scientific monitoring data on sodium chloride in the sewage influent as well as the targets for nutrient reduction of nitrogen and phosphorus for the proposed Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant R-1 water upgrade. Propose an advisory statement and letter to the Department of Environmental Management. Chair Bennett explained there is raw sewage influent into the treatment plant with a fair amount of sodium chloride in it, and it is probably coming from salty groundwater and infiltrating into sewer pipes. Sewer pipe infiltration is a given. He would like to know how significant the problem is, where it is happening, and if remediation is possible. He has seen data that showed discrete places along Aliʻi Drive towards the north end where some leakage was going on. It may have been repaired, but he would like to know the status of the salt water intrusion. It is important because as water gets increasingly salty, it decreases in irrigation value. The scope of agricultural landscape operations narrows if the water is salty, which means customer use and reuse narrows, and that increases the need for disposal to some entity. Every entity has to have a secondary disposal mechanism should the first one fail. The goal is to reclaim water, and he wants the record to be very clear that he is a staunch proponent of water reclamation. Humans excrete nitrogen and phosphorous, which are fertilizers. If the water is to go back into the environment, realistic targets are needed for the reduction of these fertilizers. It would be good to do a nutrient budget, showing how much nutrients are coming in, being treated, and going back out. The nutrient load that goes back out joins the rest of the nutrients that are flowing from individual waste systems. Once they have commingled, it is additive, and the effects are cumulative. It is in the EMC’s interest to know what the nutrient reduction targets are and how they will be achieved and monitored. He does not know if a nutrient budgeting approach is in the EIS for the upgrade. As chair, he is raising the issue to formalize a request to better understand how the nutrients and sodium chloride are being managed. Vice Chair Olson said the first step is to contain the elements in the outgoing tide. A side issue is the upcoming rise in the sea level and how much money will be thrown into an area that will eventually be under water. A lot of king tides have also been happening, and they have been higher than predicted. It is relevant to know if money will be spent on something that won’t be here for the life cycle it should be. Money should not be wasted on preserving something that is not preservable. Commissioner Fritz asked how high the ponds at Kealakehe are and whether they are above sea level. Director Kucharski said he believes they’re at least 50 feet above sea level, but he can check on that. There has been no intrusion into the ponds, which are about 30 feet deep. Chair Bennett said Commissioner Olson’s concerns are significant, but they raise the question as to what extent the County is prepared to deal with the rise in sea level. Vice Chair Olson said if they were talking about raising money to enhance facilities, the cost benefit should 5 be there to do so, because the facilities are not going to be useful where they are. They would be spending money on something they can’t save. The structures to be served won’t be sustainable because high tide comes in the front door. The government and private sector should start looking at whether they’re spending money on something that won’t be useable in the timeline it should be. Director Kucharski said Planning Director Yee has been briefing the County on the studies being done and potential impacts of a sea level rise, on this island and throughout the state. Each island is a little different. The County is looking at what the potential impacts are going to be based on the worst case scenario predictions. There is no answer yet on what will be done. The impacts in the Count of Hawaiʻi will be significantly less than those predicted on Oahu because of Oahu’s near shore development. Chair Bennett asked if it would be possible to have Mr. Yee or one of his staff brief the EMC on this, and Director Kucharski said he would ask. Chair Bennett asked Director Kucharski if he could also prepare a status report for the next meeting about the seawater intrusion into the sewer along Aliʻi Drive, if there was anything to share the EMC did not already know. Director Kucharski replied with what the DEM does know: One of the areas that broke last year on King Kamehameha Day is being fully repaired with an internal system. It will have an injected line into where the cast iron line is. They are taking a look at all the force mains that have cast iron. These mains were installed in the 1960s throughout Kona and Hilo. It is a $13 to $14 million replacement program on their CIP schedule to move forward on. They had to shuffle funds to take care of the Kona intrusion because it wasn’t budgeted. There is current bill to modify state law to allow counties to go onto private property, such as a hotel, to confirm there is an intrusion. There is also a bill going through the final readings that would allow us to require someone connected to the sewer to do an infiltration study for their connecting line and repair it if an intrusion is found. Commissioner Osborne asked for Director Kucharski to send them the bill so they can submit testimony. Director Kucharski said that for Kealakehe R-1 system, they are in the midst of the design phase. The goal is not to dispose of any of the water, and if they can get the reuse properly done, disposal and nutrient reduction is going to be unimportant because it won’t occur in the ideal world. Preliminary designs are under way, and the indications in the pre-planning and pre-design stages show a minimum of 90% reduction in the amount of nitrogen and phosphorous going into the discharge. If there is a major rain event it may not be possible to get 100%, because they won’t be able to run everything through the UV system and will have to do some chlorination. Chair Bennett said he is interested in seeing the data on how effective the blue rock is going to be in trapping phosphorous. The chemistry is clear there is a finite capacity for the iron in the blue rock to bind to the phosphorous, and there are other confounding factors. He would like to see some real world models, run for several months, where wastewater is put through the crushed blue rock. 6 Commissioner Osborne said the timing is perfect, as data is needed to form the design. Chair Bennett said he would like an update on the salt intrusion problem and more specifics on how DEM will be achieving the 90% reduction. Director Kucharski said he would check. b. Recognition of Commissioner Fear’s service to the Environmental Management Commission. Chair Bennett announced this was Commissioner Fear’s last meeting and it was appropriate to recognize his contribution. From his very first meeting, he appreciated Commissioner Fear. He read aloud a letter from Mayor Kim to Commissioner Fear, recognizing him for his service, and everyone clapped at the end. Commissioner Fear thanked everyone. 6. REPORTS/CORRESPONDENCE a. Director’s Informational Report. Lono Kona Sewer Project: Director Kucharski said the second round of bids would be opened tomorrow, and today it was on the County Council’s agenda for an increase in funding so that DEM can actually contract with whoever proposes on the construction. Kealakehe Wastewater Treatment Plant: They are going through the punchlist and finalizing all the work that was done for the dredging and replacement of the pond liners. The project is essentially completed, other than the punchlist. R-1 Water Management System: It is a work in progress requiring them to essentially create an entirely new DEM function. The Wastewater Division is charged with operating and maintaining sewage collection and treatment, and the R-1 system will bring forth the obligation to be a distributor or purveyor of R-1 waters. This would require needing to ensure recipients are permitted by the DOH, meters, fixing leaks, and everything else associated with the system. They have approximately two years to get an organization designed and employee positions described and ready to be filled, so when the system comes on line everything will be fully and completely operational. Their hope is that by reusing water, the potable water use will be reduced, which will in turn reduce the pumping into the aquifer, lowering the chloride brought in. The R-1 system is positive on both ends—for the incoming water quality and the reuse water quality. CDL Program (Solid Waste Division): The union has approved DEM’s Certified Commercial Drivers License Program, so the department is now able to place people into driver positions permanently. For the past year and a half, people were being hired on a temporary basis to these positions because the union, which wanted to make sure everyone had an opportunity to step to a higher position, needed to approve the program. Having a CDL allows for a higher pay grade. Now DEM can place employees into permanent positions, and overtime should be reduced as a secondary effect. 7 Scales at Puʻuanahulu: The scales are old and being replaced, and the bids came in at almost double what was expected. However, they are going forward with getting new scales and a new system in place. Abandoned Vehicles: They have been meeting with Corporation Counsel and the County Council about the removal of abandoned vehicles on private roads, which is currently contrary to the County Code. Proposed modifications to the Code in order to allow towing from private property and private roads are in the process of being drafted. Pāhala and Nāālehu Wastewater Treatment Plʻants: Brown and Caldwell are the design engineers for both of the facilities and are doing public outreach. They hired Berna of Earthplan to assist. She has already met a lot of Pāhala community members and held outreach programs to find out what people are thinking, and she is starting now in Nāālehu. She and Michelle ʻ Sorensen, a design engineer with Brown and Caldwell, are reaching out to citizens to get their feelings and an understanding of the issues so the County can address them in the environmental assessments. 7. COMMISSIONERS’ DISTRICT UPDATE REPORTS AND ISSUES Vice Chair Olson: Regarding abandoned issues, Vice Chair Olson repeated his belief there should be a fee applied at the point of purchase or point of importation to cover the disposal of abandoned vehicles. It should not come from property tax funds, since there is no correlation between owing a vehicle and having a piece of property. He would like to see figures on how many vehicles were actually towed over the last ten years and ended up in the County’s hands. There was a point when the price of fuel was way up, and he’d like to compare the earlier and later figures. Vehicles have a value and are a commodity in the steel market. Regarding the operation of transfer stations, he wanted input from Director Kucharski on how the department plans to accommodate the population growth and at what point the department will start looking for a site to build a new transfer station. Director Kucharski said they look at empirical data by tracking the tonnage that comes into the transfer station on a monthly basis. When the figure start to increase, they will consider expansion or a new facility. They have not seen a significant increase in tonnage going into the transfer station in Pāhoa. However, if the figures start creeping up, they will start planning how to accommodate the increase. In his estimation, it would take about five years, possibly less, to locate, permit, fund, and construct a new facility. Vice Chair Olson said Pāhoa’s Main Street Organization and others are starting the next round of planning and looking at how things will look in 2030. Puna is different because it has a lot of vacant lots—tax map keys without a house. For the planning process they need to look at connectivity and other ancillary infrastructure. The Pāhoa transfer station was not well sited, as it is in the bushes, off the main lanes of travel, and it is not convenient to either of the two largest subdivisions in their area. 8 Regarding the Maui ruling (Hawaiʻi Wildlife Fund vs. County of Maui, No. 15-17447), Vice Chair Olson said he heard that Maui County will be receiving funds to oppose the Ninth Circuit Court’s ruling and take it to the Supreme Court. Director Kucharski said he is not surprised about the appeal, as the Clean Water Act is historically about surface water, and the ruling extended it to the groundwater and waters of the U.S. From his perspective, it was a broad extension and will have large ramifications. Commissioner Fear: He asked Director Kucharski if he had been able to look into the discharge of water on Aliʻi Drive next to Huliheʻe Palace, and Director Kucharski apologized, explaining he would need to find a hydrogeologist familiar with the area, and he has not been able to. He is not sure what is causing it, but it is not any kind of manmade discharge that he is aware of. He is not sure who to go to, as it would need to be someone familiar with both the geology and hydrogeology. Commissioner Fear asked if they could get someone to test the water, and Director Kucharski said he could send a request to the state. DEM does not have the appropriate type of sampling equipment. Commissioner Fear said the water is coming out like a hydrant. If you walk along the seawall, by Kanuha Beach, it is just outside the jetty there. The sewage plant is across the street. The discharge is milky and polluting the bay. There is an area behind the County yard where the springs were filled up, and it has to be coming right through the sewer system. Chair Bennett suggested that Director Kucharski contact Neil Mukai, as he would have instrumentation. (Neil Mukai is with the Clean Water Branch in Kona.) He also said the water quality lab at NELHA now provides testing services for the public, though it is a little pricey. A woman observing the meeting spoke up and said she is from NELHA. She said that if Mr. Mukai collects the sample, she can have it tested. Commissioner Fritz obtained the woman’s business card and contact information. Her name is Pam Madden, and she is a water quality specialist. Commissioner Fritz: He explained that one reason he wanted to be on the EMC is because he is a major user of the Puʻuanahulu Landfill. He sees load after load of wood from construction sites along the coast being dumped rather than recycled. He asked Director Kucharski if wood that is termite treated can shredded and turned into mulch, and Director Kucharski said if the wood is chemically treated and not good for termites, then it is probably not good for anything else that is alive. It would not be something to compost. Commissioner Fritz asked how the construction of the waste-to-energy plant (Waikoloa BioEnergy Hawaiʻi) is going, and Director Kucharski said he believed they were in the permitting phase with the DOH. The facility and any emissions need to be permitted, and it is handled by the DOH. He met with them about five months ago, and they indicated they had the funding and would be getting the permits. The main issue is the amount of waste the facility will require—it comes to about 60% of all the waste produced on the island. It is a big waste stream and is the same one for the food products the County is looking at for its composting facility, so there are competing interests. The County has no control mechanism over where that waste 9 goes. Disposal in the landfills is voluntary and the only way not to break the law. For a big commercial facility, there is no way their supply could be guaranteed. There are a lot of moving parts. Director Kucharski said they have been discussing a construction and demolition (C&D) landfill which would not take any organic putrescible. Wood is an organic material, and food is putrescible because it will decompose fairly rapidly. A C&D landfill will take material that won’t pose a human health impact from decomposition, such as wood waste, gravel, cement, and broken up tile. It would require the same construction as a regular landfill, but the County is not in a position to make that investment as it would require being able to guarantee the waste to pay for the investment. Chair Bennett: He said he wanted an update on the options for the unsewered areas in the Keauhou regional study. Director Kucharski said he will look into it and try to come up with the information. Chair Bennett said he would like to know which parts and sewered and which are not, and Director Kucharski said he could only provide information on where the County sewers are, not what is on private property. Chair Bennett said he would get back to him, because the Department of Health had provided him some information. 8. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS Chair Bennett asked if the commissioners wanted to place anything on the next agenda. If not right now, they can email him. Commissioner Osborne said she would like an update on the recycle initiatives and the educational components of contracts issued by the Department. She handed Chair Bennett a document, and he said he would formalize it for the secretary to place on the agenda. 9. ANNOUNCEMENTS Chair Bennett announced the next meeting: April 25, 2018, at the Aupuni Center Conference Room in Hilo. 10. ADOURNMENT Motion and vote: Commissioner Osborne moved to adjourn, Commissioner Neff seconded the motion, and everyone voted aye. The meeting adjourned at 11:14 a.m. Respectfully submitted: Mary E. Fujio, Secretary (with her signature)