Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/21/2010 Public Hearing Transcript re: RESOLUTION 2009-71PUBLIC~HEARING JANUARY 21, 2010 A public hearing of the Council of the County. of Kauai was called to order by Tim Bynum, Chair, Public Works/Elderly Committee, on Wednesday, January 21; 2010, at 1:46 p.m. at the Council Chambers, Historic County Building, 4396 Rice Street, Lihu`e, Kauai, and the presence of the following was noted: Honorable Tim Bynum Honorable Dickie Chang Honorable Jay Furfaro Honorable Daryl W. Kaneshiro Honorable Lani T. Kawahara Honorable Derek S. K: Kawakami Honorable Bill "Kaipo" Asing, Council Chair _. ~ t The Clerk read the notice of the public hearing on the following: RESOLUTION NO..:2009-71, RESOLUTION ADOPTING THE INTEGRATED SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT PLAN UPDATE FOR THE COUNTY OF KAUAI, which was ordered. to print by the Council of the County of Kauai on December 16, 2009, and published in The Garden Island newspaper on December 23, 2009. The following communications were. received for the record: 1) Chad Deal, EcoBroker-Certified, Kauai Tropical Properties, President, Kauai Developers Council, dated January 17, 2010 2) .Pamela Lightfoot Burrell, dated January 2010 3) ,Linda Silva, dated January 21, 2010 4) Pat Gegen, dated January 21, 2010 5) John Harder, Zero Waste Kauai, dated-January 21, 2010 6) Arnold Leong,. dated January 21, 2010_ 7) Bonnie P. Bator, dated January 20, 201.0 The hearing proceeded as follows: ,~ Mr. Bynum: So. this is a public .hearing, which means this bill has passed first reading and: will be in the public works committee starting next week... I'm sorry, that's right, it's unusual. This is a resolution, sa~it was referred for public hearing and will be in the public works committee for further dialogue next week. Is there any registered speakers? Mr. Nakamura: Yes, we have registered speakers, Mr. Chair. We also have written testimony that has- been circulated. 1 Mr. Bynum: Thank you. If you could call the first speaker, please. JOANN YUKIMURA: Committee Chair Bynum, Chair Asing, members of the Council, aloha. For the record, my name is JoAnn Yukimura. Chair Bynum, I have a PowerPoint presentation that is more than three minutes, but less than six, and I'd like to get permission upfront, or I'll come at the end of the agenda if you would prefer. Mr. Bynum: If you feel like you can keep it in the six minutes that will be fine. Ms. Yukimura: I think I can cover three and a half slides per minutes. Mr. Bynum: We'll start the six minutes when the first slide comes up, and let's give councilmembers a minute to relocate. Hold on just a second, JoAnn. Let's get people settled, and then we'll start the six minutes. Ms. Yukimura: So the title of my presentation is zero waste or landfill lament. What choice will we make in the integrated solid waste management plan, which is before you today. We know that we don't want this choice-the old of way of buy, use, throw away, because it is a dead end. It's a dead end for us and it's a dead end for planet earth. We want the other way, which is reduce, reuse, recycle to the max, also known as zero waste. Why? Because it's less costly than waste to energy, other high tech solutions, and the landfill. It's more sustainable and environmentally friendly, and creates job and businesses, and provides local products and keeps the money in the local economy. I want you to really concentrate on the last two-creates jobs and businesses, provides local products, keeps money in the local economy, because as you know, in this economic downturn, that's really what we need. The basic premise of zero waste is that waste is not waste. It is a resource and it's a whole new way of thinking, because if waste is a resource, the worst place for it is in the landfill or in the incinerator. So let me show you this quote. If the volume of paper that was burned or buried in the United States in 2005 would have been collected and recycled instead, China would have paid U.S. businesses two billion dollars. That's Pete Grogan formerly from warehouse now from international paper. I think Chair Asing heard him speak when we had our zero waste conference. If you see this photo, you should be seeing dollar signs, but on Kauai, most of our paper is going into the landfill. Around thirty-five percent of our waste stream is paper. If we change our system, we could be making money rather than costing taxpayers. Another produce from waste is this: eco-compost. It's made on Maui. It's made from sewage sludge and greenwaste. It supports a business that grosses two point two million dollars a year, and hires 14 people. It keeps local dollars in the community. It happened because of government initiative and actually, the gentleman who helped to make it happen is in this room, John Harder, and it wouldn't have happened without small business entrepreneurial innovation and 2 excellence. This is another waste produce made from recycled plastic. It makes up fourteen to fifteen percent of the waste stream going into Kekaha Landfill, but we need a collection system if it's. going to... if we want to use it as a xesource: Another one, glass makes up three to five percent of the waste stream, and about 10 tons a year go into Kekaha;- it could be making beautiful glass dishware like this if we had a new system. Becoming a zero waste community will require a system change, because we have to change a multitude of habits in terms of how we live, work, and play. We have to change our habits at home, our business systems, and our processes to go away from the old (buy, use, throw away) and go into the new (reduce, don't create unnecessary or harmful waste in the first place). And if we take, you look here, if we take these cloth bags to -the market, we won't create the plastic brag waste in the first place (this is a county bag; mahalo to Alison Fraley and others). We need to reuse, find another home for those things that we no longer want or need. The pair of pants that I'm wearing today came from the Humane Society Thrift Shop. That's an example of reuse. Recycle-turn discards into their next useful life. This_is my mixed paper recycling basket from my home, containing cookie containers, q-tip containers, beer cartons, etc., and it can be turned into products like paper towel, pressboard, and other things. So the new system needs to reverse the incentives and disincentives, because the present system supports waste and discourages reuse, reduce, recycling. For example, for your next rubbish pickup. at your home, you could put out one can, and your neighbor could put out 10. But you pay the. same amount for that service the way the system is set up now. And you get curbside service for your trash. pickup, but you don't get it for your recycling; you have to go through additional actions. So we have to change the system so that it supports zero waste behaviors and makes throw away actions pay their full cost. So zero waste system requires new laws, pay as you throw needs a new collection system, the three can system of dry recyclables, food and wet recyclables in the second can, and trash in the third. And it needs new infrastructure- materials recovery facility to take the dry recyclables, sort it, and put it together for sale, a municipal composting facility to take your food and wet recyclables, even sewage/sludge, and turn it into good.. soil conditioner, a center .for hard to .recycle materials where you can bring your hazardous waste or your computers any day of the work week, and a construction demolition debris center. So system change is the county's kuleana. No individual or business can do it. To change this system, you need a clear vision of the end in mind. You need a sound strategic plan of action, which is this integrated solid waste management plan which we're discussing .today, and' you need adequate staffing and money to implement the plan. This is where the problem .begins; because right now .the proposed end in mind is zero waste plus waste to energy, and you can't have enough...we don't have enough money or staffing to do both. Is that my time up, six minutes? Okay, I have three more slides, I think. The strategic plan aims only at thirty-five percent diversion when between paper, food waste, yard waste, plastics, we could divert. sixty-nine percent. And the thirty-five percent diversion makes waste to energy -necessary at a cost of about $125million, which we cannot afford. And then we need qualified staff and 3 adequate money to implement, but our recycling coordinator position has been vacant and unfunded for a year, much of our money's being spent on ill-designed landfill studies and even awaste-to-energy study, I think it was 200,000 that was encumbered two years ago and could have been encumbered instead for a materials recovery facility. So these are my specific recommendations, and this is basically my last slide. Our end in mind should be zero waste, period. Our strategic plan should aim for seventy percent diversion by 2017, seventy percent in seven years, ninety percent by 2020. The material recovery facility and the composting facility and pay as you throw should be in place by end of next year. Curbside recycling should happen in the following year, because then you have all the parts for successful curbside recycling in place. And then we need a construction debris facility and center for hard to recycling materials by 2012, and then we need qualified staff and adequate budget to implement... And actually, if we follow the staffing and budget recommended in the plan...sorry, my last line was cut out...we would be okay, if we followed it. And so that's the end, thank you very much. Any questions? Mr. Bynum: Thank you very much, JoAnn. We'll give people a chance to settle and see if there are any questions. Mr. Furfaro: Mr. Committee Chair, is it possible you could JoAnn Yukimura for a hard copy for all councilmembers of her presentation? Mr. Bynum: Would that be possible? Ms. Yukimura: Surely: Mr. Bynum: Okay, thank you very much. Any other questions for JoAnn? If not, thank you very much for your testimony. Next registered speaker is John Harder. JOHN HARDER: Good afternoon Committee Chair Bynum and members of the Council. Thanks for the opportunity to speak here today. My name is John Harder, and I'm representing Zero Waste Kauai. Mr. Furfaro: Excuse me Mr. Harder, do you have a presentation or can we go back to our seats? You don't have a screen... Mr. Harder: No, I don't have a screen, yeah. Hopefully next week. While the proposed integrated solid waste management plan update makes some excellent recommendations, the assumption that maximum diversion level cannot exceed thirty-five percent is extremely conservative and limits the implementation of an aggressive diversion program. Maui County's recently completed integrated solid waste management plan estimates a 60 percent diversion level. The Big Island just recently proposed a resolution integrating zero waste management into their integrated solid waste management plan. Based on the latest generation of collection and separation technology, and the strong demand for recovered materials in developing countries, Zero Waste Kauai feels that the diversion rates as high as 70 percent are easily achievable. Based on 4 national averages and waste characterization data collected in other Hawaii counties, the quantity of construction: and demolition waste that R.W. Beck identified. in its waste composition analysis is extremely low.. Most communities estimate 20 percent of their waste stream is construction demolition waste, rather than the six percent found in R.W. Beck's study. The Beck waste composition analysis was limited, to a .single week, rather than four seasonal weeks spread out over a year to .reduce the possibility of skewed results. This problem with the percentage you see in D. waste in the overall waste stream could have resulted in significant design and operations. costimpacts on the overall solid waste management system, especially. on any proposals for incineration, which cannot handle C and D waste. If somebody was -putting out a -bid there that said it can handle a certain ,.number of tons of waste .that .you found out that a greater percentage of that was construction demolition, you might have some problems. There are several significant conflicts and contradictions between the proposed plan and the administration's current implementation schedule. The most glaring difference is the county's proposal to begin a pilot curbside recycling program prior to developing adequate processing capacity-that is building a modern state-of-the-art material recovery facility.. Although we applaud the. concept of curbside recycling and look forward to it, we feel this pilot project will have a limited impact without the proper infrastructure in place first. Then rather than moving immediately into a pilot curbside recycling program, the plan calls for the implementation of curbside greenwaste collection. Mr. Bynum: John, you completed your first three minutes. Would you like to take the additional=three now? Mr. Harder: Yeah, I should be a couple more. Mr. Bynum: Okay, go ahead. Mr. Harder: ...calls for the implementation of the curbside greenwaste collection, which makes much "..more sense in -terms of the existing on-island processing capacity for greenwaste and the use of the manpower and vehicle which would be freed up by automation. While the plan delegates waste to energy to the later stages of implementation, the. county .appears to be moving ahead-with the feasibility planning prior to developing other more. critical elements of integrated waste management system. Should an aggressive diversion program prove capable of exceeding the limits assumed in the plan, waste to energy would not only be unnecessary, but economically unfeasible. The. plan- notes that many small waste to energy facilities struggle to remain economically viable. In addition, information gained by the...from the Big Island recent request for proposals and Maui County's integrated solid waste management plan update indicates that those capital and operating costs would be far greater than those estimated in the Beek report. Finally, problem for siting the waste to energy facility can be a significant barrier, oftentimes difficult to overcome. If, as happened on the Big Island, after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and years of precious time to implement a waste to energy facility the system proves economically unfeasible, we will have 5 lost valuable time in implementing diversion and consume previous landfill capacity. The plan discusses education and awareness as essential elements in implementing the diversion programs, yet the county has failed to fund the vacant recycling coordinator position, the staff position primarily responsible for developing and implementing a public education effort. The plan proposes development of a hybrid pay as you throw system, providing incentives to recycling and disincentives to waste disposal. That the county appears to have allocated little or no staff or funding to what will be along and involved planning and implementation process. If we're serious about following the integrated solid waste management plan and making recycling really work here on Kauai, our laws, budget, and staffing should reflect such priorities. While the proposed integrated solid waste management plan update makes some significant recommendations towards maximizing diversion, the plan and the county budget needs to be revised with commitment to maximize diversion and to implement an aggressive zero waste strategy. Thank you. Mr. Bynum: Any questions for Mr. Harder? Councilmember Kawahara. Ms. Kawahara: Thank you John. I was interested in 3A of your testimony, just in a few short three minute, could you...or less, could you tell me what that would look like, rather than when... rather than moving immediately to pilot curbside recycling program? You said that use the manpower and vehicles which will be freed up by automation. What would that look like? Mr. Harder: A good example of that is what they did in Honolulu. They went into automation back in the last 90s, started automating all their collection systems as the county is now planning on doing. As they did that, basically every automated truck has a driver and that's all, so you free up the two guys on the back, and you got a new truck. So you free up your old packer truck. So what they did is use those two guys and the old truck to go around and pick up greenwaste, and they had people put out greenwaste either in cans or in bags, and it was no additional cost, no additional manpower cost, no additional vehicle cost, because those were already there. There was additional gas to get the trucks around, but in addition, there were already facilities and there are already facilities here on Kauai that are processing greenwaste. So you don't have to, like we do if we went into curbside without a MRF, we're going to have to shift mixed recyclables in a dedicated container over to Honolulu, you know, and ship the container back and fill it up again. So the idea is use the free manpower and the freed up vehicles to start collecting greenwaste, which is much easier, rather than pushing ahead on the curbside recycling side. Ms. Kawahara: All right, thank you. It sounds like, though, you could do both in parallel? Mr. Harder: You can. It's going to cost you a little more money, and money's always an issue. Since you don't have a MRF, you're going to have to ship those recyclables, mixed recyclables.:. 6 Ms. Kawahara: is additional. Okay, Chair. Mr. Bynum: Oh, I see. You're saying the cost of the recyclables thank you. Thank you very much. Thank .you Committee Councilmember Furfaro? Mr. Furfaro: Yes, ..Committee Chairman. John, may I ask, the testimony that you read us today, does it vary much. from the written submitted testimony you gave to us on December 16? Mr. Harder: No, It's pretty much the same. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you_. Mr. Bynum: Other questions of Mr. Harder? If not, thank you very much for your testimony. ~ . . ~ CONNIE CLAUSEN: Good afternoon. Dickie,.I don't have any bags with me this time, sorry. And my presentation... My name is Connie Clausen. Thank you for letting me speak to you. I am a member of Zero Waste, and I hope I'm going to represent them well. I basically want to reiterate everything that they said, John and JoAnn. And I want to let .you know, JoAnn, that I actually have you beat. I didn't think about it, but the socks. I have are leftover from my mother, last. visit to the mainland, the jeans I .have came> from Habitat for Humanity, the shirt I have I got at a yard sale on the weekend, and this jacket is a hand-me-down from a girlfriend. I don't know how that happened. Mr. Furfaro: May I compliment her for buying, as a board member of Habitat for Humanity? Ms. Clausen: All right. Oh, I love that place. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. ~ I'd like to thank you. for purchasing from our shops in there. Ms. Clausen: Absolutely, and we donate to there too. Mr. Furfaro: Yes, I have had .the privilege of seeing .their revenue generated by reuse and recycling. Ms. Clausen: Yeah, indeed. Yeah, thanks Jay. So the comments that I have are that I am glad that we have this plan, I'm really glad that we have a plan to look at and discuss and comment on, and-.there are some things that need some improvements. Certainly the assumption that we can only divert 35 percent is way, way low. We can do a lot' better than that, I've set up recycling programs at a local credit union and a local bank, and our first .year at the credit union we diverted 48 percent. So that's just one year of education and training, so I know that we can do better than that. And I think there needs to be more of the zero waste management procedures -and guidelines and part of the plan. There's principles involved to zero waste that don't seem to stand out in the plan. So we're 7 suggesting that the diversion rates could be 70 percent, and that is very achievable and' so I would like you to consider that number. Certainly the construction demolition, their numbers are way low; they don't even match the actual national standards. Nationally, the communities can recycle and reuse up to 20 percent from construction waste, and R.W. Beck is saying we can only do 6 percent. That doesn't make any sense to us. Plus, there are businesses that we know of on the mainland that have been created out of recycling these construction debris materials, so there can be more jobs in that area also. I have a problem with the pilot curbside recycling program. I think curbside recycling is great. I hate the name pilot; don't know what that means. But again, it's...what's the word? I don't want to say it. It's backwards...and there's another word that goes in there. You really have to have'the facility... I'm on TV, right? You have to have the facility to take the materials to before you can get a big program going to collect the materials. It just doesn't make any sense. There's all kinds of people here who can help the county to come up with ways to set up a materials recycling facility and get people going to it, and then we have our phase one curbside recycling program. Of course you got to know we don't support waste to energy. That just goes. against the grain of anybody who s'upports` zero waste or reuse or recycle or reduce. So add my name to that too. It's economically infeasible. It doesn't make sense, especially if we can get people really doing the program. If we can get people looking at the new system, ~as JoAnn said, and not just buy and throw away... Mr. Bynum: Connie, your three minutes have expired. Would you like to sum up, or... Ms. Clausen: I will sum up, yes:- I love the pay as you throw. I think that is the way to get people to understand what's...what we have to do here on this island, and it can raise money for the island too, and the other thing is education. Education is what we need to teach people how to do it. When I started with the credit union and the bank, people didn't have a clue. What? You can save magazines? You can recycle magazines? They didn't have a clue. We can do that, and phone books and all the things that nobody thinks about. So anyway, I recommend the plan. I think it's a good plan. There are some revisions that we have to work on, and I hope that you'll take the comments from the Zero Waste guidelines as part of it. Thank you. Mr. Bynum: Thank you.. Any questions for Ms. Clausen? Being done, thank you for your testimony. Ms. Clausen: Sure. BEN SULLIVAN: ~ Hello Councilmembers. My name is Ben Sullivan, for the record. Thank you for this opportunity to testify. I do appreciate your efforts on this, and I realize that we have all been looking at and studying this issue, for quite a long time in the community, and I know you all have done a lot of reading and a lot of research and listened to a lot of •testimony. There's several points about this plan that I'd -like to underline and give my own views on. 8 One... and I think there's agreement on this. I think we all agree- that 35 percent is nowhere near a high enough target for diversion, and:I think we're all willing to-say hey we can get better. I believe the plan should state an .aggressive goal ~ for diversion, because when you say: 35 percent and then you get there, you get lazy. We need to reach... This ~is a big issue. We can do much better. I think we also need to remember that in doing so, we need to stay within the priorities established in the State law with regards to solid waste management -that is diversion:. first, then incineration, then laridfilling. And. I think not just the statement of order,. but a statement of order and priority means we spend a greater amount of money on diversion than we do on incineration, and than we do subsequently on landfilling. If we spent... if we considered near the .kind of capital we're talking about for a waste to energy incinerator on a diversion scheme, I don't think we'd even have to have this conversation, because we'd get to 70, 80 percent in a few years. And I think that if we do anything else, it potentially is a violation of State law. Per this plan, I'm very eager to see the council, knowing:the difficulty of this move towards taking revenues that's used for solid waste management out of the general fund revenues, out of the tax base, and getting it to a fee .based system, a pay as you throw system, I think we... I suspect we all agree and. recognize that people throw away right now with no recourse. They put as much,on the,curb as they want to, and of course that doesn't offer any check, any kind: of market balance. as to what people are going to do and how they're going to manage their .solid waste. Yeah there's some challenges there, but I would speculate that on this often mentioned issue of, you know, will people throw into the gulch, will`they do things, and how will we enforce against that, I think it's easier to recycle and to sort ~ than. it is to get into your -trash and make sure this is not going to be tagged with your name...oh, I can't throw away mail because somebody's going to find it in .the gulch, I can't .throw away this because someone's going to recognize it .as mine. There's a greater effort in doing that than it is just sorting your trash. So I don't think that that problem is as big as we perhaps make it out to be. I think I closing, I'd like to say that we shouldn't obligate our community to an expensive and inflexible solution. And I don't think we should even consider waste to energy. It should not be on the table, period, today, in this plan. If we need a plan in 10 years for waste.to energy., okay: It's successful in places where they burn the residual 10..percent of a waste stream...places like Sweden where they do everything to recycle everything else, and then they get in there and they burn what absolutely can't be used for any other purpose. But it doesn't make sense to burn things that we can use in another way. The energy capture is inefficient, it's grossly expensive, it's polluting. So in closing, I think in the context of this recession and the context of economic difficulty,. I would ask you to consider that giving people an option to make simple changes to their behavior to save money is a really critical thing, and if we choose to move forward on a path that allows that, we're doing the best service for the community.. So thank you for the opportunity to testify. Mr. Bynum: Right on your three minutes; good timing. Any questions for Mr. Sullivan? Thank you for your testimony. KEN TAYLOR: Chair, Council, Ken Taylor. So much good things have been said by previous speakers that it doesn't leave us _a lot of good things to 9 say. But this is a good starting point, but I just don't think that this plan quite brings it all together, and I think the...to move forward with a good plan, it has to include a recycle coordinator. And without that, it's very difficult to see how the current staff can put it all together. And the MRF has to get put in place, and we have to just make a commitment to the fact that we're either going to go down the road and recycle, and reuse as much as possible, or we're going to go down the other road and not do any of these things, which is going to end up costing us a lot more money. And I believe as somebody said earlier, there are some good things in this plan, but there's some good things missing in this plan. And hopefully, as you move forward and deliberate this issue and listen to the testimony from the previous speakers, you will realize that there are some changes that need to be made, and hopefully you will spend the time now to get the plan in proper order, and I think spending the time today will save us much in the future. So thank you very much. ALICE PARKER: Hi, good afternoon. Alice Parker. I echo the earlier speakers. I think they did an excellent presentation. And I think the issue of educating the staff is primary. I know that we have a problem on the island with recycling knowledge and the implication of the cost and the health dangers of not recycling. I'm thinking of landfills in the California area. You see circling sea gulls and aromas rising and perhaps we need an artist to graphically describe this as opposed to recycling, so we don't have as much as that. We don't need another mountain Kekaha landfill there. And the other thing is, I haven't seen anyone address how to dispose of these batters, the double A batteries, triple A, and all. I've gone to the recycling center; they say no we don't handle it, all you can do is toss them. I don't like to put that mercury and alkali and whatever else is in there in the landfill, but we have no other resource to put them. An another issue is Sun Village does recycle. We recycle aluminum cans and glass, newspaper, and plastic, and I believe we have a contract with the adult retired community to pick up. And so there are community groups who can help, but we do need a county staff. Thank you. Mr. Bynum: Thanks Alice. Any questions for Alice? Ms. Parker: Any questions, or do you have any offers of how to dispose of batteries? I mean car batteries they will take, but they won't take the little ones. (Inaudible) Ms. Parker: They won't take them. I've been. there. They said, no, we don't take that. Mr. Bynum: Okay, thank you. Ms. Parker: Okay, thank you... and I apologize. ELLI WARD: Good afternoon Council Chair, members of the Council. My name is Elli Ward, and thank you for this opportunity. I want to say first that I agree and support the prior testimonies, and one of the thoughts that came across my mind was, you know, we have a wealth of information and 10 knowledge from the prior ,people who have, testified. It seems like we. really don't need outside consultants that we pay, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars for. Anyway, just an aside. - I would like to focus on the recommendations that the integrated solid waste management plan update makes regarding the importance of public education and the development of a pay as you throw system. Efforts are being made to promote the concept of 3-R, reduce, reuse, recycle islandwide: Every time I make a trip to the recycling bins and find them .almost filled to capacity, I think that the message is getting through. However, when I drive through my own neighborhood and my friends' neighborhoods, I wind up shaking my head as I witness evidence to the contrary.. Many households put out not only multiple ~ 32 gallon trash cans, but extra large plastic bags next to the cans, there's some boxes also full of trash, and smaller plastic bags., There are households that are aware, however, their numbers are few compared, to those. who continue toproduce. excessive garbage that worsens our landfill problems. There definitely is a need to increase awareness and to educate every family member regarding the urgent need for everyone to reduce waste. Our county needs to be more aggressive and find the means to institute a process in place. There also is definitely a need to get every citizen's attention and historically., _ what has .worked is hitting people where it hurts-their pocketbooks. :Thee, government. has the ability to change its citizens' behaviors by imposing taxes and fees. In our present economy, everyone objects to any mention of taxation. However, let's not forget that positive changes, in behavior have been achieved by this. Think of ,the tobacco tax, the click-it-or-ticket campaign, requiring IDs when. purchasing. alcoholic drinks, and many more with goals to protect health, safety, and save lives: I support the pay as you throw system, increased education .so every islander practices the 3 Rs, and our county instituting a system in place, with the required staffing, such as a recycling coordinator, so we can protect and care. for our island. Let us set a goal of at least 50 percent diversion and stick to it. Thank you. Mr. Bynum: Thank you Ms. Ward. Any questions? If not, thank you for your testimony. , DAVID MAKANA MARTIN: Thank you Mr. Chair and Councilmembers for this opportunity to give comments and submit questions regarding the integrated solid waste management plan,. and mahalo to John Harder and Zero Waste Kauai for their very insightful and timely comments and recommendations. Mr. Bynum: Can you state your name for the record, please. Mr. Martin: My name is David Makana Martin. Since I came to Kauai in 1997, I've been active as a taro farmer, and expanded my interest into areas that includes... ALFRED B. CASTILLO, JR., County Attorney: Excuse me, sir. Al Castillo, County Attorney. Could you please remove your hat? Thank you. Mr. Martin: I am currently investing a lot of my time and resources into soil improvement projects, so I'd like to bring some focused attention to how this plan and how the current county administration will address waste stream recovery reduction for agricultural purposes, both. now and into the future. 11 Would you please ask the contractor R.W. Beck representatives to summarize how they have evaluated and integrated agricultural needs, uses, and values into the plan and its recommendations, and to provide more specific details as requested. Zero Waste Kauai is a strong advocate for clear goals that inspire action. Please heed their recommendations. On the subject of percentages and targets and goals, I'm really sitting here wondering if the time for debating goals and targets hasn't passed us by, or if maybe it's not immediately upon us. As we sit here, there's this perfect storm brewing off the west coast of the United States. USGS calls it a storm of historic proportions. I've heard several references to biblical proportions. Several weeks ago I read that water allocation cutbacks in California were threatening major collapse of the agricultural soil structure. Now there's a storm coming. This is the food belt for most of the United States and for here in these islands. So where is our food security? I think the message is clear-grow food here and facilitate the processes and resources to do so. Hopefully success in these efforts will place waste... a waste to energy facility so gar on the backburner that it disappears and we'll be able to feed ourselves and possibly others in these uncertain times. The recycling coordinator, and I -think beyond that, to develop a system of community waste and educational coordinators, not just centrally located, but in around the different communities, we have waste facilities that receive waste, the greenwaste, all this stuff, we're talking about a MRF, all these things that we got to do before we actually start to sort and use these things. I mean our facilities are there and can we begin in several weeks to clarify our sorting systems? We can write that into our plan, but what does it take to coordinate public works and agricultural endeavor? Those are the things that I'd like to see addressed in this plan, and before this body and the administration, and I would like to see immediate action. I've read several requests from Zero Waste Kauai to do many of the things I'm talking about, so we're not talking -about inventing new wheels, but we aren't really doing that much about it. The way I see it, not much of an indication of any kind urgency, but I do feel it myself and I would like to spread that around. Thank you. Mr. Bynum: Councilmember Furfaro. Mr. Furfaro: Thank you. But it looks like the testimony you gave us is available electronically? Mr. Martin: Yes. Mr. Furfaro: May I request a copy? Mr. Martin: Yes, I will send it. Mr. Furfaro: I also wanted to point out to you that I do not think that the time to discuss these issues are beyond us. The process here is we have a public hearing where people can give testimony, and then this information goes into Mr. Bynum's committee. Some of us do acknowledge the question that's... for example, Monday morning I have a meeting with the consultant. Yeah, I feel 35 12 percent is too low, and I'm going to pose- that.. For my support, it has to be higher. Can it be zero? I'm not sure,' but it certainly- can be more than 35.x, I also think, you know, some of the testimony about public education is extremely important. The Council did not reject the position. -chat was there,. before the overall management of the plan; it was the administration that did .not want that position filled at this time. And so therefore it -was dollar .funded. ~ :But the line item does -exist in the budget, and those are things that we'll,;pursue in Mr. Bynum's,dscussion. Also about the curbside recycling and so forth, yeah, it's a big issue for us for a MRF, whether it's a MRF that's sorted when it comes, or whether it's a dirty MRF and we sort it at the facility. That question will be posed. But the dollar savings on .the curbside recycling, until we got .defintion,there, ;there is, and I'm sure we'll discuss it in Mr. Bynum's committee,,. there. is a, question about the excessive payroll and benefits cost we have right now for the manual pick-up collection; and the stress we're putting on the employees on the-fact-chat; you know, they need the right tools and the right equipment, and; hopefully we'll get some. funds savings. I'm not supposed to answer a lot of those questions during public testimony; it's your turn, but I just wanted to reassure. you, I would like a -copy of your electronic dialogue today, but those are the kinds of things that are on the horizon. I just wanted to reassure you. _ . Mr. Martin: may be here. I didn't know and answer questions, and posed it in the... And_I also was hopeful ..that maybe the contractor. Public hearings sometimes the. contractor will'be there. I was. hoping that might occur. So that's how..:why I Mr. Furfaro: , And; I guess ,I'm trying to answer you that way: Typically in a public hearing, we should not have that much dialogue with you.. It is just to collect public information I preparation of Mr. Bynum's committee meeting. But I do believe we have another option with. the consultant... one .more time. Mr. Martin: Well, that's very encouraging, and I'll be happy to be available. I think looking. at the numbers. ~is really important, but I think how we're actually currently using, because :when I go to greenwaste in; you know; to our waste disposal facilities, I do see so many resources that could be used for your, you know, soil improvement projects, terracing; erosion control, and it's like Isee -them rolling out to, you know, a landfill And when I know.I...just a chipper or something grinding up some of the stuff in the bed of a pickup truck can make a huge difference in my ability to improve sail and, grow stuff. So I'm really trying to encourage this-well -what can we do now? The .goals are really I think important for a plan, but I think that really the now...I just really want to see that dialogue get more active. ,~ Mr. Furfaro: I hope I answered a few of your questions, but I won't carry on any more dialogue. Thank you Mr. Bynum. Mr. Bynum: Any other questions? If not, I just quickly want. to thank you for your testimony, and I'm please that you brought up two issues. One is the connection between solid waste issues and agriculture and the potential for the...or to address soil quality issues, and you know; JoAnn touched on that with the ability to create quality soil amendments. And also, you know, I hope that you 13 feel differently a year from now about our sense of urgency, because I share it and it's a difficult time for us to implement anything that has new high cost involved, but in the long run the cost will be much greater if we don't. So thank you for your testimony today. And just to clarify, the consultant is scheduled to be here next week at the committee meeting. He's at the end of his contract, that's probably assuming we pass the plan eventually, or pass the resolution. We probably won't see the consultant again after next week, so... Mr. Martin: So get your questions in now? Mr. Bynum: Yeah, this is the time. Thank you very much. Is there anyone else present who wanted to offer testimony? Glenn. GLENN MICKENS: Thank you, Tim. For the record, Glenn Mickens. only have a couple of words. Kaipo, the Lakers are playing today 3 o'clock. Mr. Furfaro: It's not on the agenda. Mr. Mickens: All the speakers have done a fine job of giving you valuable information. For me, I would let John Harder propose a plan for our solid waste problem, and implement it. John cleaned up Saipan and is a true solid waste expert. Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on R.W. Beck to give us some information that has many flaws? Pay John whatever it takes for him to do the job, and he has the expertise to do it. That's my testimony. Thank you Timmy. Mr. Bynum: Thank you very much. Mr. Mickens: Don't forget, Kaipo... Council Chair Asing: Thank you, Glenn. Mr. Bynum: Is there anyone else further who would like to offer testimony? Seeing none, this brings this public hearing to closure. See you all next week. There being no further testimony on this matter, the public hearing adjourned at 2:36 p.m. Respectfully submitted, '__ PETER A. NAKAMURA County Clerk /ao 74