Minutes: August 6, 1997

Kailua Bay Advisory Council

Windward Community College

August 6, 1997

CALL TO ORDER: Chair Roland Libby, Jr. called the meeting to order at 6:45pm.

MEMBERS PRESENT: Jeff Harris, Mark Heckman, Edward Laws, Roland Libby, Jr., Fred Madlener, and Christine Woolaway. There was a quorum.

MEMBERS ABSENT: Karen Archibald and Steve Holmes

CSF: Julie Jirikowic and Judy Nakamura

Guests: Alex Ho, Ron Jackson, Dan Hoover, Nancy Glover, and Terence Teruya

APPROVAL OF MINUTES: The minutes of the June 10, 1997 and July 15, 1997 meetings were approved.

SUSAN MILLERUS REPORT: Discussion on SusanUs report will be tabled until the next meeting to give the members enough time to review the material. An invoice for July was submitted which will be discussed at the next meeting.

INSURANCE: The members will review the material given and forward questions to Rich Proctor via Julie by Aug. 11th. Discussion will ensue at the next meeting.

VOLUNTEER WATER QUALITY COORDINATOR: Colleen Allen has withdrawn her name as coordinator. Chair Roland will contact the next individual and offer the position.

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH: Ed gave a short synopsis of what the department does. Their job is to monitor water quality and deliver the water samples to the lab in Pearl City. DOH has 100+ sites throughout the states which they monitor with efforts towards microbiological work. A substantial amount of time deals with complaints.

Per Terry from the DOH, generally they donUt find chronic water conditions from Makapuu to Kaneohe. The problem is mainly runoff although Waimanalo and Kawainui is open most of the time to the ocean. When the stream opens up, the outflow hugs the shore and youUll see the discolored water and high bacterial count of up to 10,000 during a storm. Human waste, feral animals, ducks, and pigeons have accounted for false/positive readings. Nutrient sampling is also done. The biggest contributor is run-off from the streams. Generally there is no difference between Waimanalo, Kailua and Kaneohe; they all show the same pattern. The Waimanalo Treatment Plant shows clusters of red flags during the winter months during heavy run-off.

Mark - what kind of complaints do you get? Generally aesthetic - the public calls when they see something such as a great deal of sea foam in the ocean or when the ocean is a yellowish/greenish color due to algae growth from nutrients from the stream. The department is concerned with pathogens that the public does not normally see. The public usually calls for physical problems.

The testing stations are located where 1) the public has access to the water and 2) near potential sources (such as streams). A reading of the enterococcus count for Waimanalo Bay was shown.

He suggested an educational program to talk about bacterial samples and communicate to students how the data is used but agrees that this is most difficult to explain. The streams are the responsibility of USGS but nothing is being done. We must look for projects where volunteers see the results. He considers lepto more important than sewage pathogens because lepto can kill. Animals, both foreign and domestic, cause lepto.

RON JACKSON - from Kailua. He identified what he thought may be some problems in Kailua; mainly the landfill site (quarry road area).

NANCY GLOVER - from Waimanalo. She passed out a handout of the characteristics, land use and ownership, environmental concerns, and recommended actions for the Waimanalo area. She was informed that KBAC will hold community meetings from October on to discuss concerns.

ALEX HO: Alex contacted the Dept. of Public Works, Parks and Recreation, Dept. of Land and Natural Resources, NRCS, etc. to get input. Their concerns centered on: construction runoff, illegal landfills, not enough funds to cover maintenance, and heavy metals from cars, to name a few.

NEW HIRE: It was moved and seconded that Donna Ashizawa be hired for the Volunteer Water Quality Coordinator. The following was discussed: 1) make sure that the person understands what being an independent contractor entails. 2) make sure they understand the physical aspects of the job - a clause should be written in the contract (it should reference the newspaper ad). 3) the individual should be hired for one year. 4) really looking for someone who works independently. 5) make it clear they understand they would not be doing it alone; they are the coordinator, the work is done by the volunteers and the council will be there to advise. 6) it was moved and seconded that a fee would be offered to cover wages, taxes, and health insurance.

WORK PLAN: Alex passed out a draft of a work plan and suggested that the board come up with a vision statement. Members are to fax their answers to him as soon as possible.

AGREEMENT: the members are to review the agreement and fax any changes to Judy by Friday (Aug. 8th). She will then fax the complete agreement to Roland so he can forward it to Donna for review.

ADJOURNMENT: The meeting was adjourned by acting chair Roland Libby, Jr. at 9:30pm.