Project Faith - Anahola Homesteaders Council
- NewsPictures of 3 Day Retreat
Contact Us:
Anahola Homesteaders Council
4444 Hokualele Road
Anahola, Kaua'i, Hawai'i 96703
(808) 823-0927
(808) 823-6110 Fax
(888) 822-0927 Toll Free
www.anahola.net
info@anahola.net
The Anahola Homesteaders Council completed a 3-day retreat at the Hanalei Colony Resort in Haena, Kaua'i on September 24-26, 2004. The purpose of the retreat was to bring together the various team members of Project Faith for a strategic planning meeting. The meeting agenda was as follows:
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AHC
Strategic Planning Retreat Agenda
Friday 4:30 – 5:00pm, Members convene at AHC
office
5:00 – 6:00pm, Site visit to Project Faith 20 – acre parcel 6:00 – 6:30pm, Travel to Haena at the Hanalei Colony Resort 6:30 – 7:00pm, Everyone takes their time to settle themselves in 7:00 – 7:15pm, Welcome ceremony 7:20 – Dinner Saturday 7:00 – 7:45am, Continental Breakfast
7:45 - 8:00am, Briefing 8:00 – 10:30 Session begin 10:30 –10:45, Break 10:45 – 12:30pm, Session continues 12:40 – 1:40pm, Lunch 1:50 – 3:00pm, Session continues 3:00 – 3:15pm, Break 3:20 – 4:20pm, Share the mana’o amongst the members 4:45 – 6:00pm, Session continues 6:00 – 6:30pm, Break and prepare ourselves for dinner 6:30 – 6:45pm, Briefing 6:45 – 7:45pm, Dinner 7:50 – Session continues as needed Sunday 7:00 – 7:45am, Continental Breakfast
7:45 – 8:00am, Briefing 8:00 – 10:00am, Session in progress 10:00 –10:15am, Break 10:20 – 12:00pm Session continues as needed |
We started the weekend retreat with a visit to the partially cleared 20 acre Project Faith site. According to the appropriate Hawaiian protocol we chanted an oli for permission to enter the site. The group toured the site area and we prayed for the healing of the land.
We decided to separate the retreat participants into three groups to focus on three major aspects of Project Faith that we are currently undertaking. The three groups were:
I.
Project Imua - the
creation of a web-based living document of the community plan for
Project Faith sponsored by the EPA
Office of Environmental Justice and the creation of an
Environmental
Impact Statement for the 20 acre Project Faith site.
II. The EPA Brownfield Clean-up & Re-Development Planning of the 20 acre Project Faith site.
III. Considering a Financial Institution for Project Faith.
II. The EPA Brownfield Clean-up & Re-Development Planning of the 20 acre Project Faith site.
III. Considering a Financial Institution for Project Faith.
The task of each group was to have a discussion and develop a timeline and implementation plan for each of the areas being discussed. The participants included:
I.
Project Imua &
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS)
Nestor Figueroa - Pure Hearts Trust II. Brownfield Cleanup & Re-Development Planning
III. Considering a Financial Institution for Project Faith
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AHC Retreat Outcomes:
Some of the most powerful outcomes from the retreat were the bonds and relationships that were forged during the weekend retreat. We achieved Ho'olokahi - Unity. We now have a better sense of who the person is on the other end of phone. This will allow us to work closer together to fulfill the work necessary to make Project Faith a total success. The individual groups delivered the following outcomes:
I. Project Imua &
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Project Imua is the name of the
project funded by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of
Environmental Justice (OEJ) to create a living document of the Community Plan created to document
the surface and drinking water quality and solid waste pollution on the
20 acre Project Faith site.The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), partially funded by the Association of Native Americans (ANA) will be produced simultaneously and will access the overall environmental impact of Project Faith. This task will be a subset of the overall living document. Both projects will be documented on our website to create our "living document". This living document will educate its readers on the historical, current and future environmental public health of Anahola. Project Imua will be an educational tool for several audiences:
We will combine the EOJ CPS Model with the Ho'olokahi Model to create a more powerful collaborative community model for Anahola.  We will document
the environmental state of drinking water, surface water and solid
waste in Anahola. We will perform aerial investigations of the
landscape. Through community outreach and interviews we will
document cultural knowledge of Anahola from its kupuna. We will
capture on video experiences and memories of the area. We will
capture the mo'olelo, hula, oli, meles, songs and chants. From
January through March the students of Kanuikapono will work in the
classroom to understand the environmental concepts and technology used
to perform the research necessary for Project Imua. We will
collaborate with our environmental specialist to insure the quality of
data collection. From April through May they will do all the
outdoor studies, research and data collection. On June 21st, 2004
we will present our findings at our Kanuikapono Ho'ike. The Ho'olokahi
website will contain a section for Project Imua and for the EIS.
We will capture the story in a "living document" composed of text,
photos, videos and data. The Ho'olokahi Network will unite all
the various partners of Project Faith to tell the whole story. We
will publish a project description, implementation plan, Project Imua
updates, EIS updates and an annual report.The design of the website will be a collaborative effort. We will have multiple authors adding content to the website using similar web development tools available on PCs and Macs. The website will provide worldwide 24/7 access to the living document. We will publish a quarterly Project Imua Newsletter that we propose be made available at the Anahola Post Office. We propose an area be set up in one of the tents at the Native People's Fair, where people can get access to the "living document" through a quarterly newsletter and a volunteer doing a presentation and answering questions. We can also submit articles from our newsletter to Department of Hawaiian Homelands (DHHL) Ka Wai Ola newsletter which has statewide distribution. We are concerned about the lack of free high speed internet access computers in Anahola. We propose Kanuikapono can provide access to the community through its technology center. We worked backwards from our Ho'ike on June 21, 2004 and developed our timeline.
We identified some of the financial resources necessary for a successful implementation of Project Imua. Project
Manager
60K
Project Coordinator (Kanuikapono) 30K Technology Coordinator (Kanuikapono) 30K WebMaster 50K Consultants 20K Equipment 50K ====== Total 190K |
| II.
Brownfield Cleanup &
Re-Development Planning Objectives: 1. Look at the site 2. Building and the land (5 pieces) 3. Identify the school (Diane) Site should all meet the same standard – one part of the land doesn’t have to be cleaner than the other. 21 acres that goes one square block. (George) Site not highly contaminated. Heavy metals spread evenly throughout the site. Left over residue. Site more contaminated than natural or not? What are you trying to reach? •
Industrial standard?
• Family/children standard? • Identify restrictive standards. State report (DOH) speaks about more study. Get a letter from DOH for proceed with cleanup. (George) How long does bioremediation take? Is it enough time? Once we can address those questions, we can make a decision about proceeding. (Diane) How much can it get the contamination down? Excavate the dirt. No need to ship outside of Hawaii. We can do it all in Hawaii. How long will it take? How much will it cost? Process? (Diane) Need to get another letter from the state that says who is doing the testing is certified to do the lab testing. Plant Remediation: •
Koa tree uses? On chemicals?
• Breakfern? Absorbs arsenic. • Sunflower? • Need to sell this to a lot of different audiences. • Pull all information on plant remediation. • What is the baseline study with EPA? • Cowboy to clean up the land but when clipping plants, need to take it off site because it would just be recycling the chemicals with the top layer of the soil. • Find local plants that could be used instead of foreign plants? DOH is competent that it is already here. More information is needed on the nursery process. • CTARH looking for ways to dispose of the leaf product more effectively. It all relates to a cost to something (transportation, disposal). • Doesn’t know if the concentration in the cuttings is equal to hazardous waste. • Composting? • Need to plant 16 inches apart. • Irrigation water? Water to make it grow? • What is the biouptake zone? • Paspalum – another alternative besides the Breakfern. • Which one is more effective? Efficient? What if used the grass and then the breakfern? At the end of the project, take it all out. • Grass controls dust, the runoff, and if you keep clipping off the top and disposing, the concentration levels of the chemicals may decrease. • How far down does the grass grow? Water: •
County – 800 feet towards the residents
• Drill • Ocean • Drinking water – do we have irrigation water? It would be a waste to use potable water for planting. • What is the DHHL availability to providing water? • Ditch water is important – DHHL (ask them) • Can the irrigation system we use for remediation be incorporated into existing ditch system. • Funding availability for restoration of ditch. Land: •
If we moved it around, could some of the areas be capped? If
there is going to be a commercial center, and we pour concrete, does it
still need to be capped? It makes more sense to clean up the site
instead. It could turn out to be a different site in the future.
• It can’t be designed as a flat pad. Too difficult because they don’t know what the parameters are. Cannot make assumptions on how far down we can remediate. • “Clean up things first before you move your furniture.” • Once you take care of it and you test it, you’re not limited on what you can do. • How far down is the cleaning acceptable? • Field testing kits – bioassay field test (tests to see if the plants did their job or not). Not expensive and you can take your sample and it tells you if its there or not. You know whether you’re going to pass or not (threshold test). Need a 40 hour trained person to actually do the test. Can use grant money to get the training – EPA doesn’t do the training. • Price comparison for bioremediation – current proposal is extremely high. Need to investigate other alternatives because the land isn’t that contaminated. • Cost of transportation: 1.
barge
• Don’t need to sample intensely2. trucking • On edenspace proposal, there is no time element. • Ask people who grow plants what takes up arsenic? • Does UH have people who are plants experts? Contact CTHAR extension – interested to see how far AHC will take the initiative. • Will UH be the monitoring agent? • (George) How much water is needed? • Where is the water coming from? • Does the transmission lines have the capacity? Contact Robin Robinson (G&R). • (Terrance) Size – above ground system • Pipe size and pressure depending on G&R. Solid Waste Management: (Troy Tanigawa) •
Situation with disposing on Kauai – inevitable that we have to visit
one of their facilities.
What can come to certain facilities, what is accepted, etc. Landfill is primary disposal component on Kauai. • What is the level of acceptance in the landfill? Regulated or a primary contaminate, the landfill will usually have thresholds for certain things. If you think your waste is contaminated, you have to bring in experts to determine characterization of the waste. • County of Kauai doesn’t deal with hazardous waste and would refer to some other source. • EPA grant can be used for waste characterization. • In the process of identifying our trash (junk cars, etc.), what kind of help can we get removing that waste if we don’t have any money? Talk to the mayor and see where he stands and what he is willing to do. Have a metals recycling facility that can take the large appliances in at no charge (refrigerators, heaters, etc. – “white goods”) White goods with freon and white goods without Freon – two categories to the metal recycling facility. Junk cars – minimize damage as much as possible. Residential (cars and passenger trucks) are no cost. No commercial vehicles… less than ¾ ton. • Scrap tires need to go to a recycler. Prohibited from the landfill. Has to be easily separable from the original load. (Unitek Solvent Services) • Batteries need to be recycled. Call PS&D or Delco. Delco will come and pick it up for a small fee. • Landfill doesn’t except bulk liquid waste. • Medical waste. Unlikely that we will come up with this. • Anything that comes through the landfill, it has to pass a few tests. Site Clean-up Work Plan – 25 September 2004 1. Priority 2. AHC produces a detailed work plan 3. Template from Diane – does it / does it not apply to me? 4. Get the major players together (those who are volunteering their services – construction, etc.) and talk about who wants to do what. Take that and form a timeline. See how activities affect each other and who needs to be available at what time. CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT. Need construction coordinator. 5. Who is going to have access to your site? How do you control it? Do they have their 40 hours health and safety training? Get someone qualified. 6. Check with DHHL to get an acre on the side of the site for staging (unloading and loading). 7. Maintain name of “Brownsfield” site. 8. Pile of costs that we need to decide how to allocate – hold money for sampling before spending. 9. Brownsfield money is not allowed for anything other than clean-up purposes. 10. Need to solicit other bids for phytoremediation aside from edenspace. 11. If going with Pioneer Seeds, we need to find someone to be the project manager so that Jimmy doesn’t need to wear 100 hats and go back and forth between areas of the project. [George/Terrance/Cowboy:] **Pioneer Hybrid Planting and field preparation Plow and planting 1.
phytoremediation plan
2. Final clean-up clearance Discussion with Pioneer Hybrid: Discuss about arsenic removal. Will they consider involvement? Encourage new business creation Is there land they’re using certified and approved? • Give them test results • Give them clean-up standards (state or federal EPA standards) - tell them that children will be on the site. • Tell them it was an old pineapple and sugar field • Timeline – the EPA is a 2-year grant and it is a couple year clean-up • Acreage of site • What more do we need to get for you? What do the scientists need? ** Pioneer can come with bioremediation plan and use the site as a test case for a new business for them. Constraints: 1.
Never enough money to find bodies to work on these kinds of projects.
2. Finding someone who is ready to step up to the plate. 3. Need to find a local resource just in case the mainland resource is not available just in case something goes wrong. 4. Will they stick around to help us in the end? With the arsenic uptake, can we meet the levels of the state? What’s in it for Pioneer in the end? 1.
New start up company
2. Improve relationships 3. Prepare a contribution list for partnerships 4. Recognition from EPA on a Brownsfield site (positive publicity) 5. Provide growers training program for agriculture and biotechnology |
| III.
Considering a Financial
Institution for Project Faith Summary of Financial Group Discussion: In our discussions on Saturday ( § Overall there has always been an understanding that Project Faith would require substantial funding, but it is important to review the recent history. § In 2002, DHHL granted AHC a lease on the 20 acre Project Faith site. This site was the subject of EPA Brownfields and Green Building projects funded through DBEBT. AHC itself was funded primarily through an ANA grant. § In 2003, AHC took in very little money. The ANA grant was complete. The grants that are providing the current funded were written in the fall of 2003 and the first half of 2004. § In 2004, we are continuing to write grants. Having won about three-quarters of a million dollars from EPA and ANA, we are a good candidate for further funding this year. Winning grants is one of the ways we can distinguish our project. Other, equally important ways are o
Make visible progress by clearing the Project Faith site and starting
the open air market.
o Erect temporary structures, such as tents, on the site to support the market o Actively engage with the community, especially on the Environmental Justice grant. § How we use the funding we get is at least as important as getting it. The financial discussion group on Saturday spent much of its time discussing Project Faith management and leadership. These are important in order for policy decisions to be taken and enacted. The board must be active, meeting regularly and following up with oversight to assure that policies are being followed and that the obligations of the AHC organization are being met. § As the project makes progress, new sources of funding will become available. A focused effort to identify new sources of funds is necessary. These sources may include o
Government agencies
o Private foundations – both local and national o Private financing based on the project’s expected future capability to earn revenue through operations. Given the intention to include affordable housing in the project, we should consider the possibility of using financing that takes advantage of our eligibility for Affordable Housing Tax Credits. o Operations: § Self sustainability must be a primary focus of Project Faith planning and day-to-day decision making. The closer we are to sustainability and profitability based on our operations, the more independent we can be. It may be possible to sub-divide the project so that some parts are financially independent while others are still seeking and receiving grant funds. An analysis of the financial futures of the individual units in Project Faith will make it possible to anticipate our financing alternatives: o
School
o Learning center o Kupuna housing o Cultural center o Commercial and retail space Over the past two years, As an incubator for businesses in Anahola, project faith has proposed offering technical assistance such as training and business consulting as well as access to capital. This technical assistance helps get new business owners and managers ready to make productive use of capital to start and grow new businesses. Project Faith is a unique site for a CDFI because it combines its location in the Anahola community with its location on theNotes from the Flip Charts: 2002: Land, EPA Brownfield and green building through DEBDT 2003 - 2004: No $, Writing Grants Now -- EPA, EPA-OEJ, ANA Visible Progress --
CDFI - Community Development Financial Institution
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We thank all the participants in this retreat for all of their mana'o and contributions throughout the weekend. All of their input was very valuable and will support our future endeavors at Project Faith. We captured what we each took away from the AHC Retreat in the following flip chart.
| Aloha A'o Ho'okipa Ho'olokahi Ho'oma'ema'e'ana Ho'omau 'ike 'ike ho'omaopopo Lokahi Kuleana Ma'alahi Mahalo Mana Mana'o'i'o Mana'olana Na'au ho'oki 'eke' No'ono hana Ohana |
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Love Wisdom Hospitality Unity Knowledge Harmony Responsibility Simplicity Gratitude Spiritual Power Faith Hope Willingness Family |
We
want to give a very special acknowledgment to Marie Torio and her
team:
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