The Kauai County Council met on March 11, 2026, to recognize March for Water Month, hear public testimony, approve consent items, and debate several resolutions and bills. Key discussions included a resolution to accept a $1 million state loan for residential cesspool conversions and a contentious resolution to increase funding for the Wailua Wastewater Treatment Plant repairs from $14 million to $25.5 million, which was deferred after extensive debate. The council also advanced a bill to amend agricultural property tax classifications to support farmers.
Okay, good morning, everyone, and welcome to our council meeting. Uh today is March 11th. Before we get into the formal agenda, we do have uh certificate to present first, and then we'll get to the words of wisdom. Uh so with that, if we could have our friends from the plumbers and pipe fitters up, we're gonna be re-recognizing March for Water Month. And uh yeah, have a seat, and then we'll I'll just go ahead and read the certificate and then we can have a short discussion. Um the Council of the County of Kauai recognizes the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, the IAPMO, and its partners for celebrating IAPMO's third annual March for Water Month. Water is an essential resource for sustaining life, promoting public health, and ensuring economic prosperity. Aging infrastructure for drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater faces a national funding and upgrade gap of over 1.2 trillion dollars in the upcoming two decades, necessitating sustained investment to protect municipalities from environmental stresses. An estimated 2.2 million Americans lack access to running water, indoor plumbing or wastewater service, and as many as 12.1 million to 19.2 million U.S. households currently lack affordable access to water services, imposing a substantial burden on low-income families. Hawaii employs approximately 2600 plumbers, pipe fitters, and steam fitters, representing a vital segment of the state's skilled workforce dedicated to maintaining the infrastructure necessary for clean water and sanitation. The month of March provides a unique opportunity to align local efforts with global movements, such as World Plumbing Day on March 11th and World Water Day on March 22nd. IAPMO, the global authority responsible for the Uniform Plumbing Code, which serves as the basis for safe plumbing systems in Hawaii, established March for Water Month in 2023 to advocate for secure and sustainable water systems through technical standards and policy work and is preparing to mark its centennial in 2026. March for Water Month serves as a platform for communities to raise awareness about water conservation, access to safe drinking water, and the importance of investing in infrastructure. The Kawaii County Council thanks IAPMO, the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters, UA Local 675 and their partners for their commitment to water preservation and encourages the public to participate in activities and programs that promote awareness, education, and actions prioritizing water as a vital resource for the county's future. So thank you for being here. Our uh water manager was supposed to be here. I'm not sure if he got caught in the rain, but um thank you for being here. No pun intended. Yeah, we can craft that. Yeah, we can uh if you could just identify yourselves and and uh share with us uh the importance of March for Water Max. Yeah, thank you, Chair. Um Chair, uh Vice Chair and members of the Council, Kika Bukowski. Uh actually, on behalf of Ayatmo International Association of Plumber of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials, as well as the Plumbers and Fitters UA Local 675. Um I have here with me the president of Local 675 as well as uh Matt Brady, as well as the Vice President Benji Panis uh from Local 675 as well. And uh we want to thank you first of all for um uh for this certificate and for recognizing the importance of of water and what it plays in our society. Uh really the what the the intent of the of the certificate is to raise awareness of the importance of water as a resource as a source of life uh and to um basically um uh recognize the full cycle of water uh from preserving and conserving it uh as a source at the source and uh also uh in transmission and distribution, uh the importance of upgrading our infrastructure to ensure that we can transmit and distribute uh uh this precious resource. And then, of course, where the plumbers plumbers and pipe fitters come in, uh, ensuring that in the living space uh in the built environment, uh we ensure that the water that that is being consumed uh or um absorbed into our system or inhaled uh is done so in in a safe manner uh for public health and safety, but also sanitation, wastewater, and then to complete the full cycle, looking and exploring at ways to reuse and recycle so that we can continue to preserve and conserve this this valuable resource. So we appreciate your your folks' time this morning and this certificate, which is very uh important to our industry. And on behalf of uh Dave Viola, who is the chief executive officer of Ayatmo, uh, as well as the the chairman of the board uh for the World Plumbing Uh Council and uh executive vice president DJ Nunez from Ayatmo and Sam Barrett Jr., who is the business manager of local 675 who wasn't able to join us here this morning. We want to thank you very much for this for this recognition and this certificate. And I think uh Matt had had some words. Yes, uh I'd like to begin first of all by thanking the chair of vice chair and the full uh council here. Could you could you just state your name, please for the captioner? Push the signal. Yeah. Okay, here we go. Uh I'm Matthew Brady, um uh president of local 675 plumbers and pipe fitters union. Um, also a licensed plumber, uh, been a plumber for 39 years now. Once again, thank you to all of you. And I also want to thank the Lord that we're here uh that this didn't get canceled. This was a big deal for us, and we were ready uh to get on that plane this morning, all excited to be here. So the drinking water and stuff like that that we're talking about is extremely important as we know. Um partnership partnerships that we have with Iatmo, and this month being um the world um plumbing world day uh is this month and plumbing world uh water day, plumbing what world water day, sorry about that. Yeah, so um so it's really um fitting that this month um that this be uh done, and we just want to thank you guys for recognizing that. Uh you know, throughout the state, um there are some issues you know going on. Uh Oahu has some aquifer issues, obviously. The big island has some issues with you know with the volcanic uh dropout and fallout and things like that. So we're we're also trying to partner and try and help them to you know find ways to keep water clean and whatnot. Um, and of course, our job as plumbers and my whole career going through my apprenticeship program all the way to continued training is to keep our water resources clean all the way to the tap for all of our customers and our our community and also for uh getting that uh water out of the house and all the way down to the uh wastewater treatment, which this also recognizes.