Maui council committee reviews Department of Environmental Management budget; residents and recyclers press for grants and wastewater aid

The Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee on April 15 heard the Department of Environmental Management’s (DEM) requests for Fiscal Year 2026 and received public testimony urging more support for local recycling projects and for a regional wastewater solution at Maʻalaea.

DEM Director Shane Ogawa told the committee the department’s operating and capital requests rise sharply in FY26 as the county moves into large wastewater capital projects. “Budgets mainly supports our mission, which is to protect the public’s health, safety and environment,” Ogawa said. He said the department’s operational budget is increasing and that the total CIP request is substantially larger than last year’s. Ogawa named several large wastewater CIP items — including a Central Maui wastewater reclamation facility design and a West Maui R-1 (reclaimed water) expansion — and said wastewater dominates the department’s capital program.

Why it matters: DEM manages wastewater collection and treatment, refuse collection and landfill operations, recycling programs, abandoned-vehicle removal and grant administration. Changes to DEM’s budget affect household fees, landfill operations and a range of community recycling services that residents and small island businesses said they depend on.

Key budget details presented by DEM - DEM reported a substantial year-over-year increase in requested funding for FY26. Ogawa said the department’s total CIP request for FY26 is roughly $110.6 million compared with about $46.9 million the prior year. He told members the wastewater program accounts for the bulk of that increase and described roughly 30 wastewater CIP projects planned for the year. The department listed major projects including wastewater pump station work, the Central Maui wastewater reclamation facility design, and the West Maui R-1 expansion. - Wastewater. Ogawa said wastewater has the largest slate of capital projects and that the department has four expansion positions requested for wastewater operations and engineering. He also noted a recent WaterSMART congressionally authorized Title 16 grant award of about $15.6 million that supports West Maui R-1 expansion work (the department said that award was received in FY25). - Solid waste. DEM requested equipment and operational increases for the county’s landfills, including a $1.4 million landfill compactor and additional money for landfill cover and rentals related to relocating refuse collection operations from the Wailuku Bay Yard. DEM proposed a series of rate changes intended to increase solid waste revenue: a general landfill tip fee from $106 to $110 per ton, a Central Maui self-hauler truckload fee from $4 to $5, and an increase in the residential refuse collection service fee (from $34 to $36 was cited during the hearing). The department projected an overall solid-waste-driven rate increase that would contribute to a combined wastewater/solid-waste revenue change; Ogawa said a 9% overall rate increase was anticipated and that single-family wastewater bills could rise by about $10 per month under the department’s projection. - Recycling and equipment. DEM’s environmental programs and services (EP&S) recycling section is requesting equipment to expand island services, including requests discussed in the presentation of roughly $200,000 for a Bandit grinder and $150,000 for a mini excavator for the Hana landfill to support green-waste processing, plus other CIP recycling and composting items. - Grants and revolving funds. Ogawa said DEM manages roughly 55 grants (totaling just over $7 million) across recycling, abandoned vehicles, engineering and other programs. The department described several revolving funds tied to pump station maintenance, disposal of vehicles and tourism-related traffic congestion.

Public testimony: recycling, reuse, solar-panel and wastewater projects Committee members heard extended public testimony during and after the presentation. A number of speakers urged more county grant funding and described small, island-led recycling efforts that rely on DEM grants. - Cardboard upcycling and local compost/soil projects: Farmer Vincent Mina of Kahana Greens demonstrated shredded-cardboard “weed mat” and described using upcycled pallet sheets and shipper cardboard to rebuild soil and suppress weeds. Mina asked the committee to maintain or increase funding that supports local upcycling and recycling programs; he singled out DEM recycling staff Cecile Powell for praise. Mina’s presentation and several subsequent speakers emphasized that on-island processing (shredders/grinders) makes reuse viable. - Local curbside and cardboard recycling: JD Pels said Upcountry Curbside received a $20,000 grant in FY24–25 that allowed the business to buy a trailer and machinery to provide curbside recycling in Kula and nearby communities. Pels said the grant helped the startup cover equipment costs and move toward a paid subscription model. - Electronics, solar panels, lithium-ion batteries and glass: Kevin Collins, owner of eCycling Maui (operating as Rethink Recycle Center), told the committee his operation received an $80,000 county grant to handle e-waste and start pilot programs for retired photovoltaic (PV) panels and lithium-ion batteries. Collins said end-of-life solar panels cannot go to the landfill and that his facility is running a program that offers households a credit (county-funded in the current grant) to offset the cost of safe PV panel recycling, while the operation studies an economic model for ongoing community service. He also said the facility has a glass pulverizer and is exploring a local market for recovered glass as landscape or percolation material to reduce off‑island shipping costs. - Cardboard/upcycled soil businesses and community composters: Several testifiers said a relatively small county grant can make small island enterprises viable; Upcountry Curbside and other speakers said grants helped them buy shredders and trailers and begin commercial services. - Food-security bioreactors and non‑toxic turf management: Charlotte O’Brien said Food Security Hawaii used an EP&S grant (~$133,000 in prior funding) to run bioreactors that convert large quantities of organic waste into concentrated inoculants and to pilot nontoxic herbicide and turf management applications for parks and municipal turf. - Circular Hawaii (textiles) and clothing recovery: Nicole from Circular Hawaii described a grant-funded program to reduce textile waste and work with thrift stores and community partners to divert unsold clothing. - Nisei Veterans Memorial Center: Deidra Teegarden asked that a $25,000 mayoral line item included in the mayor’s recommended budget be retained to bring an immersive exhibit, Defining Courage, to Maui and to support intergenerational programming at the Nisei Veterans campus.

Maʻalaea regional wastewater project Multiple speakers — including civil engineer David Whitney and Maʻalaea Village Association volunteer Tapani Fiore — presented technical and funding details for a Maʻalaea regional wastewater reclamation project intended to remove wastewater discharge to injection wells and produce R-1 reclaimed water for irrigation and groundwater protection. Fiore said the group has an EPA allocation of $1,000,000 (Biden infrastructure-related funds) and a private donation of $250,000 toward a 20% match; the association requested a $1,250,000 county line item in FY26 to support engineering, permitting and site work. Whitney described the project’s goals: close or abandon injection wells, pump wastewater to a treatment plant outside sea-level-rise and tsunami zones, produce R-1 effluent, and irrigate vegetated “green breaks” to prevent percolation back to groundwater. Fiore and other speakers said the total estimated project cost is about $8.25 million for the next fiscal year with additional funding needs in later years; they said earlier state SRF positioning was forfeited at county request and that the group is now seeking county help to leverage federal and other grants.

Concerns and committee follow-up Speakers and several council members raised governance and fairness questions about who will pay for regional solutions. Members asked whether condominium and vacation-rental unit owners would be required to connect and whether the county would rely on a community facilities district (CFD) or other mechanisms to distribute costs. Maʻalaea volunteers said they are working on cost allocation and legal structures and asked the council to condition any county funding on binding commitments from property owners and associations.

Next steps and committee schedule Chair Yuki Lehi Sugimura closed public testimony and said the committee will continue budget deliberations on DEM items in the coming week and take up other agencies during additional sittings. The chair asked departments to provide written follow-ups on several subjects the committee raised: project-level CIP schedules, grant and revolving-fund details, and staff vacancy and hiring timelines. Several council members asked DEM to provide more detailed schedules for large wastewater projects, lists of open CIP contracts and a clearer breakdown of revolving-fund balances for abandoned-vehicle and recycling programs.

Ending Committee members thanked DEM staff for their presentation and the many community presenters for examples of island recycling and reuse. The committee will review DEM’s written follow-ups and continue FY26 budget deliberations in subsequent sessions.

Speakers quoted or paraphrased in this article appear in the attached speaker list and were recorded in the committee hearing transcript. Direct quotations are attributed to the speaker named in the meeting record.