Ka Leo O Hawaii

Issue date: 11/14/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Trevor Atkins As trucks dump their loads, this 20-ton machine rolls over the garbage to conserve space in the Leeward landfill.

Media Credit: Trevor Atkins Rock excavated from the east side of the Waimānalo Gulch now forms a temporary parking lot that rises above the natural ridgeline. The State's largest power plant can be seen in the distance.

Media Credit: Trevor Atkins Waste Management Inc. Community Affairs Officer Russel Nanod, of Waipahu, describes the different aspects of the landfill on an aerial photo taken last year. Ash from H-Power is deposited in the area covered by his hand. Municipal solid waste is dumped in the orange area above that. The area in shadow was recently excavated for waste over the past few years.

Media Credit: Trevor Atkins Workers finish lining cell E4, the last permitted area at the back of the landfill. The 60 acres beyond them is where the city may choose to excavate away the valley walls and dump O‘ahu's waste for the next 15 years, despite the resistance of many community members.

When the Fasi administration commissioned a state-of-the-art waste-to-energy plant in the Campbell Industrial Area in 1991, O‘ahu's trash problems were solved. The plant followed through on its promise to turn all 580,000 tons of the island's solid waste into electricity for nearly 50,000 homes, and nearby Waimānalo Gulch landfill easily accommodated H-Power's ash and residue. But in the last 15 years, O‘ahu's population has gone up 7 percent, while the trash it generates has tripled. What was once a back-up landfill at Waimānalo Gulch is now almost full.

Since the landfill's inception, Leeward community members have engaged in a heated debate with city officials, contractors and three generations of mayors about where the waste should go.

"Nobody wants it in their backyard," said Russel Nanod, community affairs manager for Waste Management, Inc., the company that manages the landfill. "Kailua had it for 30 years and now it's on this side."

When a permit deadline for the landfill came up in 2002, Mayor Jeremy Harris asked for five more years to allow time to choose and develop an alternate site or technology and promised to close Waimānalo Gulch by then. But the most viable new sites identified were even closer to residents on the Leeward side, in Nānākuli and Makakilo. Meanwhile, alternatives like shipping garbage off-island, expanding H-Power or implementing newer technologies, such as plasma arc gasification, have been suggested but not pursued.

With little progress made and time running out, the City Council submitted a bill that would guarantee closure by May 1, 2008, and thus pressure the administration into finding an alternative, but Mayor Hannemann vetoed the bill because "the planning, permitting and construction of a landfill will take longer than the two years remaining before that deadline. ... Other alternatives such as shipping off-island or new technologies have many issues, which will not be resolved before May 1, 2008."

Now the city is seeking a two-year extension on its special use permit to continue operating the landfill until May 1, 2010. According to Nanod, the extension is to allow for completion of an environmental impact statement to expand the landfill 60 acres farther into the gulch and make room for another 15 to 20 years of waste.

This leaves community members to question whether the deadline extension request will be used to explore other options, because if the extension is solely for the impact statement, then the extension implicates decades of continued dumping in Waimānalo Gulch.

The third and final public hearing for that extension is today, Nov. 14, 2007, at 1:30 p.m.

The landfill: presence versus presents

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, of Wai‘anae, wrote about the landfill to the Honolulu Advertiser in 2004 to say, "When a community like mine says, 'Enough is enough!' it is because we know that everyone else wants us to take the landfills, centrate (the most toxic part of sewage), power plants, live-fire exercises, fiber optics, pigs, cattle and chickens, halfway houses and homeless people."

But aside from the question of environmental injustice in West O‘ahu, the landfill also has a day-to-day effect on the community.

"It's mainly the litter and the trucks that people don't like," said Nanod. "The trucks used to track mud and cause congestion, and litter would fly out of them onto the road."

Nanod asserts that since Waste Management was fined for violations in 2006, the company has changed management, implemented a weekly litter patrol and litter-mitigation techniques, and covers new waste daily to reduce the smell. He says they've also improved their method of leachate extraction, put in methane extraction pumps and built a berm to stabilize the landfill in case of an earthquake or flood.

"We actually don't receive a lot of complaints. We've only gotten four formal complaints this year: one for odor and three for dust," said Nanod. "It's well-run, it's safe. Few will say publicly, 'keep it there.' Some just say 'no new landfills' on the Leeward Coast."

In 2006, the city gave the Leeward Coast approximately $1 million in grants to 19 nonprofit organizations and $1 million in supplemental park funds. That increased to $2.5 million last year and Mayor Hannemann has unofficially hinted at an increase. Some community members say the landfill isn't worth the money.

The extension and expansion

The current landfill began using its last cell a few weeks ago and should accommodate waste until the May 1, 2008, deadline. The 2-year extension involves another 5.5 acres surrounding that cell and a $6 million excavation.

The proposed expansion that awaits its environmental impact statement involves an additional 60 acres at the back of the gulch. The land is already owned by the City and County of Honolulu, but requires permits from the State Land Use Commission and the State Department of Health. The expansion also involves excavation of an estimated 8.5 million cubic yards of soil and rock out of the gulch at a cost of around $4/yard to make room for 15 more years - a $34 million cost to taxpayers.

In addition to the dry climate, hydrology and distance from dense residential areas, Waimānalo Gulch was originally chosen on the notion that there were no burials or cultural artifacts in the area. However, cultural historians recently discovered large stones at the back of the valley that may have been used for navigational purposes by the Hawaiian people.

Other options

Beyond the possibility of moving the landfill from one O‘ahu backyard to another, two other options consistently make their way into the discussion.

Last year, the USDA approved shipping trash to the mainland from Hawai‘i. Businesses in the continental United States currently receive out-of-town garbage for a tipping fee. However, the trash would be required to sit in sealed bags on the docks for two weeks to kill all the bugs before it could set sail.

Nanod says the City and County of Honolulu would have to buy 12 barges for such an endeavor and use 1.7 million gallons of diesel a year, while the garbage itself would emit 15,000 tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere en route to the continent.

The method of plasma arc gasification has come up in numerous conversations, but the city Department of Environmental Services holds to its 2004 findings, notably that it costs twice as much as H-Power methods for the same amount of electricity, and that the largest operational facility, in Japan, is five times smaller than what O‘ahu needs. Thus, O‘ahu would be the world's guinea pig.

A Short history of Waimānalo Gulch landfill

1989 - After three decades, the Kapa‘a Quarry landfill in Kailua buries its final load. The Fasi administration commissions H-Power, a waste-to-energy plant capable of converting all 580,000 tons of O‘ahu's garbage into electricity for 45,000 homes. Waimānalo Gulch landfill opens to accommodate H-Power's ash and residue and serve as an emergency alternative during H-power maintenance and repair.

2002 - O‘ahu's waste far exceeds H-Power's capacity for a decade; the permitted area of Waimānalo Gulch is full. Mayor Jeremy Harris requests and receives a controversial expansion until May 1, 2008, while promising that the City and County of Honolulu will use those years to find alternatives.

2003 - Harris appoints a committee to blindly evaluate 50 sites on the island using 31 criteria and puts forth the top five choices. Waimānalo Gulch rates the highest, but the committee votes it out because it is not an "alternative," prompting four members to resign. Three of the remaining four sites are on the Leeward side.

2004 - The City Council rejects all of the proposed alternate sites and decides to expand Waimānalo Gulch beyond 2008 while urging better business practice at the site and the implementation of more alternative technology. Still, Leeward residents are outraged by Harris' broken promise.

February 2006 - The Department of Health cites Waste Management with 18 violations and fines them $2.8 million. Violations include exceeding the permitted height, not covering garbage daily, not monitoring methane gas emissions and allowing too much leachate (landfill juice) to accumulate. Meanwhile, the County Council submits a bill to mandate better practice until May 1, 2008, and close the landfill on that date. Mayor Hannemann vetoes the bill because he says the deadline will come and go before a new technology, new site or expansion permit is acquired.

August 2006 - The City and County of Honolulu begins the environmental impact statement process for a 60-acre permit expansion of Waimānalo Gulch that would keep the landfill open for 15 to 25 more years. Hearings are held on what should be included in the impact statement. The statement will not be finished by May 1, 2008.

September 2007 - The Department of Environmental Services seeks to extend its deadline from May 1, 2008, to May 1, 2010, so it may complete an environmental impact statement that would allow Waimānalo Gulch to expand and remain operating for 15 to 25 more years. Community members continue to express frustration that their voices are not heard, the promises were not kept, alternative technology was not considered, and O‘ahu's waste will continue to be dumped on the Leeward Coast.

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