Board opposes Bellows landfill plan

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau

WAIMANALO — A proposal to cover an old landfill at Bellows Air Force Station faces community opposition based on what residents say is an environmental threat that can be addressed only by removing the trash from the site.

The Waimanalo Neighborhood Board claims residents are concerned about Waimanalo Stream becoming polluted by chemicals and metals from a nearby landfill. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

"This is the third time we as a community told them we wanted it cleaned," said Wilson Ho, chairman of the Waimanalo board, adding that the Bellows Restoration Advisory Board, made up of military officials and community members, has made two requests. "We've said and re-said the community's wishes on this and they are not listening."

The Air Force has not made a decision about what action will be taken at the landfill, but will explain several options and take community input at a meeting next week. The options include doing nothing, covering the area and removing the debris.

The one-acre landfill is one of 22 sites identified at Bellows under the Installation Restoration Program, which deals with cleanup of hazardous waste sites created prior to 1984. Some 13 other sites used after 1984 were identified as "areas of concern."

Planning and cleanup at Bellows began in 1996. The Air Force has cleared 16 sites and five areas of concern, including eight underground storage tanks, three dump sites, a bomb storage area and a Nike missile facility.

The landfill is an old coral quarry that was mined to build the runway and expand the base, said Jeff Cotter, with CH2M HILL consulting company. The pit, no longer open and now overgrown with haole koa, is shallow and 3,500 feet from the ocean. About 8,500 cubic yards of material have been dumped there since it opened during World War II.

	Public meeting
•	Who: Bellows Restoration Advisory Board
•	When: 7 p.m. Thursday
•	Where: Waimanalo library
•	Topic: Alternative disposition of the landfill

Ho praised the Air Force for its cleanup efforts so far but said this landfill is an area of contention between the military and the community.

He claimed, based on an Air Force report in June, that there are at least seven chemicals and two metals in the landfill. These are potential pollutant problems for Waimanalo Stream, Ho said.

But military officials said their tests and investigations prove otherwise. The landfill contains construction debris, vehicle parts, soda pop bottles and concrete, said Leanne Tanouye, Air Force project manager for Bellows.

Leanne Tanouye and Jeff Cotter, project managers for the Air Force, walk through the former dump site at Bellows. Tanouye says the Bellows landfill poses no threat to human health, but a slight risk to the ecology. Richard Ambo • The Honolulu Advertiser

Samples from 53 sites in and around the landfill were tested, including water from the stream and stream sediment. Eight wells were dug to monitor ground water. Risk models were run on the effect of the findings on humans, owls and stilts, she said.

"We had the hot spot, the lead on the surface soil, but other than that there was nothing to trigger any kind of human health problem," Tanouye said, adding that the same held true for the owl and the stilt, but there was a slight risk for the ecology.

Joe Ryan, with environmental watchdog group EnviroWatch, said the lead, mercury and zinc contamination are of serious concern to the community because the public eventually could regain use of the area, which is ceded land. If the chemicals and metals are covered, Ryan said he wonders what will happen when it rains.

"Their water testing was done during the drought," he said. "Four years from now there's a distinct possibility that it could start to rain again and change these results dramatically. So the science is skewed."