EPA will scrutinize state's handling of Unisyn
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will investigate the state Department of Health for alleged civil rights violations against Waimanalo residents and for alleged failure to enforce permit conditions against Unisyn Biowaste Technology, a defunct company that used to process organic waste in Waimanalo.
The decision comes 2 1/2 years after the Waimanalo Citizens for a Healthy Future petitioned the EPA to take action, said group chairman Joe Ryan. The civil rights claim stems from the DOH allegedly not holding public hearings to address Unisyn's operation before issuing a permit in 1997.
Civil rights complaints through the EPA are rare in Hawai'i, with the agency's Honolulu office reporting three in recent years. Of the other two complaints, one of those was also filed against the DOH this year; that complaint concerned mercury spills on O'ahu. Both complaints ask that the EPA withdraw the state's authority to administer the Clean Water Act and other EPA programs delegated to the state.
The Health Department said it aggressively enforced Unisyn's permit conditions and continually communicated with residents of Waimanalo. Health director Bruce Anderson said one reason the company shut down was because it could not comply with the conditions the state imposed regarding odor control.
"Ultimately it was determined that the facility could not operate in a cost-effective manner with the conditions that we imposed to address those problems," Anderson said. "There were other issues that resulted in the closures of the facility, but we had numerous meetings with the community throughout this process to hear their concerns and to address their concerns."
The original request to investigate the DOH was denied in October, with the EPA saying that the citizens' group had filed its complaint too late. But Ryan said he was able to prove the timeliness of the group's petition.
"There's been a lack of forthrightness in this entire process," Ryan said. "This letter of acceptance of complaint restores faith in the system even though the system moves slower than snails."
Unisyn operated out of a Waikupanaha Street facility from 1985 to 1998, eventually accepting about 35 tons of farm manure, restaurant food and green waste daily, which the company converted into compost, agriculture irrigation water and methane gas.
Unisyn had subleased its property from Meadow Gold Dairies, which eventually cleaned the area after Unisyn declared bankruptcy and closed. The property is owned by the state and managed by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, which approved Unisyn's lease.
When Unisyn opened in 1985, it handled only animal waste under a pilot project. The company started having odor problems after it began to expand, and complaints from residents began to proliferate in 1995.
Ryan operates a horse boarding and riding business 300 yards from the old Unisyn site. In 1997 he filed a lawsuit against the company, seeking to close it because he said it was affecting his business and his family's health.
In his lawsuit, Ryan said his home was changed from a small farm to a "farm lot adjoining a massive, stinking, wet, maggot- and disease-ridden dump or depot that makes living in such a stench physically and emotionally sickening."
Other neighbors had complained about the odors from the plant before 1995.
"We never had a public hearing; we never had an environmental assessment that addressed improper land use," Ryan said, adding that he wants the same environmental protection that the rest of the United States receives.
"We don't seem to have that here," Ryan said, pointing to situations concerning a Bellows Air Force Station landfill that some Waimanalo residents want removed; the Waimanalo Outlet Channel which has been hardened using rocks and concrete without having done an environmental assessment; and the Kailua Reservoir, where there are plans to harden the streambed with concrete.
Anderson couldn't say whether a formal public hearing was held for the Unisyn permit in 1997, but he said the community was informed at numerous informal meetings and through correspondence. In addition, the head of the department's solid waste division regularly attended the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board meeting to keep people informed, Anderson said.
"The complaint is unjustified given the record of the department's action related to Unisyn," he said.
