Kailua launches preemptive strike against landfill

By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward Bureau

KAILUA — Despite assertions that it could never happen, alarms are sounding in Kailua over the idea that the city could use Kapa'a Quarry as a landfill.

No formal proposal has been made, and Kapa'a Quarry, about two miles outside this Windward community, isn't even on the list of sites the city looked at when considering whether to expand Waimanalo Gulch or create another landfill elsewhere.

But with the 21-acre Kapa'a site nearing the end of its life, and history, plus Hanabusa, giving some legitimacy to the notion, the Kailua Neighborhood Board isn't sitting back and hoping the idea will die. It is expected to give an overwhelming no to the option when it takes up the issue tonight, just in case the city gets any ideas.

"We don't want to hear 'Go back and dump in Kailua,'" said board Chairwoman Faith Evans. "For years, Kailua took everybody's trash. We're taking an early position saying no, we don't want that."

Over the years, Kailua has been home to three dumps in the Kapa'a area. The last of them, Kapa'a Landfill, closed in 1997. The area also was home to a junk yard that stored hundreds of old cars. Although there were legal dumps nearby, Kapa'a Quarry Road became a dumping ground for cars and trash.

The area has since been cleaned up, and Kailua doesn't want any return to the days of dumping.

No one wants a landfill in their back yard, and more people are saying the city isn't doing enough to bring in new technology to resolve the problem, said Hanabusa, D-21st (Barbers Point, Makaha).

"I had mentioned (the Kailua quarry) because the city had not, and we don't like being the only target," Hanabusa said.

"We wondered seriously about what the city did in terms of an honest study on the availability, especially when you have a quarry operation that is coming to an end in two years," she said. "There's no mention of it."

•	Public meeting What: Kailua Neighborhood Board When: 7 p.m. today Where: Kailua District Park multipurpose Room

The city did evaluate the possibility of using the quarry in 1994, but decided against it this year because owner Ameron Hawai'i said it expected to continue mining there for five to seven years, said Tim Steinberger, director for the city Department of Environmental Services.

"So the site is not available, and our needs are more near term," Steinberger said, adding that if the city were to move ahead on the site today, it wouldn't be operating until 2012 because of the time required to plan, design and obtain an environmental impact statement.

The city is focusing on reducing the waste stream through alternative technology, including "plasma arc technology," which vaporizes garbage with intense heat, Steinberger said. The city is preparing a report and conducting a pilot project with Hawai'i Medical Vitrification to demolish municipal solid waste.

Ameron said it has considered making the area into a construction landfill, and found it incompatible with its mining operation, although it would be lucrative. The 200-foot pit is needed for water control required by its permit.

"If we had no control over that hole in the ground, it would be a logistic nightmare," said Linda Goldstein, Ameron's environmental, health and safety manager.

City Councilman John DeSoto, who represents the Leeward area and opposes extending the life of Waimanalo Gulch, has introduced resolutions to have the city seek and use new technology to get rid of trash and give the City Council oversight in choosing new landfill sites. The city should be able to find and implement a plan in five years, he said.

DeSoto said Kailua doesn't have to worry.

"The landfill will never go to Kapa'a because there's an existing landfill now," DeSoto said.

Besides, he said, locating it in Kailua would be political suicide.

Reach Eloise Aguiar at eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com or 234-5266.