Editorial
Don't rule out any landfill site

The "not in my back yard" syndrome applies nowhere so desperately as to what once affectionately were called "garbage dumps."

For many years, O'ahu's 'opala was routed to the old Kapa'a dump, above the Kawainui Marsh in Kailua. When that landfill reached capacity, it was bulldozed over to a reasonable facsimile of what its topography might once have resembled.

The garbage was then routed to a landfill at Waimanalo Gulch, mauka of Ko Olina on the Leeward side. The life of that dump has been extended by the city's H-Power facility at Campbell Industrial Park, which incinerates combustibles as it cogenerates electrical power.

Still, Waimanalo Gulch is near to brimming with trash. Rather that offering the dubious honor of allowing another community to host a dump, the city proposes an expansion of the Waimanalo Gulch landfill, thus extending its life for a number of years.

There is hope that new technology, such as a "plasma arc" vaporization process, might one day replace the need for landfills. Our suggestion: Explore the high-tech solutions, by all means. But don't hold your breath — and don't go closing any landfill options until the technology is demonstrated.

That means the city's preference, expansion of Waimanalo Gulch, is the most practical option. We don't blame Leeward residents for being unhappy with that reality, but there it is.

State Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, who represents the Wai'anae Coast, makes a good point when she wonders why the Kapa'a Quarry hasn't been considered as an alternative. Ameron Hawai'i, which produces concrete and other construction materials, has reduced what once was a mountainside to a deep hole in the ground as it quarried gravel and sand over the years. The quarry will soon reach the end of its useful life. That hole in the ground might be suitable for a landfill site that, when filled, could be finished to a topography ultimately more attractive than it is now.

Two points argue against any likely use of the Kapa'a Quarry:

• The city thinks permits to use it couldn't be obtained for as long as a decade. That suggests the city should start on the preliminaries soon, just in case.
• "The landfill will never go to Kapa'a because there's an existing landfill now," says Leeward City Councilman John DeSoto, adding that it looks like a political impossibility as Windward interests line up to oppose it.

Never say never. Unless it wants to start dumping the stuff in Bishop Street, the city must have the next site ready when that time comes.

The one sure thing about any O'ahu landfill site is that it will be in somebody's back yard.