Asthma cases blamed on landfill
By James Gonser
Advertiser Leeward Bureau
KAHE POINT — Residents in a small cluster of homes next to the city's Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill on the Leeward Coast have for years put up with the dust, noise and smells that come from the dump.
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But some neighbors to the landfill now say the security they have felt living in the small, isolated community called Kahe Homes is gone, because children in the area are getting sick.
Kahe Homes resident Ruth Gabaylo believes the asthma that her daughters Cinnamon, 2, foreground, and Cayenne, 11 months, suffer from was triggered by the dust and ash that sit atop the mountain of trash at Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill.
No one can say for certain what is causing several of the children who live nearby to contract asthma, but residents believe it is the tons of ash poured into the dump 24 hours a day. The fine, black dust settles on the window sills and on children's toys.
Asthma, once unheard of among the families, is becoming common, with six children and five adults among the 20 residents now suffering some type of breathing problem.
Joseph Hernandez, operations manager for Waste Management, the private company that operates the city landfill, said he doesn't believe the ash is the problem because it comes in wet and would not blow into neighboring properties. After the ash dries it becomes like concrete, he said, and is covered with dirt.
But Hernandez will start a testing program next week to determine what is in the air and whether it could be a factor in the residents' illnesses.
Kahe Homes consists of five parcels about 100 feet from the entrance to the landfill on Farrington Highway. Several of the old homes have been used by families for three generations. The residents say they feel safe from the drug houses and increasing traffic that plague neighboring communities. They know each other and helped care for each other's children, watching them grow to have children of their own.
In light of the health problems, the residents have decided to join the opposition to the city's plans to expand the landfill and have written a joint letter asking that it be closed.
The city wants to expand the Kahe Valley landfill by 60.5 acres to provide space for O'ahu's rubbish though 2017. The landfill uses 86.5 acres at the 200-acre site, expected to reach capacity next year.
Ruth Gabaylo's two daughters, Cinnamon, 2, and Cayenne, 11 months, have asthma and must use a machine several times a day to inhale liquid sulfate so they can breathe. The children run around the house and yard until they are out of air.
"The dust and ash have triggered it," said Gabaylo, whose husband was raised at Kahe Homes. "They never got sick when we lived in Nanakuli, and medical coverage only pays for so much."
The ash is a byproduct of the city's H-Power plant; 600 tons of it is sent to the landfill every day. In the 12 years since the landfill opened, a mountain of ash and garbage has risen like a volcano behind Kahe Homes where a gulch use to be.
Gabaylo has moved her children from their small bedroom facing the landfill into a bedroom on the opposite side where the family sleeps together. Gabaylo said cleaning her home is a never-ending chore, and she sweeps and dusts twice a day.
Bernadette Hatchett has lived at Kahe Homes for most of her life but moved after, she said, her son had a near-fatal asthma attack. His health has since improved, she said, and he no longer has breathing problems.
Others don't have the financial resources to move.
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Hernandez has hired a consultant who will install four monitoring panels to collect particles carried by the wind toward the homes. The collected particles will be analyzed for content.
Ruth Gabaylo moved her children from their old bedroom after she said dust from the city landfill made it hazardous to be in.
"We are also perplexed," Hernandez said. "Before we point the finger at one source, we need to understand what is happening around there. The kids are my concern, too. We will do what ever we need to do and can do."
The results of the monitoring should be available in about a month, he said.
The city released a revised draft supplemental environmental impact statement on the expansion project in July and is accepting public comment through Nov. 20.
Both the Wai'anae and Makakilo neighborhood boards oppose the expansion, saying not enough effort was put into finding alternate sites or finding alternative technologies to recycle garbage rather than burying it.
According to the city's report, 42 alternate sites were looked at but rejected for various reasons.
City consultant Herb Lee said alternative technologies are being considered and will be used in the future, but the city needs somewhere to dump its rubbish now.
Kahe Homes was developed in the 1960s by Robert Mitsuyasu, who bought the property and moved old Army buildings onto the site. He renovated the buildings for low-income rentals.
Mitsuyasu's sister, Amy Tanaka, manages the property and is worried that the ash could be toxic.
"The pollution, the toxic air pollution is coming out of this black ash that is flying whenever there is a strong wind," Tanaka said. "The young ones and the older ones that have lived there much longer are having problems."
Hernandez said the ash wouldn't be allowed into the landfill if it was toxic but admits that the ash is composed of household waste and could include toxic materials.
"A lot of people dump anything in there," Hernandez said. "(H-Power) does periodic tests to show it's not hazardous. They do have some heavy metals, but not at hazardous levels."
The city is exploring two plans to reduce the amount of materials at the landfill, including using the ash to make building materials and turning sludge into fertilizer, Lee said.
Reach James Gonser at jgonser@honoluluadvertiser.com or 988-1383.
