ON CAMPUS
Cleanup finally set near HCC
By Bev Creamer
Advertiser Columnist
City crews were busy this week putting up a new dust-protector fence and screen around the old Kapalama incinerator site adjacent to Honolulu Community College to prevent contaminated dirt from blowing into surrounding areas.
The work was among several positive steps taken after The Advertiser wrote about years of inaction regarding the 3.8-acre parcel promised to the college for expansion. It has been waiting 25 years for cleanup.
The incinerator was idled in the mid-1970s and demolished five years ago, but the terms of a cleanup agreement before the city returns the land to the state have yet to be met. Meanwhile, heaps of dirt are contaminated with high levels of lead and other heavy metals, which also might be in any dust that blows.
Now, though, the city has also installed a sprinkler system and mulched the piles of contaminated dirt to encourage the growth of ground cover that prevents dust from blowing.
By July, the city expects to advertise bidding for the cleanup, aiming for removal of the contaminated dirt and other soil by October, according to Dave Cleveland, HCC Faculty Senate president. That decision has been made because of the continuing difficulty of "washing" the contaminated soil on the premises and health concerns about the process.
But the college will also move its proposed site for a new Early Childhood Education Program — which includes a childcare center "lab school" — away from the incinerator area.
Already HCC administrators are considering an open area near Building 27. The proposed split-level complex would continue to provide the kind of lab school that offers childcare to students, faculty, staff and the community.
The city will then ensure that the remaining soil is capped at a level that meets state standards for construction of parking areas and educational buildings.
After October, the college should be able to move ahead with plans to build an expanded Science and High Technology Building on the incinerator land. HCC administrators also want to build more student and faculty parking.
The city has also moved to reclaim a strip, mauka of the incinerator, that has been used for a homeless shelter. While the lease had always been temporary, said Cleveland, it had gone on for years. There were concerns by administrators and residents of the Kokea shelter that families there were being affected by contaminated dust.
That strip will also be turned back to the state and will go to HCC for its use. Cleveland said the strip has a potential for housing for international students.
Reach Bev Creamer at bcreamer@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8013.
