City wants trash piled higher at Leeward dump
By Scott Ishikawa
Advertiser Staff Writer
With the Waimanalo Gulch landfill in Nanakuli expected to run out of room in 75 days and no other waste alternatives at hand, city officials hope to buy some time by raising the height of the trash there by 30 feet.
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
The city also is apparently reducing its landfill expansion plan, asking state health officials for a five-year extension and an additional 10 to 15 acres at Waimanalo Gulch, down from the 10 to 15 years and 60.5 acres originally proposed.
The city is asking the state Department of Health to allow the maximum height of garbage piles at Waimanalo Gulch landfill to grow to an elevation of 430 feet.
But until the extension is approved, city officials say they must be allowed to take in extra trash, and propose making room for it by raising the allowable height of garbage at Waimanalo Gulch to a 430-foot elevation from sea level, up from the present 400 feet.
The proposal would provide eight more months of storage.
A public hearing on the issue is scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at Kapolei High School. The state Department of Health, which approves the required permits for solid waste disposal, will conduct the hearing.
The height proposal is the latest development in a long-running debate between city officials and Leeward Coast residents over the continued use of the landfill. The city's landfill expansion plan, first proposed in 1999, has become mired in controversy, with residents complaining that the Leeward Coast had become O'ahu's dumping ground, and, along with elected officials and community leaders, calling for better examination of waste disposal alternatives.
Leeward Coast residents question the new height proposal, saying the additional dumping will bring more unpleasant sights and smells north of Farrington Highway.
Frank Doyle, deputy director at the city Department of Environmental Services, said the additional waste would be placed in two sections at the back of the landfill.
"We think much of it will be hidden from view," he said.
A public hearing will be held on the Waimanalo Gulch landfill issue at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Kapolei High School cafeteria, 91-5007 Kapolei Parkway. Although the deadline for the public to file comments on the landfill height extension passed earlier this week, the state Department of Health will receive comments until Aug. 14. The public may review the draft permit and the permit application at two locations: State Department of Health, Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch, 919 Ala Moana, Room 212, and the City and County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services, Refuse Division, 1000 Uluohaia St. in Kapolei.
But Ralph Harris, president of the Ko Olina Fairways Association of Apartment Owners, said residents already can smell the refuse some days and the additional trash can only make matters worse.
At a glance
"The landfill is a blight on the landscape and is incompatible with the hotel across the highway and the second city of Kapolei down the road," Harris said. "They're trying to increase the tax base out here, and they have an outhouse on the mauka side of the highway. It doesn't make sense."
The landfill collects residential and commercial solid waste, including nonhazardous industrial waste and ash from the city's H-Power plant.
Delays by the city in finding alternative solutions for disposal have frustrated area officials and community leaders. Many have asked Mayor Jeremy Harris' administration for a formal commitment on the new five-year timeline for the landfill.
Residents also accuse city officials of dragging their feet — including extending the public comment period nine times — until it was too late to do anything but expand the landfill.
City administration officials said they have extended the comment period since last year to gather additional public input.
Area City Councilman John DeSoto said the city has not sufficiently explored new garbage disposal techniques that get away from dumping and incinerating.
"They knew a long time ago they had to come up with solutions and they had to be out of there by 2002, and they put it off and put it off," DeSoto said. "The community, for years, has done its share of taking care of the trash and now they're asking for this extension? This is not fair."
Eugene Tanner • The Honolulu Advertiser
Along with the dump being aesthetically unpleasing, DeSoto said he is concerned about continual travel by refuse trucks through the area, with debris spilling onto the roads.
The Waimanalo Gulch landfill in Nanakuli collects residential and commercial solid waste, including nonhazardous industrial waste and ash from the city’s H-Power plant.
Also complicating the landfill situation is a debate between the Harris administration and the City Council over waste disposal technology for the future.
City officials want to increase the size of the H-POWER plant by 50 percent, while looking at cutting-edge technology such as "plasma arc" that converts material to glass, and "anaerobic digestion," which decomposes organic material without using oxygen to create methane gas for various fuels.
But council members question the need to spend $60 million for another H-POWER burner and boiler and would rather focus on the plasma arc technology. During the heated city budget debate, council members overrode Harris' budget vetoes, forcing him to do a $100,000 evaluation of new plasma arc trash-burning technology before he can expand H-POWER.
Meanwhile, DeSoto expects a well-attended public hearing next week.
"I'm hoping a lot of people come out and voice their concerns about the landfill issue," DeSoto said. "This is an opportunity to have themselves heard. The city needs to come up with new technologies now to get rid of this stuff."
Reach Scott Ishikawa at sishikawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or 535-2429.
