Leeward residents sound off on landfill
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Leeward O'ahu Writer
The city — which has extended the period for public comment on the Waimanalo Gulch landfill issue nine times — got an earful at a public hearing at Kapolei High School last night.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
Except that no one from the city showed up to listen, a fact missed by few of the more than 100 people who showed up to have their say.
Sen. Colleen Hanabusa and other Leeward O'ahu residents are outraged at the amount of time it is taking to find an alternative to disposing waste at the Waimanalo Gulch landfill, which is near capacity.
"I think it's really unfortunate that we don't have one city official here tonight," said resident Maeda Timson, a member of the Makakilo /Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board.
"They didn't have the good graces to show up," added state Sen. Coleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Kalaeloa, Makaha).
Instead, Gary Gill, state deputy director of health for the environment, dealt with the brunt of the complaints. Gill was there to explain the state's position on the city's request to modify the state's largest solid waste landfill.
With the Waimanalo Gulch landfill ready to hit maximum capacity in less than three months — and with nowhere else to stick the trash — the city has said it would like to raise the landfill's garbage level, already at 400 feet, an extra 30 feet.
Elevating the trash heap, officials said, would give them eight months to figure out a solution to the island's dump problem.
At the same time, the city said it wants state health officials to allow it to extend the landfill by 10 acres to 15 acres, giving the city five more years to sort out the problem. Originally the city had proposed increasing the size of the landfill by more than 60 acres, giving it as much as 15 more years to dump trash at the site.
Apparently it has given up on that idea.
Critics have complained for months that the city has wasted time in finding an acceptable alternative to disposing O'ahu's waste.
Some Leeward Coast residents who oppose the landfill accuse the city of stalling by extending the public comment period so many times that there would eventually be no alternative to making the landfill bigger, higher or both.
City Councilman John DeSoto recently moved to the Ko Olina Resort, which is near the landfill entrance. DeSoto said the city has never made an alternative plan to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill because it is a cash cow that brings more than $30 million into the city coffers annually.
He said residents were told that the landfill would not be expanded once it reached capacity. "Promises were made that were never kept," he said.
Hanabusa wanted to know how the city has been operating the landfill on a contract that expired in 1999. Gill told her that while the city and state negotiate, the contract is automatically extended.
Gill said as things stand, in all likelihood, the state will grant the city's request to renew the contract and the height modification.
An outraged Hanabusa wanted to know how the state could take so long to renew the 1999 contract and then decide in a matter of weeks to approve the height modification.
"How can they continue to do this?" asked Hanabusa, who concluded that the state and city have done nothing because it's convenient to simply leave trash dumping on the Leeward Coast of O'ahu.
When asked if the city had ever offered any alternative to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill, Gill said, "I'm not aware that the city has any other alternative plan," but he said it's not up to the state to tell the city how to run its business.
Ralph Harris, president of the Ko Olina Fairways Homeowners Association, asked Gill if it worried him that the city had no other plans. Gill said that if the city couldn't find a way to deal with the island's solid waste, it would be a health problem.
"Obviously, the city would like us to issue a permit before it exceeds the 400-foot level," Gill said.
Gill said the state was not compelled to grant the permit but implied that it probably would because the landfill, which was built to last 17 years but filled up in 12, is not in violation of any state regulations.
Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris and the City Council have fought over the best method of getting rid of O'ahu's garbage. The administration has favored doubling the size of the city's H-POWER plant. The City Council has asked that the city look into alternative ideas, such as "plasma arc" technology that converts material into glass.
