Landfills a growing problem

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser Science Writer

HANAMA'ULU, Kaua'i — Residents' concerns about a proposed landfill a half mile from their homes in this Kaua'i suburb echo objections being expressed across the state.

Bulldozers pack mountains of trash at Waimanalo Gulch, which will be full within a year or so. Honolulu officials hope to expand to an adjacent site, but have met with objections. Advertiser library photo • Oct. 18, 1997

"As soon as you pop that (garbage) container open, you got smell," one Hanama'ulu resident told county officials at a meeting last week. "What if the wind shifts and it blows to Hanama'ulu town?" said another.

Others were worried that a leaking landfill liner could lead to contamination of groundwater supplies, and that heavy trucks would disrupt neighborhood traffic. Some folks wanted a landfill to be kept in the mountains, far from homes. Others suggested it should be near the coast to minimize impacts on drinking water supplies.

Kaua'i County is seeking state health permits for an expansion of its Kekaha Landfill that would give it three more years of life before moving it to a new location. Among the possible sites, none meets the Solid Waste Division's criteria as well as Kalepa, which could meet the island's needs for 30 years, according to agency chief Troy Tanigawa.

Honolulu already is diverting more than half of O'ahu's municipal waste to the H-POWER waste-to-energy plant, but its 87 acres at Waimanalo Gulch landfill will be full within a year or so. City officials hope to expand to an adjacent 61-acre site to meet the island's needs through 2017.

Residents are unhappy about that plan, too, complaining of traffic, litter from improperly covered truckloads and other problems. City Recycling Coordinator Suzanne Jones said the city is working hard to enforce regulations to prevent littering, and is trying to reduce the amount of material taken to the landfill.

The Hilo landfill has capacity for 28 to 30 more months, said Larry Capello, Big Island Solid Waste Division chief. For the near term, the county hopes to build a refuse transfer station in Hilo to separate recyclables and other material, minimizing what needs to be buried. The rest would be hauled across the island to the Pu'uanahulu Landfill on the Kona side.

Big Island officials estimate the Kona landfill would suffice for decades, but residents have strongly objected to the prospect of housing Hilo's waste, and the associated traffic, dust and other discomforts.

Maui has nearly completed obtaining permits for a three-phase landfill next to its Central Maui Sanitary Landfill, which has a year of capacity remaining. The three phases should add 30 years to the life of the landfill, said solid waste specialist John Harder. The landfill is surrounded by miles of sugar cane fields, so public concerns about expansion are not as keen.

All of the counties are looking at alternative solutions to landfills, some involving cutting-edge technology.

"There are emerging technologies, but there is no real track record to back them up," said Kaua'i's Tanigawa.

The county a few years ago considered plasma arc waste disposal, in which the trash is run through a high-energy field and converted into solid rock and a gas that can be burned in a power plant as fuel. But the process was too advanced for the comfort of county officials.

O'ahu is now considering backing pilot plants in plasma arc and other new technologies that would help reduce the island's trash load.

On the Big Island, Capella said his agency is studying three technologies to reduce solid waste: waste-to-energy, similar to H-POWER; and systems that use gasification and anaerobic digestion.

Reach Jan TenBruggencate at jant@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 245-3074.