City seeks to expand Leeward landfill
By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer
City officials are asking the state Health Department to allow expansion of the city's only landfill because the Leeward Coast dump is expected to reach capacity in three months.
Advertiser library photo
City Environmental Services deputy director Frank Doyle yesterday told the City Council he has been talking with state health officials about a permit modification for the Waimanalo Gulch landfill. The permit allows the garbage to reach a 400-foot elevation; the city wants to be able to extend that to 430 or 435 feet.
Mayor Jeremy Harris said the H-Power site in Campbell Industrial Park will grow for the future.
"We've been in some discussion," said the Health Department's Steven Chang. Chang, chief of the Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch, who said the city can apply now for the change in the permit. That would allow time to see if the expansion plan would work, and allow for community comment before the landfill reaches its limit.
"We hope to get it within the next 2 1/2 months," Doyle said. For the longer term, the city seeks to expand the landfill to allow 15 more years of dumping, he said.
Chang said the state does have the authority to fine the city up to $10,000 a day if the city exceeds the permitted capacity, but has no plan to do so at this time. "The intent is to work with the counties and make sure that they can come into compliance."
Chang said the state will be examining the city's plan to expand so that the garbage will not be blown out of the landfill area.
The city has extended the deadline for public comment on the long-term expansion plan seven times.
Council chairman John DeSoto complained that the city has dragged its feet on exploring new garbage disposal techniques that get away from dumping and incinerating.
Mayor Jeremy Harris said the city will build a solid-waste separation facility at the H-Power site in Campbell Industrial Park. He said the city also plans to acquire seven more acres of industrial land at the plant to create a recycling technology park, designed for public-private partnerships that would develop new ways of waste disposal. Harris also said he wants to increase the size of the H-Power plant by 50 percent.
DeSoto, who represents the Wai'anae Coast, has long complained about the landfill in his district. "We have the stench, the trash and we have the trucks on the road."
And DeSoto has become skeptical of the delays in the latest expansion plan: "Put it on hold, on hold, on hold until probably the mayor gets elected governor."
City managing director Ben Lee said the delays were first caused by community concerns and now have been prompted by exploration of new technology that might reduce the need for expansion.
Lee denied that the delays are political. "We may not need to expand it to 15 years. We're looking at a lesser amount."
He said city officials will meet with the community and won't extend the comment period beyond the June 20 deadline.
Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
