Troubles mount at illegal dump
| • | Map: Waipahu dumping sites |
By James Gonser
Advertiser Staff Writer
Investigations into illegal dumping near a city incinerator site in Waipahu now shift to an area roughly the size of a basketball court that an environmental watchdog group says contains asbestos-coated bricks and mortar from the incinerator closed in 1994.
Bruce Asato • The Honolulu Advertiser
Carroll Cox, president of EnviroWatch, said he fears that the site — the third near the incinerator containing evidence of illegal dumping — may contain hazardous waste.
Carroll Cox of EnviroWatch pokes through debris scattered in a field about 500 yards from the old Waipahu incinerator. He says the site, which he found last week, contains asbestos-coated bricks or possibly other hazardous waste.
"I'm worried that there is solid and hazardous waste and should have been disposed of properly," he said yesterday. "This is not a solid-waste landfill. It was only to accept ash that met certain standards and I'd like to see them clean it up."
Steve Chang, chief of the state Heath Department's Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch, inspected the site Monday and said the material is consistent with incinerator bricks, but could simply be materials that were not thoroughly burned.
Chang, who said the site poses no immediate risk for children using the Waipi'o Peninsula Soccer Complex or for residents of the area, plans to meet with city officials to discuss what to do. "We will just have to evaluate the material and then get a better feel in terms of doing some sampling," he said.
Chang also said the state will expand its investigation to include the latest site.
"We need to get a better handle on all the sites, give the city the opportunity to work with us and give us information and then get a better picture of the whole activity," he said.
Frank Doyle, acting director of the city Department of Environmental Services, visited the site yesterday but did not return calls from The Advertiser seeking comment. On Monday, he vowed that the city would investigate the latest dump site and correct any problems.
Doyle is up for confirmation today as permanent Environmental Services director before the City Council's Public Works Committee. However, Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi said she will seek to delay confirmation hearings for a month until questions about the dump site and the city's proposed recycling program are answered.
Cox said he found the new dump site last week during a search spurred by what he called inconsistencies in documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act. The documents dealt with demolition of smokestacks at the incinerator in 1987; the new site is about 150 yards from the incinerator.
Cox said the site would have remained under brush if city crews laying pipe to the soccer complex hadn't unearthed the material and pushed it into piles 30 feet high.
The first instance of illegal dumping was discovered in March adjacent to the Waipahu incinerator site. More than 200 buried appliances were found and eventually removed.
The second instance of illegal dumping occurred at a closed landfill about 200 yards from the incinerator site.
High levels of cadmium, a heavy metal regulated by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, were confirmed last week during state testing of brick and ash at the landfill, which was closed in 1990. The city now must decide what to do with the cadmium-contaminated soil.
The new site will be tested for the presence of hazardous materials, including cadmium.
Exposure to asbestos has been linked to lung cancer.
Cadmium is considered toxic at high levels. Prolonged exposure could result in lung damage and kidney disease.
