Posted on: Thursday, March 13, 2003

City to test soil at illegal dump

Advertiser Staff

Mayor Jeremy Harris and city environmental services officials met with the state yesterday to discuss the city's plan to test the soil at an illegal dump site on city property in Waipahu.

The state Department of Health is investigating the illegal dumping of several hundred tons of crushed appliances at the old Waipahu incinerator site.

Crushed appliances — washers, dryers, water heaters, stoves — were found buried Jan. 28 at the baseyard on Waipahu Depot Road. On March 1, some of the compacted "white goods" were removed and taken to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill. But excavation at the Waipahu Depot Road site was halted because of concern that lead, Freon and asbestos might be present.

"I think the city is interested in trying to recycle the white goods," said Steve Chang, chief of the DOH solid and hazardous waste branch.

The city issued a release yesterday saying the mayor is committed to environmental protection and recycling and believes it is important to quickly remove the old washing machines and construction debris.

Chang said the state also is looking into allegations of illegal dumping at another city site in Waipahu, a closed landfill across the street from the incinerator site where pieces of the incinerator smokestack may have been dumped when it was demolished in 2000.

"We have some evidence that the bricks from the incinerator were placed on the landfill," he said. The city landfill was closed in the early 1990s, so nothing should have been dumped there, Chang said.

He said the bricks will be tested for contamination.