Toxic metal discovered near site of cleanup

By Catherine E. Toth
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer

The discovery of high levels of cadmium at a closed landfill in Waipahu creates a potential new problem for a city administration still in the midst of an investigation and cleanup of hundreds of appliances buried illegally at the adjacent city incinerator site.

Should state Health Department tests confirm city findings of hazardous levels of the heavy metal, the city would have to remove the material and ship it to a hazardous waste landfill on the Mainland, said Steve Chang, chief of the state's Solid and Hazardous Waste branch.

"It would limit the city's options for disposal," he said. "You couldn't just put in the Waimanalo Gulch (Landfill)."

The high level of cadmium most likely came from incinerator ash improperly disposed of at the landfill, Chang said.

A cadmium cleanup would add to snowballing city costs that already include potential fines totaling millions of dollars for burial of the white goods and the resulting extraction operation.

Cadmium is a naturally occurring element that is present to some degree in all soil and rocks, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Because cadmium does not corrode easily, it is used in batteries, pigments, metal coatings and plastics.

It can damage the lungs, cause kidney disease and may irritate the digestive tract, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It can stay in the body for a long time, building up from many years of exposure at low levels.

Exposure to cadmium occurs mostly in the workplace where cadmium products are made. People also are exposed to cadmium from breathing cigarette smoke or eating cadmium-contaminated foods. Skin contact with cadmium is not known to cause adverse health effects in humans or animals.

"Though the potential for movement (into water) is very remote, the fact is that it is regulated waste," Chang said.

In the meantime, the city has agreed to cover the landfill with about 6 inches of dirt, Chang said.

Jeff Mikulina, president of Sierra Club Hawai'i, said as long as people are not directly exposed to the cadmium and the waste is properly disposed of, the community shouldn't worry too much.

"But just the fact that those things are concentrated in the environment in one place isn't good," Mikulina said. "This does point to a large issue of where's the oversight."

The landfill was closed in 1990, but bricks and ash from the incinerator that had been dumped there since then were found during the state's investigation into the illegal dumping and burial of crushed appliances at the city baseyard, just across Waipahu Depot Road.

The city conducted soil tests at the incinerator site and the landfill to determine the levels of heavy metals and asbestos there. Results for the incinerator, where removal of the appliances began Tuesday, showed negligible levels of harmful or toxic materials in the soil, city officials said early this week. Further analysis revealed high cadmium levels at the landfill, officials said.

Carroll Cox, president of EnviroWatch, an environmental watchdog group that discovered the buried appliances, is relieved the state has stepped in to do soil testing.

"I don't believe we can trust the city test," Cox said. "The state should simply take the entire area and conduct its own (separate) investigation so that we can be assured what is there and what is going on."

Excavation of the crushed white goods was scheduled for completion yesterday. But because of an equipment breakdown, city crews planned to finish up today.

As of Thursday, workers had removed about 95 tons of material.