Posted on: Wednesday, December 1, 2004

Landfill vote due today but nobody's a winner

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Someone is going home very unhappy.

After months of meetings and maneuvering, the City Council is scheduled to decide today where O'ahu's garbage dump should be, and the choice is anyone's guess.

Nearly a year of studying potential sites, heavy lobbying by vested interests and an outcry from residents who don't want a landfill in their neighborhood has left the council sharply divided.

The decision will likely have a major impact on the surrounding area and cost millions of taxpayer dollars. It could also lead to community outrage, lawsuits and political retribution.

Council members have lately focused on three possible locations: a city-owned parcel in Campbell Industrial Park, a lot in Nanakuli owned by a company that wants to set up its own dump, and expanding the existing city landfill at Waimanalo Gulch near Kahe Point.

But other sites are up for consideration, including a coral mine in Ma'ili, a gulch near Makakilo and a quarry in Kailua. The council could vote on any other location if six of its nine members agree to consider an unscheduled site. Picking a site would require five votes.

Mayor Jeremy Harris and other officials have warned that the 23-acre Campbell site, behind the H-Power incinerator, is too small and is otherwise unsuited for a landfill. A deed restriction also prohibits a landfill there, Councilman Charles Djou found after researching the issue. But Councilwoman Ann Kobayashi said that she still favors the site and that she believes there's a way around any problems there.

"We're not even going to actually use the site for a landfill, because we hope to have new technology in place where we won't need a landfill," Kobayashi said.

Kobayashi said she opposes Harris' proposal to expand the H-Power plant by adding a third boiler, because she believes incineration is an outdated method of processing garbage. The city should instead allow a private company to set up a thermal gasification plant on the H-Power site, she said.

If such a plant isn't ready by 2008, when the Waimanalo Gulch landfill is scheduled to close, the planned private dump on a lot known as Nanakuli B might handle the city's trash, she said.

"If they're going to privately have a landfill site there, if we don't have the technology in place by the time Waimanalo Gulch closes, maybe we could put some stuff there until the technology is finished," she said.

The property's owners, Leeward Land LLC, say they plan to charge about $70 for each ton of rubbish dumped there, but are open to negotiating a long-term contract with the city at cheaper rates. The company expects to make more than $239 million from the landfill and warned in a letter to the council that it is staunchly opposed to having the property condemned for a city-owned landfill.

"Should the City Council select Nanakuli B as a municipal solid waste site and proceed with condemnation proceedings, it is Leeward Land's intention to seek just compensation from the city, which will include the value of the Nanakuli B as a landfill site and Leeward Land's investment-backed expectations," the company wrote.

Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.