Posted on: Monday, December 6, 2004

Options to replace landfill explored

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

O'ahu's garbage problems have proven to be a political minefield, but they present golden opportunities for companies that specialize in waste disposal methods and technology.

With a new mayoral administration taking office next month, companies that have pitched a variety of options that were rejected over the past two years are hoping for a second shot.

Mayor-elect Mufi Hannemann and some key City Council members want to re-consider shipping trash to the Pacific Northwest, and to review other methods of processing waste here.

Meanwhile, Mayor Jeremy Harris is continuing to press for expansion of the H-Power garbage-to-energy plant at Campbell Industrial Park.

Harris says the upgraded plant would generate much-needed money for the city each year after it's completed, while greatly reducing the amount of trash dumped in the Waimanalo Gulch landfill near Kahe Point. Exploring other options should not hold up the project further, he says.

"The H-Power plant is facing more volume than it can handle; it's over-capacity, and so you need to expand the plant," Harris said. "The plant is the best financial decision the city has ever made. It is going to bring in millions every year as a result of the revenue flow. It makes good financial sense, it makes good environmental sense. In terms of environmental technology, that is the best available technology right now."

But some council members have long opposed the expansion plan, and say there are better alternatives. Budget chairwoman Ann Kobayashi says she favors a process called pyrolysis gasification, which burns waste at a higher temperature than the H-Power plant and leaves less ash residue.

Several companies have informally proposed such a process for the city. Kobayashi said she's been told the existing H-Power facility can be upgraded to use the process, and that trash can be shipped to a Mainland landfill if the work isn't finished by 2008, when O'ahu's landfill had been scheduled to close.

"It's not building a new building — you can just retrofit and have this new engine in H-Power and really reduce the amount of trash that goes to the landfill," Kobayashi said. "... We should no longer use an incinerator for our trash, and we should no longer have a need for a landfill. Those two things are really outdated."

Council chairman Donovan Dela Cruz also said he opposes the mayor's H-Power expansion plan, which is expected to cost more than $60 million.

"At this time, I'm not inclined to support that," he said. "I would rather pursue the new technologies. There's plasma arc, plasma torch, gasification. ... We should look at a variety of technologies."

But Harris said the council has wasted too much time pursuing alternatives. An earlier push for a plasma arc process delayed the H-Power expansion for a year, he said.

"I think we should always, always be looking at cutting-edge technology, not just in this area but in all areas," Harris said. "If a technology is developed that will be more environmentally sensitive or more cost competitive than H-Power, we should develop it. But we've already done that analysis, and right now it's not. The promises that were made about plasma arc simply don't hold true. They don't hold true.

"Wishful thinking is always good, but the fact is, there is no other city in the United States that has a plasma arc facility that deals with 2,000 tons of municipal solid waste per day. There is no such facility."

Hannemann said he's optimistic that he will have a better working relationship with the council, so that new possibilities can be considered in a more cooperative climate.

"I've heard from the council leadership ... that they really want to engage in a collaborative process," Hannemann said. "In other words, we're going to say, 'We're all in this together,' and I'm willing as mayor to work very closely with them so that we don't have these protracted delays that leads to communities pitting themselves against each other, which is what we had during these last few weeks on where this landfill was going to be sited."

After months of contentious hearings, the council voted Wednesday to keep the landfill at Waimanalo Gulch rather than start a new dump elsewhere. Hannemann said his goal will be to close the landfill in 2008.

Harris' administration rejected offers to ship trash to the Mainland, but Hannemann said he's not convinced that's a bad idea.

"I don't know whether, in fact, they really gave it the due diligence or the open mind that my administration will have with respect to that," Hannemann said. "I want to look at it again. In fact, I'll be talking with some folks who are proponents of that option very shortly to see if they can enlighten me more about why that might be an attractive option."

Hannemann said he hopes to help resolve a dispute over privatization that has stalled Harris' plan for an islandwide household recycling program.

City recycling coordinator Suzanne Jones said she believes the controversy surrounding the landfill decision dramatically raised public awareness about the need to handle trash more responsibly, with an eye toward the future.

"I think the public has become very clear on these issues, and with such clarity, we have the opportunity to move forward in some very positive directions for recycling and waste reduction," she said. "There's nothing like a landfill selection process to get everybody focused on recycling, which is going to ultimately benefit the entire island. We have got to be moving toward more sustainable methods of managing waste, and landfilling is not sustainable."

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