Life of Hilo landfill extended

By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — The Hilo landfill will remain open for about two more years, an extension that will save the county millions of dollars and delay some major political headaches.

County officials had expected the landfill would fill up and have to be closed late this year, which would force the county to truck as much as 200 tons of trash each day 80 miles from East Hawai'i to the only remaining Big Island dump, the Pu'uanahulu landfill in North Kona.

The county plans to build a $7 million "Sort Station" in Hilo to pick through trash and recycle as much as possible, but officials still expect they will have to arrange for hauling of up to a dozen truckloads of garbage to West Hawai'i each day, starting next year.

That plan faces strong opposition from some Kona and Kohala residents, who say the trucks hauling the trash will aggravate traffic congestion.

Now a new survey shows the Hilo dump is not filling up as quickly as expected, said Barbara Bell, director of the Hawai'i County Department of Environmental Management.

Bell said that is partly because the county has increased its recycling and other efforts to steer about 15 percent of the waste away from county landfills.

Extending the life of the Hilo landfill saves the county almost $1.46 million a year it would have cost to truck trash across the island, and allows the county to put off spending the $12 million to $14 million it will cost to close out the Hilo landfill, Bell said.

The landfill extension does not solve the county's waste disposal problems, however. The county must still find a permanent solution to trash disposal in Hilo and the East Hawai'i area, possibly by burning rubbish in a garbage-to-energy plant similar to Honolulu's H-Power operation. Other rubbish-disposal technologies are being studied, and Bell estimated it may take five to seven years to select a solution, pick a site, obtain permits and build the new facility.

That means long-hauling of Hilo's trash may still be necessary in the years to come, although county officials are studying other methods that might allow the county to extend the life of the Hilo landfill even further.

"It buys us time to do planning and make good decisions in a logical way," Bell said.

Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.