\Posted on: Tuesday, November 23, 2004

EDITORIAL
Council committee punted on new landfill

Clearly feeling the political heat, the City Council's Public Works Committee apparently found a way to duck a difficult decision.

The committee, led by chairman Rod Tam, rejected all five sites under consideration for a new landfill — and instead chose to come up with a site of its own.

Tossing aside a year's worth of review and public discussion, the panel voted to locate the new dump on a parcel of city-owned land at Campbell Industrial Park, next to the H-Power plant.

Aside from failing to recognize the importance of properly evaluating and vetting such an important decision, surely someone on the panel has the good sense to realize the H-Power site simply won't work.

City Managing Director Ben Lee is right on target in saying the logistics "just don't make sense." The 23-acre site is much too small, a fact that committee member Ann Kobayashi said would provide incentive to find a better solution. If making a poor decision is the way the council finds incentive to effectively deal with O'ahu's trash woes, then it's time to do some house-cleaning at Honolulu Hale.

Furthermore, excavating the site won't work because of its proximity to the ocean. And with the H-Power garbage-to-energy plant already over capacity, city officials are rightly considering adding a third burner.

As we've said in the past, the city's research and analysis points to Waimanalo Gulch as the site that makes the most sense. The problem there, of course, is that the city promised residents to shut down the dump once it reaches its present capacity, and resort and residential areas have developed downwind from the site. Whichever option the city chooses, the affected community must also receive a variety of benefits to mitigate the equity losses involved in accepting the landfill. And someone will be unhappy.

Solving O'ahu's garbage problems will take a full-scale effort. That must include an aggressive curbside recycling program, maximizing H-power and an additional landfill site. Still, even a combination of all of those efforts won't let us off the hook; we'll need to explore and adopt a more innovative approach to addressing our waste disposal, with our fragile environment in mind.

That will surely involve some tough decisions. The full council is set to take up the landfill issue again on Dec. 1. Let's hope that this time the council can find the courage to make the right decision for O'ahu taxpayers.