Posted on: Friday, November 26, 2004
EDITORIAL
Koko Crater? Tam's dump idea is absurd
In yet another foolish act in the theater of the absurd, City Councilman Rod Tam on Tuesday suggested a new site for Oahu's landfill: Koko Crater.
So goes the latest twist in the council's saga on what to do with O'ahu's garbage.
With a deadline just a week away, the council's Public Works Committee, under Tam's leadership, has yet to make a sound decision on where to locate the island's landfill.
Last Friday, after consulting with committee member Ann Kobayashi, Tam and his colleagues approved placing the landfill at Campbell Industrial Park, a site not even under consideration.
Within minutes it became clear that the site not only would not work logistically, but that the committee was apparently clueless to the fact that they disregarded a year's worth of review and public discussion on the five sites that had been under consideration.
City Managing Director Ben Lee promptly pointed out that the 23-acre Campbell Industrial Park site, located next to the H-Power garbage-to-energy plant, is far too small. And it would have to be excavated, which simply would not work given its proximity to the ocean. City officials are already considering expanding H-Power there, which is now over its capacity. After hearing Tam's latest suggestion, Lee correctly characterized the idea as knee-jerk with no analysis behind it.
Now, with the full council set to vote on a site (who knows which one will turn up next?) on Wednesday, the only thing that is clear is that Tam is not capable of making a sound decision under political pressure.
Clearly there's no time for indecision and faulty leadership here. Even with expanding the over-capacity H-Power garbage-to-energy plant, beefed-up curbside recycling programs and more, O'ahu will still need a landfill to handle its growing waste-disposal needs.
The city's research and review point to the existing Waimanalo Gulch site as the most feasible. But several important issues need to be addressed, including a promise that was made to residents there that the landfill would be closed once it reached capacity, and the extensive residential and resort communities that have developed downwind from the site. Measures would also have to be taken that would mitigate the equity losses and provide suitable benefits for residents and businesses that would be directly affected.
It won't be an easy decision, and it's one that will come with some political costs.
But O'ahu's taxpayers deserve elected leaders who are innovative, thoughtful — and willing to make the tough decisions with their best interests at heart; there's no room for those who buckle and bend in whichever direction the political winds seem to be blowing at the time. We deserve better.
For those of you who might be thinking that Tam surely must be joking — after all, what city official in his right mind would think of using a city-owned landmark and nature preserve as a dump site — think again. Tam says he's quite serious about this harebrained idea.
