HILO, Hawai'i — The Big Island County Council voted 5-4 yesterday to abandon plans for a $125 million garbage-to-energy plant proposed as a replacement for the Hilo landfill, which is expected to fill up and close in about four years.

Mayor Harry Kim's administration spent about $1.25 million in consulting and other costs to lay the groundwork for the project, solicit proposals and evaluate the bids for the incinerator, which was to be similar to the H-POWER plant operating in Leeward O'ahu.

The plant was to be designed, built and operated by winning bidder Wheelabrator Technologies Inc., and was supposed to burn about 230 tons of trash each day to generate about 3.5 megawatts of electricity.

County council members halted that plan yesterday by voting down a resolution authorizing the Kim administration to enter into a long-term contract with Wheelabrator.

Council members cited environmental concerns and the unexpectedly high cost of the plant, which would have been the most expensive public works project in county history.

"It has been clear from the very beginning the number one issue with this proposal is cost," said Councilman Dominic Yagong, who represents the Hamakua area. "What you've got to ask yourselves is, how much are you willing to spend?"

Yagong said he doesn't believe the county can justify spending more than $60 million on the project, and said it would be wiser to spend money dramatically expanding county recycling efforts.

The council held a series of hearings around the island on the incinerator proposal, and residents at those meetings were overwhelmingly opposed to the idea.

Kaumana resident Gene Short yesterday called the Wheelabrator incinerator proposal "a dinosaur" that relies on outdated technology, and said the council should start the procurement process over to invite new bidders who could offer the latest methods for solid-waste disposal.

Hilo resident Neil Callaghan predicted there would be health effects such as increased cancer rates downwind from the new plant, and said the facility would contribute to global warming.

"The alternatives are in front of us, our island is a microcosm of our planet. We don't have the luxury of continuing the wasteful, poisonous and shortsighted ways of doing business that have defined this country to date," Callaghan said. "Burning our trash for someone else's profit is not smart, it's not pono, it's not healthy and it's wrong."

Kim had asked the council to authorize a multiyear contract so Wheelabrator could further refine its cost estimates over the next five months, and suggested the plant might cost less than originally projected because the construction industry has slowed.

"Let us see what their final cost is based on the final design they have to complete," he said. "I ask of you, let us complete this process."

Council member Bob Jacobson refused, telling Kim that "the environmental costs will never go down."

Jacobson worried that the plant would release heavy metals into the atmosphere and would find their way into the drinking water of his constituents downwind in Puna and Ka'u.

The garbage-to-energy plant was supposed to accept about 40 percent of the solid waste generated on the Big Island each day, and it is unclear what the county will do with that rubbish now.

Yagong has proposed opening a new landfill in Hilo, and the county has also considered trucking trash across the island to the Pu'uanahulu landfill, or shipping waste off island by barge for disposal elsewhere.