Uh-oh, landfill’s on ceded land

With all the issues Hawaiian Waste Systems has confronted over the shipment of rubbish to Washington state, there’s one more: ceded lands.

These aren’t the lands that were ceded to the U.S. from the Hawaiian kingdom. We’re talking about the ceded lands of the Yakima Nation.

It turns out that the Roosevelt Landfill, destination point for all the backlogged Honolulu municipal trash, sits on land in which the indigenous tribe of the Washington plateau has some consultation rights. Not only are they upset at not being consulted, but tribal leaders also want a full environmental impact statement to be done, not just the assessment.

Got solar?

We’ll resist the temptation to be too snarky about the failure of Hawaiian Electric Co. and Hoku Solar Inc. to strike a deal on rooftop photovoltaics at the HECO Ward Avenue offices. Financing and power purchasing agreements are complex things, after all.

But if the biggest utility and the biggest solar company can’t make this work, what does that bode for the little guy? Well, with photovoltaics popping up on roofs all over the state, maybe smaller is better.