The operator of the city’s Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill has spent $1.5 million to design and construct a gas collection and control system to rectify alleged violations of the U.S. Clean Air Act that were resolved by a federal consent decree.
Houston-based Waste Management Inc., one of the two leading providers of waste disposal services in North America, agreed in the consent decree filed in U.S. District Court this week to pay a $1.1 million civil penalty for gas emission violations and to implement an "enhanced monitoring and contingency plan" to ensure its gas levels are safe.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against the city and Waste Management, a procedural step toward completing the consent decree.
At issue are allegations by the EPA that the landfill’s gas temperatures were higher than permitted under EPA law.
Though the violations have been addressed, the EPA is allowing the landfill temperatures to be higher than current standards until 2016.
"The concern we have is that they have high temperatures in the landfill pile," said Dean Higuchi, EPA Hawaii spokesman. "And if you have poorly controlled landfill gas combined with high temperatures, you end up with a risk for a landfill fire."
Jared Blumenfeld, EPA regional administrator, said in a news release that the gas temperatures at the landfill "are among the highest for any landfill in the nation."
The EPA recorded temperatures as high as 188 degrees at the landfill, but the federal default limit is 131 degrees, agency officials said.
Gas generated by decomposing refuse, such as air toxins, organic compounds and methane, were emitted from 2002 to 2005, the EPA said.
The charges against Waste Management and the city also pointed to the company’s alleged failure to install the gas collection and control system in a timely manner, and then installed a system in 2005 that failed to comply with national standards.
It also failed to come up with startup, shutdown and malfunction plans, the EPA charged.
Higuchi said the company has spent more than $1 million trying to determine the source of the high temperatures but has failed to do so.
Waste Management said in a statement that it self-reported the alleged violations in 2005, adding that they were "based on missed regulatory deadlines from 2001 to 2004 involving certain reports, design plans, and late completion of a landfill gas collection and control system."
The gas collection system "reduces the release of landfill gases and prevents it from escaping into the atmosphere," Waste Management said.
City Council Public Works Chairman Stanley Chang said he’s pleased the charges were settled, with Waste Management taking full responsibility for the situation and the city not accepting any liability. However, he said, "I am concerned with the lack of oversight" by city officials.
Chang said he wants to discuss the matter at a future Public Works Committee meeting.
"I’d like to know how this could have happened, how this city contractor could have allowed this to happen and there was no knowledge or ability by the city to oversee the actions."
Waste Management was also subject to EPA enforcement after heavy rain in January 2011 led to flooding in a section of the landfill that caused waste, including medical syringes, to be released in the ocean off the Waianae Coast. The beaches at Ko Olina were closed for two weeks.
The Ko Olina Community Association has taken to the courts and Land Use Commission in its attempts to shut down the landfill, a move being fought by city attorneys.
Waste Management’s existing contract to operate the city landfill technically expires Dec. 31, 2024, although when the landfill will be scheduled to close is a matter still being disputed and discussed in the courts and by the state and city governments.
In 2009 the Land Use Commission voted for a special use permit that allowed the landfill to be fully functional through July 31, 2012, at which time it was to accept only ash and residue from HPOWER, the city’s waste-to-energy facility. The city appealed to the courts, leading to the Hawaii Supreme Court sending the matter back to the LUC, which then sent it back to the city Planning Commission.
