Firm seeks silt permit; city unlikely to approve

The owner of a company trucking silt taken from the Hawaii Kai Marina and illegally dumping it onto her land in Wai­anae has applied for a permit to make it legal, but the city now has another month to decide whether to issue the permit.

The additional time comes even though a city planning official has already stated it’s unlikely the businesswoman would get the permit from his agency.

Sandra Silva, owner of SER Silva Equipment, was originally given until Monday to remove about 313 cubic yards of silt from a dredging project at the boat harbor. Silva had a permit to place the material in East Hono­lulu, coinciding with other permits issued for the project by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

On Aug. 31 one of the company’s trucks spilled dredged material onto H-1 freeway, causing a major traffic jam.

After an investigation of complaints received in August, the city Department of Planning and Permitting last month issued a letter of violation, telling Silva to stop work in Wai­anae because she lacked a grading permit and that she needed to either remove the material or obtain a permit for the work.

Silva has since submitted a permit application, but the department has not taken action. Meanwhile, Art Challacombe, the city’s deputy planning director, told a City Council committee Sept. 26 that his agency was likely to deny the permit.

The application was "very lacking in its accuracy and information," Challacombe said. Additionally, neither the Army Corps nor the state land department has allowed the permits it issued to change to allow for disposal in Wai­anae. Challacombe told Council members he doubted that would occur.

Both agencies were told by the Hawaii Kai Marina Association and its contractor, American Marine Corp., that the material was to be distributed in five waterways in East Hono­­lulu.

The memo issued Monday said Silva now has until Nov. 6 to either obtain a permit or take the material back to East Hono­lulu and that no other extensions would be granted, Planning Department spokes­man Curtis Lum said. If Silva is still in noncompliance Nov. 6, the city would issue a notice of order, and fines of $150 a day would begin, Lum said.