The city has placed a land lien against the owner of a trucking company for failing to pay nearly $60,000 in fines after it illegally hauled and dumped sludge and silt dredged from the Hawaii Kai Marina onto its remote Waianae Valley Road property.
The lien was filed with the Bureau of Conveyances on Nov. 25 against Sandra Noe­lani Silva, owner of SER Silva Equipment, which had been hired by marina contractor American Marine to dispose of the material. City Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who represents West Oahu, where the illegal dumping caused an uproar, told media about the lien Thursday.
The lien is the first step toward foreclosing on the property. In a statement, city Deputy Planning Director Art Challacombe said the city wants to give Silva a chance to comply voluntarily.
"However, should the violator continue to ignore our demand for corrective action, DPP will request that (city attorneys) initiate foreclosure action," he said.
Silva, reached by telephone, said she did not know of the lien. She added that she has been advised by her attorney not to speak to media about the issue.
Pine said she’s hoping the city does foreclose on the Silva property. When a property owner fails to respond to multiple notices and warnings to take corrective action or pay fines, "it means you don’t care," she said. "Anyone with that mindset should be foreclosed on."
The city’s lien action in the case should send a message to others conducting or contemplating illegally dumping that "they are not going to get away with it," Pine said.
"The reason illegal dumping has continued to occur for many decades is that no one has really been punished appropriately for their crime," she said.
The unpaid fines tied to Silva’s case have climbed to $58,050 as of this week, according to Department of Planning and Permitting officials.
The dumping occurred in the summer of 2013. The city had already begun investigating the dumping when, on Aug. 31, one of the company’s trucks spilled dredged material onto the H-1 freeway, causing a major traffic jam. Planning officials subsequently ordered Silva to stop the hauling-and-dumping work because she lacked a grading permit, and that she needed to either remove the material or obtain a permit to work.
Neither has occurred, and SER Silva Equipment is continuing to accrue $150 a day in fines, DPP spokesman Curtis Lum said.
State Health Department officials have deemed the dredged material to not be a health problem, but Waianae residents said they’re concerned the material will leave pollution runoff and harm agricultural land.
Meanwhile, marina association Manager Beverly Liddle said the group’s contractor, American Marine, is seeking permits to have the dredged material sent to a site in Kahuku.
Lum said the DPP has no pending permit request from American Marine or one tied to the marina project, although he stressed that the contractor might be seeking approvals from other agencies.
Officials with American Marine did not return a call for comment.
The new site would be the final disposal area for the material sent to Waianae, as well as dredged material that’s now stored on a site in Hawaii Kai near the yacht club, and material yet to be taken from the marina dredging, which was about half done when the association voluntarily chose to halt it, Liddle said.
"We want to make sure everything is above board and perfectly approved," she said.
In the wake of the Hawaii Kai-Waianae dumping, Pine introduced three "environmental justice" bills that were signed into law by Mayor Kirk Caldwell in October.
One of the measures raised the maximum fine for illegal grading to $5,000 per violation per day, up from $1,000 for first-time violators. Repeat offenders within a five-year period now would have to pay double. Violations in the same location more than once in a year would be prosecuted criminally.
