Council measure to hasten landfill’s closure is approved

A resolution to expedite the closure of the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill won City Council approval last week at Kapolei Hale.

City Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who introduced the measure, maintains that Leeward Coast residents were promised that the 200-acre Kahe Point landfill would be closed several years ago and remain frustrated with ongoing extensions.

Initially, the 26-year-old landfill site, near Ko Olina Resort, was slated for closure in 2008. City officials say that the goal is to eventually operate the landfill, which engineers estimate is still 25 to 40 years from reaching its capacity, only for emergency purposes.

The facility, Oahu’s sole municipal solid-waste landfill, accepts about 81,000 tons of waste each year, most of which is ash from the HPOWER waste-to-energy facility at Campbell Industrial Park.

Amendments to Pine’s resolution, including providing for the landfill’s closure "sooner than its projected life span of another 20 years," were adopted with a 6-2 vote at a council meeting Wednesday. Councilman Joey Manahan was absent.

"What’s going to happen when we run out of space in this island?" Pine asked. "That is why I introduced this resolution — because we have to start thinking about this now."

With HPOWER in operation, about 90 percent of the waste that would have been dropped into the landfill is now burned to serve as an energy source. Officials say they are making continued efforts to explore new technologies for alternative methods of disposing of the remaining 10 percent.

Council members Ikaika Anderson and Brandon Elefante opposed the resolution, arguing that the city needs a landfill until the remaining waste can be diverted or used in other ways.

"No community wants to host a landfill," Anderson said, pointing out that before the landfill located in his Windward district closed upon nearing capacity, residents expressed discontent with the site. "I certainly understand the plight of the folks on the Leeward Coast. (But) I have continously maintained, and I will continue to maintain, that the Waimanalo Gulch landfill … needs to remain open until it reaches capacity."

City Environmental Services Deputy Director Tim Houghton told Council members Wednesday, "As you do more and more of that (diverting waste), the life of the landfill that you invested in already actually gets longer."

He added, "So you really in that sense are making better use of the investment that we’ve already made."

The Waimanalo Gulch landfill is a long-standing contentious issue for several area residents and officials due to the granting of multiple extensions for its closure, including one granted by the Land Use Commission to 2009 and another to July 2012 with the condition that the facility would take in only ash after then.

But the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled against the commission’s decision to not allow the landfill to accept municipal solid waste after July 2012. City officials had testified that it would take several years to select and develop a new landfill site.

Johnnie-Mae Perry, former chairwoman of the Wai- anae Coast Neighborhood Board, questioned whether there is an "action exit plan" if the landfill is closed.

"If there’s the technology, why isn’t it being developed now before actually closing the landfill?" Perry asked.

Council members asked Houghton why other communities are able to reuse ash but not Honolulu. Pine also raised concerns about the cost of maintaining a landfill solely for emergency purposes.

Houghton said that city officials are looking into ways to reuse ash, but that various regulations hamper the city’s ability to pursue such technologies. He also said that the cost should change when the landfill is not used for day-to-day operations.

"There’s always going to be some cost," Houghton said. "But as you change the type of use, you should be able to change that overall cost."

After the meeting, Pine maintained that she is not in favor of a landfill in any district on Oahu.

"I believe that we can no longer have that in our thinking," she said. "If we keep thinking it should go somewhere else, by the time my daughter has grandchildren, we’re going to run out of places to put it. And we’re going to ruin our island in the process."