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The city has identified four locations to replace the island’s only municipal landfill, Waimanalo Gulch, on the West side of Oahu.
The state Land Use Commission ruled in 2019 that Waimanalo Gulch must close by March 2, 2028, due to environmental justice issues, and the city must select a new location by Dec. 31, 2022.
The city has narrowed down the list to four locations from 12. Two of the remaining sites are near the North Shore, one is between Makakilo and Waipahu and one is near Wheeler Army Airfield.
The main factors that eliminated locations include a required buffer from the airport, conservation land, tsunami evacuation zones, unsuitable land for development and a required half-mile boundary from residential areas, schools and hospitals.
Any location on federal land was also removed, said Department of Environmental Services Director Wesley Yokoyama.
“We can’t condemn federal land. Federal land often requires a major approval process all the way up to Washington, D.C.,” he told City Council members Thursday during a committee meeting.
“Because of our schedule to meet the Land Use Commission deadlines, we knocked out the federal land.”
The four remaining
locations will be evaluated by the Landfill Advisory Committee. The committee will rank the sites and provide its findings to Mayor Rick Blangiardi, who will make the final decision on where the next landfill will go.
The Blangiardi administration picked the 11 members from a group of 30 candidates. The 11 have yet to accept the position, but the city hopes that at least six or seven will participate, if not all.
The committee will begin meeting this fall through next summer.
Yokoyama said that the members of the committee come from all over the island, with various expert backgrounds ranging from solid waste to business.
The new landfill would have a life span of 20 years, take up about 80 acres of land and cost about $210 million. However, Yokoyama said the city would likely also have to create a half-mile buffer around the
landfill to ensure that development of residences, hospitals or schools would not happen once the landfill was in operation.
The state in September enacted Act 73, which prohibits any waste or disposal facility from being located in state conservation districts and requires a half-mile buffer between the edge of any disposal activity and the closest residence, school or hospital property line.
Waimanalo Gulch has about 10 to 12 operable years left, but has been open since 1989. The West side of the island also hosts the private construction and demolition landfill PVT.
West side Council member Andria Tupola teared up during the meeting when no proposed sites were located in the area.
“Thank you for listening to the community,” she said.
“It meant a lot to a lot of people when we consider how long we’ve had this burden.”
Yokoyama acknowledged the tight timeline the city has for meeting the Land Use Commission’s deadline of selecting a new location by the end of 2022 and beginning operations by March 2028.
The industry standard for locating, permitting and developing a new landfill takes a minimum of 10 years. The city has seven.
“We are a new administration. We’re still going to try and get this thing done,” he said.
“If we need to maybe extend this second deadline, we will ask the Land Use Commission to do so. But we are keeping these deadlines in mind.”
The city also will launch a new website today to better display information about the selection of the next landfill. It will include an interactive map that the public can look at to see the disqualifying factors that eliminated certain areas for landfill development.
“Our old website, it’s hard to follow,” Yokoyama said.
“Now it’s much more organized, it’s easier to find things.”
The website also includes a public survey that consists of 17 questions about the existing landfill and provides information about solid waste management.
The survey will be advertised through social media and on city buses.
“The most important part is input for new landfill siting like location and the evaluation criteria,” Yokoyama said.
“Our goal is to get information from the public through this survey.”
Members of the public can find the survey at opala.org.
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