Two Maui residents filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Maui County over the county’s authorization of an estimated 400,000 tons of debris in a dumpsite in Olowalu.

Following the August wildfires on Maui that destroyed or damaged almost 3,000 properties and killed at least 101 people, the county authorized a dumpsite in Olowalu as a temporary storage site for wildfire ash and debris — a site the lawsuit alleges is located about 600 yards from the protected Olowalu reef system, is surrounded by two freshwater underground streams, and is subject to extremely high wind. It is also the location of a “cultural sacred site,” consisting of a navigational heiau and surrounded by ancestral burial sites, the lawsuit claims.

Manoa Kaio Martin, one of the plaintiffs in the case, said there is “no such thing as a temporary toxic hazardous waste site,” and that the effects of the debris being stored in Olowalu will have severe environmental and cultural ramifications.

“(With) the magnitude and level of the hazardous waste and toxins, considering it is on underground springs and the fragile state of that specific ecosystem, that the iwi kupuna are all buried within here, when (the county) actually decided and chose (Olowalu) as a site, it was totally shocking,” Martin said. “It really felt like it was a violation culturally.”

“A cleanup has to happen, but it has to be done the right way,” said Andrew Van Arsdale, the managing partner of the AVA Law Group, which is partnering with the Rufo Law Group on the case. “There are severely dangerous toxins that are within these ashes, and we need to understand what the potential fallout and dangers are associated with moving them and storing them in these different areas.”

The lawsuit for public and private nuisance, trespass and negligence was brought forth by Maui residents Eddy Garcia and Martin, who the complaint alleges both suffered and continue to suffer personal injury, property damage and other damage as a result of the dumpsite.

Garcia owns a farm adjacent to the dumpsite, where he is growing 60,000 pounds of food, and has also built tiny homes for local Hawaiians affected by the wildfires. The development and operation of the dumpsite has resulted in “considerable dust, debris, water runoff, noise, other forms of environmental and air, soil, water pollution and other hazards,” the complaint reads.

Martin is a lineal descendant of the Olowalu Ahu­puaa — Puuhonua and the surrounding area in Lahaina. The suit alleges that the development of the dumpsite desecrated the navigational heiau and ancestral burial sites in that area “to a point of irreversible damages and harm,” and that her constitutional rights of spiritual cultural practices and rights of entry have been violated.

Martin said that when Olowalu was chosen as a location for the site, there was no public notice to lineal descendants.

“It has created, within me personally, this underlying anxiety,” Martin said. “My soul feels hurt for what we’re experiencing now, for future generations, culturally, environmentally.”

The lawsuit also alleges that as the county prepared the site for final disposal, it “failed to follow appropriate guidelines for preparing the site, outlined by state and federal environmental regulations,” according to an email from Julianna Evans, who works with the Rufo Law Group.

The complaint reads that the area is subject to cross contamination from the toxic debris as materials are transported to the dumpsite and from runoff water that accumulates at the dumpsite.

As of 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, the County of Maui had not yet received the lawsuit. A County spokesperson said that once the lawsuit is received, the County will “not be providing comment due to pending litigation.”

Late last December, Martin and Garcia organized a gathering at Garcia’s farm that drew hundreds of attendees who held signs while walking up to the Olowalu dumpsite. A special council meeting was held a week later on Jan. 2 and drew flocks of testifiers in opposition to the Olowalu site.

The Olowalu temporary dumpsite was approved by the Maui County Council in mid-January, officially kick-starting the Lahaina wildfire debris removal project. Officials said that the Olowalu site would be returned to its pre-use condition after the debris is moved to its permanent disposal site, and would be funded by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

But according to Van Arsdale, the county had “essentially already decided upon” the site before asking for the public’s input on where the site would be located, as a “way to check a box.”

“What we’re hoping for is to have a better dialogue and discussion with the people of Hawaii in terms of the best course of action for toxic waste removal, and for the permitting and rebuilding of Lahaina,” Van Arsdale said. “We just think that additional research should be done on this issue and that the county should act better in the future about involving public discourse, before unilaterally making decisions on important issues like this one.”

The Central Maui Landfill was selected as the final disposal site after several months of discussion, including two surveys that yielded responses from almost 3,000 self-identified Maui residents, and was announced as the chosen option at one of the county’s weekly disaster recovery community meetings at the end of February.

Martin said she hopes that oversight is brought in, and that both the temporary dumpsite at Olowalu and the Central Maui per­manent disposal site are halted.

“My hope is that we are able to, with this pause and stopping of what is happening right now, that it gives time and opportunity for sustainable options, which we have brought forth,” Martin said. “We’ve never come with just the problems. We’ve come with solutions.”

Van Arsdale also said he believes the August wildfires happened as a result of inadequate fire prevention policies and procedures on the part of Hawaiian Electric Co., the county and the state, and that the Olowalu dumpsite is “a continuation on that course to just do things quickly and easily, without any real thought about future problems, to get it done and get it out of the way.”

“The people of Hawaii, the people of Maui especially, are sick of it,” he said. “They want better from their elected officials. They want better from these entrenched agencies that help run the government, and that’s what we’re demanding here.”