The federal indictment of Waste Management of Hawaii and two of its top officials last week over their handling of Oahu’s landfill has Honolulu City Council members seeking answers and at least one questioning whether the city should continue its 20-year operating contract.
Councilwoman Kymberly Pine’s district includes the Leeward Coast where overflow from the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill caused syringes and other needles to wash onto the shoreline in January 2011.
Pine now says city attorneys need to look into whether the contract can be severed.
"If you can’t run a landfill and prevent needles from going into the ocean, you shouldn’t be running a landfill," Pine said.
Area residents have long been promised that the landfill will close, and the indictment lends more momentum for that to happen, she said.
Council Public Works Chairman Stanley Chang said he intends to ask Corporation Counsel Donna Leong and her staff for an informational meeting this month on the matter "just to get the facts on the nature of operations and get the administration’s take" on the latest developments.
The 13-count grand jury indictment Wednesday names Waste Management and company officials Joseph Whelan and Justin Lottig with knowingly violating the U.S. Clean Water Act and conspiring to make false statements to the state Health Department. If convicted, the company faces a maximum criminal fine of $500,000 for each count, while Whelan and Lottig could face federal prison.
Attorney William McCorriston, representing the company, said the indictment is baseless and that the employees acted immediately and heroically to prevent injuries and damage to property.
Waste Management first entered into a contract with the city in 1985 to construct and operate the landfill and has been its only operator. The current 20-year contract to operate the landfill, which pays the company about $10 million a year, runs out in 2029.
The city administration, in the immediate wake of the indictment, said it was satisfied that corrective action had been taken to prevent a recurrence of the January 2011 incident.
Responding to a request by the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, city Environmental Services Director Lori Kahikina said in an email Friday that the contract does have termination clauses.
"The city has the right to terminate the contract if the operator breaches or defaults under the contract, but not if the breach or default is due to an event of Force Majeure, which generally includes acts, events or conditions beyond the reasonable control of a party," Kahikina said. "A governmental regulatory violation that is final and no longer subject to appeal would be considered a breach or default under the contract."
Kahikina continued, "It is premature at this time for the city to determine whether there has been a breach or default under the contract based on the facts alleged in the indictment and, if there were one, whether the breach or default was due to an event of Force Majeure."
Council Chairman Ernie Martin and Councilman Breene Harimoto said they are taking a wait-and-see approach to the situation.
"The charges are very disturbing, but we should reserve judgment until the investigation has run its course," Martin said.
