Three so-called "environmental justice" bills became law this week in a ceremony held only several hundred feet from the Waianae Valley Road property where silt and sludge from a Hawaii Kai Marina dredging project was illegally dumped — prompting a call for stiffer fines.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell signed the three bills aimed at deterring illegal dumping as farmers and concerned Waianae Valley residents looked on at Kaupuni Neighborhood Park on Thursday.
Councilwoman Kymberly Pine, who authored the bills and whose staff worked months to reach compromise with different stakeholders, called the measures "environmental justice" laws.
The Waianae Valley Road property has accrued fines totaling more than $46,000 for dumping and stockpiling silt and sludge from a Hawaii Kai Marina in summer 2013 without necessary city permits. The situation caught the public’s attention when a truck spilled the material onto H-1 freeway on Aug. 31, 2013, tying up traffic for several hours.
Bill 36 raises 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 would now pay double. Violations at the same location more than once in a year would be prosecuted criminally. Additionally, the planning director could require the property owner to restore the land to its original condition.
People have knowingly dumped illegally in remote, agricultural areas because it has been cheaper to do so than pay fees to dispose of material properly — but no more, Pine said. "For many years our community has been a dumping ground for everything that people didn’t want, but finally our citizens can have justice," she said.
Bill 35 changes the city’s laws regarding stockpiling of materials on private property, essentially barring any property owner or developer from stockpiling on agricultural lands any materials containing contaminants, construction debris and other substances harmful to the agricultural productivity of soils. Bill 37 allows the planning director to deny after-the-fact grading permits when violations occur and to instead issue orders to return lands to their original condition.
Caldwell applauded area residents for lobbying for the changes, "the people who care about this place, who resent the fact (that) people from other parts of this island bring their stuff … and dump it on ag lands that should be used for ag and not stockpiling areas."
Waianae Valley homesteader Kapua Keliikoa-Kamai said she first discovered the illegal dumping on the Waianae Valley Road site when she and several friends were taking a walk in the park one morning that August — two weeks before the freeway incident. Keliikoa-Kamai heard the trucks on the other side of Kaupuni Stream, which separates the park from the property owned by Sandra Silva of SER Silva Equipment. Silva’s company was hired to dispose of the material dredged from the Hawaii Kai Marina by American Marine Corp., which had the contract to clear the marina.
Silva then began speaking to her neighbors, community leaders and then elected representatives.
City officials said Silva has not paid any of the fine. Continued inaction, however, could lead to the Department of Planning and Permitting placing a lien on the property, which could lead to a foreclosure action.
Farming interests had initially raised concerns about how the bills might affect their ability to move soil within their own properties, but those issues were resolved.
Larry Jefts, chairman of the West Oahu Soil and Water Conservation District, said the bills "add a tool" to help guard against illegal dumping.
