(Honolulu, Hawaii)
Twelve members of the mayor’s Landfill Site Selection Committee will meet this Thursday at Honolulu Hale to begin the process of recommending an alternative site to Waimanalo Gulch Landfill, which is scheduled to stop accepting solid municipal waste by July 31, 2012.
City Managing Director Douglas Chin says the committee will issue its recommendations to Mayor Peter Carlisle in six to eight months.
"They're supposed to look at sites all around Oahu,” said Chin, who’s serving as acting mayor while Carlisle conducts official business in Washington, D.C.
Late Monday City Spokesperson Louis Kim-McCoy released the names of those who accepted the mayor’s invitation to serve on the advisory committee. The list includes three neighborhood board members and former city councilman John Desoto
The committee members are as follows:
Bruce Anderson Joe Lapilio
David Cooper Geroge West
Thomas Arizumi Chuck Prentiss
Richard Poirier Janice Marsters
John Goody David Arakawa
Tesha Malama John Desoto
With storm runoff from Waimanalo Gulch polluting Leeward Oahu beaches with medical waste that includes hypodermic needles, syringes and blood filled vials, the issue of selecting an alternative landfill site has been thrust back into the spotlight.
The last time a committee picked an alternative to Waimanalo Gulch was in 2003 under former mayor Jeremy Harris.
The fifteen member blue ribbon panel eventually settled on four parcels of land, three of which were located in Leeward Oahu: Maili, Makaiwa Gulch and Nanakuli B. The panel also recommended Ameron Quarry at Campbell Industrial Park.
During its several months of work the committee formed under Harris was not without controversy. Four of the members resigned after a vote forced the removal of Waimanalo Gulch Landfill from the list of recommended sites. The move was prompted by Todd Apo, a vocal landfill critic who served on the City Council for Leeward Oahu from 2005 to 2010.
Now with a new committee about to meet some longtime Nanakuli residents don’t have much confidence Waimanalo Gulch will stop receiving solid municipal waste as promised in a year-and-a-half.
"I think they're going to extend it again because the city's going to make up excuses,” said Jojan Barrett, who grew up in Nanakuli and lives just a few miles from Waimanalo Gulch.
Others like Dixie Kalamau hope the committee under Mayor Carlisle is wise enough to recommend alternative sites that are not located in Leeward Oahu.
“Any landfill in this community is not acceptable,” Kalamau told Khon2. “Just take it somewhere else; I’m tired of that in my backyard.”
If the permit for Waimanalo Gulch is not extended past next year’s deadline the city would be forced to develop another landfill which could take years, or, find an alternative way to dispose of its trash.
Last year the city cancelled a contract with Seattle based Hawaiian Waste Systems after the company failed to secure federal permits to ship up to 100,000 tons of trash to Washington state. Some Leeward Oahu residents believe the city did not support the company's effort as much as it could have.
“If you're going to do something do it right,” said Barrett. “Don't do it half okole - try again and keep trying.”
Meanwhile a third boiler at H-Power is expected to come online in the next year or so. With the two existing boilers the Campbell Industrial Park facility could process up to 900,000 tons of trash every year.
However that would still leave over 275,000 tons of solid municipal waste unaccounted for, which Waimanalo Gulch takes in every year. The landfill also receives about 150,000 tons of ash from H-Power annually.
Have a news tip? Contact Andrew Pereira at 368-7273. Follow Andrew on Twitter at Khon_Reporter
