Waimanalo Gulch
back on list

The city will consider expansion
for its next landfill project

Almost a year after an advisory panel took Waimanalo Gulch Landfill off a list of possible sites for a new city landfill, a City Council committee has put it back.

The Council's Public Works and Economic Development Committee will consider the current landfill when it recommends to the full Council on Nov. 17 where to put the next landfill, Chairman Rod Tam said yesterday.

The state Land Use Commission has set a deadline of Dec. 1 for the city to decide where it will put its landfill after the current Waimanalo Gulch permit expires in 2008.

The Leeward landfill, which has turned a former gulch into a hill, has been Oahu's only municipal waste landfill since 1989. If expanded, it has room for 20 more years of garbage at the current rate of use, city officials say.

But in a contentious Dec. 1 meeting, the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Landfill Selection took Waimanalo Gulch off a short list of where to put the next landfill. Four advisory committee members resigned in protest.

Three of the four other landfill finalists are also on the Leeward Coast: Maili, Nanakuli and Makaiwa. The only Windward site is Kapaa Quarry in Kailua.

Councilman-elect Todd Apo, who will represent the Leeward Coast beginning next year, said yesterday that, like outgoing Councilman Mike Gabbard, he opposes having the new landfill anywhere in his district.

With an industrial park, all major power plants, the city landfill and a private landfill, the Leeward Coast "takes on too many of the burdens of our island," Apo said.

Windward resident Shannon Wood asked yesterday that the City Council consider keeping the landfill at Waimanalo Gulch and allowing Leeward residents to operate the landfill and benefit from its income.

Councilman Romy Cachola questioned whether that would force an increase in property taxes because of lost revenue to the city.

Tam said his staff will produce a written summary of factors to consider in the landfill site selection about a week before the Public Works Committee's Nov. 17 meeting.