[ OUR OPINION ]

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Weak-kneed Council
members sidestep tough
decision on landfill

THE ISSUE The public works committee chooses a site that had not been evaluated as appropriate for garbage disposal.

MEMBERS of the City Council have again displayed their chronic inability to make difficult decisions with a harebrained scheme to put a new landfill at a site that had not been discussed, much less evaluated, as suitable for such use.

After hearing hours of testimony from dozens of people who predictably objected to sites in their neighborhoods, the chicken-hearted public works committee weaseled out of choosing one of the five proposed locations. It was an unconscionable evasion of responsibility.

Prodded by Ann Kobayashi -- whose main function on the Council has been to carp about having to undertake politically sensitive tasks and to blame the Harris administration for all the city's problems -- committee chairman Rod Tam steered the choice to land next to the HPOWER plant.

In doing so, the committee tossed out more than a year of reviews that culled five sites from 45 locations through analyses of capacity, cost and environmental effects.

The HPOWER land wasn't one of them. In fact, the first mention of the site came during the committee's meeting Friday in a suggestion by Kobayashi.

The 23 acres at Campbell Industrial Park, which the city acquired two years ago, is unsuited for a landfill.

It is too small -- the other sites encompassed 60 to 300 acres -- and at most, it will hold only two years of trash.

It is flat and sits over shallow soil. Unless Council members intend to simply amass a mountain of garbage, excavation will be necessary to bury the trash and in that case, digging will likely hit coral beds.

It is too near the shoreline and will be prone to polluting the ocean.

But the site selection isn't the most unworkable part of the committee's ridiculous plan.

Tam and Kobayashi say they made the choice to force the city administration to develop alternate technology to get rid of garbage. However, since they have no suggestions as to what "new technology" they imagine could come on line before the current landfill is closed in 2008, their claim smacks of political dodging.

They also show no knowledge or understanding of waste disposal with their thinking that some vague high-tech magic bullet will eliminate completely the need for a landfill.

In truth, the Harris administration has explored several new methods for trash disposal, including plasma systems, but these have not yet been developed to handle the large-load disposal Oahu would need. Further, the Council had shown no interest in pursuing such alternatives despite entreaty from the administration.

With its vote, the committee passes the buck to the full Council. Maybe other members will locate their backbones long enough to make the tough call.