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Meadow Gold
wants out of
Waimanalo lease
The company, which is cleaning
By Harold Morse
up the former Unisyn Biowaste site,
also would like to be free
from future liability
Star-BulletinMeadow Gold Dairies, cleaning up its Waimanalo farm that includes the former Unisyn Biowaste Technologies plant, wants the state to take back its lease and award it to someone else.
Michael Heihre, Meadow Gold attorney, told the Waimanalo Neighborhood Board last night that the company hopes the state also releases Meadow Gold from any future liability.
Meadow Gold has been seeking to identify possible community uses for the former Unisyn site after it finishes the cleanup, Heihre said.
Meadow Gold is removing waste water, solids and compost materials from the site. Waste-water removal began June 26 and has continued each weekday with the exception of July 4.
About 8,000 gallons are going out daily -- the maximum amount allowed by the city for disposal at the Sand Island Treatment Facility. Plans are to have all waste water removed by the end of November, Heihre said.
Solids are going to the Waimanalo Gulch landfill in Leeward Oahu.
Two 5,000-gallon tankers are transporting 10,000 gallons of solids a day to the Waimanalo fill, Heihre said. About half the compost material has been removed from the site. Green-waste material has been mulched and will be transported to a work area to be stockpiled and eventually sold, he said.
Meadow Gold, which had subleased the land to Unisyn, has been committed to the cleanup since Dec. 3.
Unisyn stopped receiving and processing restaurant garbage March 31, 1999. It stopped operating because it could not afford to meet government standards. Later, it could not afford the required cleanup, winding up in bankruptcy.
Meadow Gold had leased the land from the state in 1990 and had subleased it to Unisyn, which left a substantial amount of waste at the site when it ceased operations.
Soil test data are undergoing analysis to make sure no nutrients have sunk to the level of ground water, and to determine that nutrients will not be concentrated enough to saturate runoff and cause pollution in nearby stream water.
