HILO >> The state House Finance Committee has delayed consideration for one year of a bill that would authorize $25 million in special revenue bonds to build a waste-to-energy power plant north of Hilo to burn East Hawaii trash. House panel
By Rod Thompson
delays bill for Hilo
waste-power plant
Big Island correspondentThe bill would allow the Hilo Coast Power Co., part of Brewer Environmental Industries, to obtain low-cost loans, said company President Richard Hill.
The company would need a contract with Hawaii County to receive county trash, and the county said it would sign no contract until a study is done to determine the best way to dispose of trash. The study will be completed in September at the earliest.
If funding and county approval were in place, 30 months would be needed to build the plant at Pepeekeo, Hill said.
That would mean completion in early 2004, about the time the Hilo landfill will be full.
Hill said the proposed plant would burn the 180 tons per day now generated but could handle 300 tons per day. The initial power capacity would be 7 megawatts.
Hilo Coast Power now has a coal-burning plant with a capacity of 22 megawatts.
That would eventually be closed, Hill said.
The coal-fired plant has caused some concern. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an order to the company to correct numerous violations.
"It's pretty routine," said EPA official Jeremy Johnstone, who wrote the corrective order.
"We often throw in the kitchen sink."
A typical alleged violation was warmer-than-permitted water flowing into the ocean -- 109 degrees in the warmest case. Hill said temperatures were measured at the wrong location and water was actually cooler when it reached the ocean.
Another concern was a 60-ton pile of coal ash covering seven acres.
County Solid Waste Division head Larry Capellas said initial tests show the ash is nontoxic and that the county could use it as daily cover material at the existing landfill.
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