A Leeward Coast community organization says the city is shutting out the community by holding an "open house" on city plans to expand the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill during a work day. Group angry landfill
talk is scheduled
on work dayA group says the city's presentation
schedule will shut out peopleBy Lisa Asato
lasato@starbulletin.com"Scheduling this meeting in the middle of the work day ... will only guarantee that many concerned citizens of the Leeward Coast will not be able to attend," said a statement by Health of the Land, a group that includes Leeward Oahu neighborhood board and community association members.
The open house will be held from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. tomorrow in the ground floor meeting room of Kapolei Hale at 1000 Uluohia St.
Health of the Land said the city Refuse Division promised to make a full presentation of its revised draft environmental impact statement on its proposal to expand the 86.5-acre Waimanalo Gulch Landfill by 60.5 acres.
Frank Doyle, chief of the Refuse Division, said the city has already held four presentations, "some at night, some at morning, and now we're doing one in the afternoon."
Doyle said the city will take questions and listen to concerns about the landfill expansion. Information will be available tomorrow on how to reduce the amount of waste going into the landfill, alternate sites, the H-Power plant and landfill operations. Representatives from the Refuse Division; R.M. Towill Corp., the consulting firm that researched 42 alternative landfill sites; Waste Management of Hawaii Inc., the private operators of the landfill; and the state Department of Health will also answer questions.
The landfill processes 1,400 tons of solid waste daily, and city officials anticipate the landfill will be filled to capacity by next year.
Michael Golojuch, a member of the Makakilo/Kapolei/ Honokai Hale neighborhood board, said the city is backtracking on plans to cease operations at the site in 2004.
Doyle responded: "We never limited the amount of time we were going to be there. The original environmental impact statement always makes an estimate ... there's nothing there that says you can't extend the life of a landfill if that's the right thing to do, and that's what we believe, and that's why we're doing it."
City & County of Honolulu
