Waimanalo cleanup
finds piles of junk

The effort is deemed
a success though new trash
quickly returned

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By Diana Leone
dleone@starbulletin.com

Waimanalo's big March 16 cleanup surpassed the community's greatest expectations.

That Saturday, more than 500 volunteers gathered 200-plus junked cars, 500 car batteries, thousands of car tires, 50 tons of metals and 250 tons of other junk.

There was so much, in fact, that a "mop-up" crew had to come back the following Saturday and remove more stuff that had to be left in piles.

That's when they noticed a disturbing trend: Some people were dumping new junk at the places where the remnants of the cleanup had been stored for removal.

Co-organizer Liz Martinez said well-meaning residents should stop piling junk, and careless people should stop littering by the roadside.

"From here on out, people can be cited for dumping," she said.

"The cleanup ended two weeks ago, and people keep bringing out trash," said Waimanalo Neighborhood Board member Andrew Jamila Jr. "We're trying to tell people it's over already."

Yesterday afternoon what remained on the "back roads" of Waimanalo included an assortment of rusted-out farming implements, wooden pallets, unrecognizable pieces of twisted metal, busted coolers, trashed furniture and defunct bicycles.

Only a few junk cars remain and most of the rubbish sites consist of a few big items with some smaller debris around it.

The biggest single site stretches the equivalent of a short city block (though it is on a country road) and is at places as much as one-story high. It's less than a quarter-mile from Waimanalo's refuse convenience center on Hihimanu Street.

"It looks like all the stuff went away, then came back again," observed Brandon Lima from a house not far from the Hihimanu mess.

"The lion's share of what we hauled out on cleanup day is gone," said Rep. Joe Gomes (R, Waimanalo-Kailua), but he admitted some may have been added to it.

"I tried to keep my expectations low, but I've been just overwhelmed at how successful it was," Gomes said about the overall effort. "The volunteers, the organizations that came together, the city, the state -- it was massive, massive."

Frank Doyle, director of the city's environmental services, said he's not optimistic that proposals to increase fines for dumping will frighten the kind of people who dump along the roadsides. But he praised Waimanalo's effort and said his city crews will take away what remains by this weekend.

Not only is Waimanalo cleaner, co-organizer Mabel Ann Spencer said, it's more united.

"Everyone has been coming closer and sharing because of this cleanup thing."