A state investigation into why there are crushed household appliances illegally buried at a former city incinerator site has been broadened. Waipahu dump probe
By Diana Leone
digging deeper
dleone@starbulletin.com
The state Department of Health will now test for the presence of heavy metals and asbestos in the soil and take a look at the city's appliance disposal practices.
The Health Department has given the city Refuse Division two weeks to provide documentation of what has been going on at the 7-acre Waipahu Depot Road incinerator site since it shut down in 1994.
An investigation began Feb. 26 after Carroll Cox, president of the Enviro Watch group, told state officials that appliances such as stoves and washing machines were buried there.
When state workers examined the site last week, they found evidence that in addition to an unknown quantity of crushed appliances, there was construction debris buried there that could contain asbestos and the possibility of heavy metals in the soil from incinerator operations, said Steve Chang, Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch chief.
In a three-page May 5 letter to city Refuse Division chief John Lee, Chang asked for detailed information about the site and the city's disposal methods for appliances, including contracts for demolition and disposal of the Waipahu incinerator smokestacks; asbestos and hazardous-waste test data for the site; five years of annual reports from the city's convenience centers and transfer stations about the quantity of appliances collected; all city contracts over the past five years for disposal of household appliances; and a detailed explanation of who authorized the crushing and burial of appliances at the Waipahu site and why.
Chang also asked that the city "take no action at the site without the knowledge and presence of a Health Department representative" and that the city develop a sampling and analysis plan for materials that may contain asbestos.
The state is concerned about the health and safety of workers removing the buried appliances from soil that could be contaminated with asbestos and heavy metals, Chang told the Star-Bulletin.
City spokeswoman Carol Costa said yesterday that "the city is working with the Department of Health and is also conducting its own internal investigation."
"We are vigorously trying to get to the facts of the matter," Costa said.
Since the city stopped using the incinerator in 1994, its building and grounds have been used as a base yard for up to 18 Environmental Services workers and up to eight maintenance workers for the nearby Waipio Soccer Park, Costa said.
She said the workers come and go from the site during the day and store equipment there and that its gate is locked at night.
The city removed 30 tons of crushed appliances from the Waipahu site Saturday and took them to the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill, Chang said. How much more might be buried there is unclear, since the city originally told the state that about 250 appliances had been buried there, but more than that were removed already, he said.
City Refuse Division
State Health Department
