House close to approving
plasma arc waste facility

The plant could help with
Oahu's need for another landfill

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By Pat Omandam
pomandam@starbulletin.com

The state House is a vote away from approving a plasma arc facility next to the city's HPOWER plant.

The House Finance Committee recommended $100 million in special purpose revenue bonds for its design and construction.

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The proposed solid waste plant, which must be agreed to by the Senate, is seen as a way to help the city deal with Oahu's problem of finding another landfill in five years to replace the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill near Kapolei.

Plasma arc technology essentially uses electrical energy to heat plasma gases at between 1,832 degrees and 27,032 degrees Fahrenheit (1,000 and 15,000 degrees Celsius) to vaporize organic waste and decompose solid materials into molten rock that can be used for curbing and into gases like hydrogen.

The $100 million in bonds for the project, which the Finance Committee placed in the latest amendments to Senate Bill 325, HD1, would aid developers in attracting investors, said proponent state Rep. Michael Kahikina (D, Nanakuli). If approved, the state would issue bonds to private investors who would repay them. No state taxpayer money is involved.

Kahikina, along with others in the Leeward Coast community, said they have lobbied for alternatives to the landfill after the city kept it operating beyond 1999 -- 10 years after it opened. He said they have formed a group willing to work with Georgia-based Jacoby Development Inc. on a plasma arc facility next to the HPOWER incinerator.

Plasma arc technology is not new, but its use commercially for treating municipal solid waste is unproven, with no full-scale plasma arc plant operating in the United States.

"Everything can be reused. You don't have to even throw it back into the landfill," said Kahikina, who added a prototype plasma arc plant in Japan has proven cost-effective since it opened 18 months ago.

The city recently issued requests for proposals for private companies to become tenants at the city's new recycling technology park. Mayor Jeremy Harris over the past few years has proposed using plasma technology to deal with the city's solid waste problem.

Meanwhile, Senate approval of the project remains uncertain. Brian Taniguchi (D, Manoa), Senate Ways and Means chairman, said Senate Bill 325 originally called for $200 million in special purpose revenue bonds for the Queen's Health System -- money the hospital needs for improvements and renovations.

"I think that's what we want to limit it to," Taniguchi said yesterday.

The bill no longer contains the money for the Queen's Health System bonds.

Colleen Hanabusa (D, Waianae), Senate majority leader, noted that even with plasma arc technology in operation, the city would have to get rid of the byproduct.

"I think the problem is these things are being floated to pacify the community, and there's no one there that's really looking at a total master plan of whether and how it's going to be done," she said.