LEILA FUJIMORI / LFUJIMORI@STARBULLETIN.COM
Carroll Cox points to a mound of dirt and debris near the old incinerator building site in Waipahu.
Another illegal The head of an environmental watchdog group has discovered another illegal dump that he contends contains hazardous waste, a few hundred yards from the Waipio Peninsula Soccer Park.
dump site found
It is near Waipio Soccer Park
and may contain hazardous wasteBy Leila Fujimori
lfujimori@starbulletin.comEnviro Watch Inc. President Carroll Cox says he called the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency after discovering the dump on Friday at the edge of the closed city landfill behind the former Waipahu Incinerator.
"My concern is public health," he said.
The state will investigate whether the material contains hazardous waste, said Steven Chang, Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch chief of the state Department of Health. "I don't want to speculate or cause a huge concern in the community."
The site has exposed piles of brick, ash and burnt material like glass. It is difficult to tell how large the dump site is since much of the area is covered by tall grass.
Cox also found illegally buried smokestack debris and tons of large appliances buried near the incinerator at Waipahu Depot Road, which the city cleaned up last month.
Judging from manufacturer names stamped on the bricks, Cox believes they likely lined the incinerator's original metal smokestacks demolished in 1987. "I believe this is the stuff they claimed they hauled away," Cox said referring to the city.
Cox raised concerns about the possibility of asbestos in the bricks.
Chang inspected the site yesterday and said, "These may be bricks from a previous smokestack," adding it looked similar to the ash Cox found in a partially buried mound about 75 yards away.
That material consisted of two truckloads of brick and debris from the incinerator's smokestacks demolished in 1994.
Chang said two samples from the mound contained fiberglass and a concentration of heavy metals including cadmium, a carcinogen. The bricks were not hazardous since they came from chimneys constructed after the ban of asbestos, Chang said.
However, Chang suggested the bricks in the newly discovered site may have been dumped by Oahu Sugar.
Older incinerator bricks made in the '20s and '30s are inherently high in metals, Chang said.
"We'll probably begin developing a plan to secure the area and keep people out of it," he said.
As for harm to children who may have played in the area, Chang said, "I don't think there's alarm for that."
He likened it to lead paint exposure, which "a child has to eat a large quantity of" or be exposed to for 24 hours a day for six years to be hazardous. Cadmium at lower levels, however, could pose a threat to children, he said.
Chang said runoff of hazardous materials from the newly discovered site could potentially leech into the ground water.
Frank Doyle, acting Environmental Services director, said yesterday in a written statement, "We will take all steps necessary to determine how the bricks and dirt got there and remove them in a proper manner approved by the State Department of Health."
Cox is concerned for city workers at the old incinerator site, used as a base yard for up to 18 Environmental Services workers and up to eight maintenance workers for the soccer park. He said former incinerator workers have never been tested for health problems.
The incinerator site remains littered with brick and other debris. The area, where incinerator ash was released on the ground, tested positive for high levels of arsenic, cadmium, chromium and lead. A report concluded, "There is a significant exposure risk at the site for children unless the elevated levels of metals are properly addressed."
State Health Department
