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Gathering Place
 Colleen Hanabusa |
Waimanalo Gulch is far
from being best dump siteThere is nothing as irritating as government believing we, the public, are stupid. But government being able to hoodwink the press comes in a close second. The press, after all, is our last bastion of defense against complete manipulation and spin on an issue.
Unfortunately, we were all being manipulated by the City and County of Honolulu during the recent landfill selection process through a clever combination of experts and spokespeople.
I call your attention to the mantra to keep Waimanalo Gulch as the landfill site. We have heard that "it has 20 more years of capacity" and that it is irresponsible not to consider it a viable option. The most cited advocate of this position is Bruce Anderson, who, due to his former position as state Department of Health director under former Gov. Ben Cayetano's administration, lends credibility to this jargon. Assuming Anderson, too, was hoodwinked, let's look at the facts.
The "20 more years" figure was calculated by R.M. Towill Corp., the consulting firm that researched alternative landfill sites. The significance of this is not the company's campaign contribution to Honolulu's current mayor, but the fact that it has prepared at least three Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) to support the selection of Waimanalo Gulch. With Towill's special knowledge, there is no excuse for the erroneous calculations.
Each site was calculated by these criteria: Assume "a 100-foot buffer around the site boundary, 30 acres for infrastructure facilities, no excavation, and filling to the surrounding natural grade." The no-excavation part is critical. Waimanalo Gulch, with only 60 acres -- compared to Ameron Quarry with 391 acres, Maili with 200 acres, Makaiwa with 338 acres and Nanakuli B with 432 acres -- reportedly has one of the longest lives. This is impossible without excavation. Towill realizes this because to extend Waimanalo's life for five years, it reported in the final EIS that about 1 million cubic yards of native soil must be excavated out of 14.9 acres.
So how can 60 acres generate 20 years without excavation? Ameron and Maili have big pukas in the ground to bring up to grade; Waimanalo does not. Also know that in 1999, the city signed a contract with Waste Management, the current operator for Waimanalo Gulch. Under that contract, to extend the life of Waimanalo Gulch for 15 years, Waste Management would have to excavate 8.5 million cubic yards of native soil. Again, how can Waimanalo Gulch yield 20 more years without excavation on only 60 acres?
It cannot.
Focus also on costs. The city failed to state the costs to us as taxpayers. The cost is a per-ton fee that we would have to pay the operator. Waste Management now gets $12 per ton for solid waste and $10 per ton for ash. This would be the same cost for any site. All ancillary costs will be paid using the per-tonnage base, with one exception: For Waimanalo Gulch, the city agreed to pay Waste Management $4 per cubic yard for excavation. Waimanalo Gulch would then cost an additional $34 million, making it one of the most expensive sites.
It is costly to take down a mountain, and that is what would need to be done to get the desired capacity.
No newspaper that we read for impartial and correct reporting should let misinformation stand. The Star-Bulletin should be calling for an investigation as to how all of this happened. It is really unfair to those members of the mayor's Advisory Committee on Landfill Siting, who participated and gave their time. It also resulted in many hard feelings, unnecessarily and cruelly dividing this island community into Windward and Leeward sides.
But I do not believe any Windward resident would want more than 8.5 million cubic yards of our mountain removed just to build us a new one out of rubbish. This is not the criteria any reasonable person would support.
State Sen. Colleen Hanabusa represents the 21st District (Nanakuli, Waianae, Makaha).