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Gathering Place
Cynthia Thielen and
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Regional bias hijacked
landfill selection processIn a Dec. 28 column, Sen. Colleen Hanabusa argued that Waimanalo Gulch (on the Leeward side near H-POWER) is far from being the best landfill site. We can appreciate Hanabusa's desire not to continue having the landfill in her district, but we can't appreciate her desire to put the dump at Kapaa Quarry in Kailua.
With due respect to Hanabusa, reasonable people realize that expanding the existing landfill at Waimanalo Gulch is the best solution for the city's waste disposal. Waimanalo Gulch has a 20-year life span; the site already is owned by the city; it is in near proximity to H-POWER, making the transfer of ash quick and cost-effective; population density in the area is light; and the ultimate cost to taxpayers will be the lowest if the City Council selects this site.
In contrast, here is just some of the severe harm to our economy if the (Ameron) Kapaa Quarry site is selected. Kapaa Quarry is slated to be a quarry through 2052. Phase I, the current active pit, is an essential part of the operation and will be for at least 10 to 20 years. Phase II then will rely upon the Phase I pit for environmental requirements, which, among other things, protect Kawainui Marsh. Without Phase I quarry operations, scheduled projects, such as the massive military housing and municipal and state road construction projects, will take significantly longer and cost extensively more than originally planned. The construction industry will suffer, and therefore so will Hawaii's economy.
Hanabusa was correct on one point when she wrote that the Mayor's Advisory Committee on Landfill Siting "resulted in many hard feelings, unnecessarily and cruelly dividing this island community into Windward and Leeward sides." This did not need to occur.
Some of us who were appointed as volunteers to the landfill committee saw the possibility of this happening, so we devised a "double blind" selection process to keep out regional prejudices. We formulated weighted environmental, economic and social criteria for each potential site, and the city's consultant was to rate each site accordingly. The committee members knew the sites only by number and the consultant wasn't given the ranking for the criteria until the end.
When site names and ranking were disclosed at the end, Waimanalo Gulch clearly had the most points as the preferable site, and all but it and four other sites were dropped from further consideration. After looking at all the criteria again it was determined that Waimanalo Gulch remained the very best location for the island's new landfill site.
Suddenly everything became nasty. A committee member proposed selecting a single site by committee vote thereby ignoring the process that had been agreed upon. This motion wasn't going to fly, because most of us felt that we should forward the list of five recommendations to the Council and let it make the final decision. Then this member proposed a vote to eliminate from consideration the site near the Ko Olina Resort (Waimanalo Gulch site) where he was employed. This was totally unexpected, yet some members supported this recommendation. Added to this, the developer of Ko Olina Resort sent a letter to committee members threatening legal action if we did not take Waimanalo Gulch off the list.
During the discussion that followed, it became apparent that those who wanted to remove the gulch site from consideration had the votes. Four of us resigned rather than participate in this charade. We maintained that by any objective measure Waimanalo Gulch should be the site of the proposed landfill, and at least should be left on the short list we were to send to the Council. We also believed that the double-blind process that led to that conclusion had integrity, until the process was hijacked.
Hanabusa wrote that "the Star-Bulletin should be calling for an investigation." We agree, but the investigation should be aimed at the subversion of the process.
Cynthia Thielen, R-50th District (Kailua-Kaneohe Bay), is assistant minority floor leader in the state House. Barbara Marshall represents District 3 (Kailua-Makapuu) on the Honolulu City Council.