Packed room tells Council
where not to locate landfillAlternatives include a high-tech
fix or shipping garbage out
Two hundred people packed a meeting room in Kapolei Hale last night to tell City Council members where to put Oahu's next landfill: not in Waianae.
Ideas on what to do instead ranged from shipping garbage to the mainland, using new "plasma arc" technology to gasify garbage or putting the next landfill on the Windward side.
State Sen. Colleen Hanabusa (D, Nanakuli-Makua) drew sustained applause when she told the Council's Public Works and Economic Development Committee that "people of the Waianae Coast have had enough. They've absolutely had enough."
Councilman Mike Gabbard, who represents the Leeward Coast, said he opposes a landfill in his district and also opposes a landfill in Windward Oahu.
Gabbard said he believes shipping garbage to the mainland could be a viable answer. Gabbard said he visited a county in Washington state that wants garbage, which it can bury in a large, desert area without environmental harm.
Gabbard called on residents of all areas of Oahu to "abandon this whole landfill consciousness ... lock our arms together, work together to find a real solution, and that is not putting it in somebody else's back yard."
City Environmental Services Director Frank Doyle opened a review of the city's waste disposal practices by saying, "If there are alternatives to a landfill, nobody would like it better than I not to have a landfill."
He said the city does need a landfill in addition to recycling, HPOWER and pursuit of new technologies.
Kamaki Kanahele, representing the Hokupili Foundation, spoke against Gabbard's idea of shipping off-island, saying it goes against Hawaiian tradition to put one's rubbish in another's house. The nonprofit organization supports pursuing so-called plasma arc technology.
Doyle said outside the meeting that the city has investigated such technology and does not believe it is economically viable.
State Rep. Michael Kahikina (D, Kalaeloa-Nanakuli) called plans to put a landfill on the Leeward Coast "environmental injustice."
Residents who live near the Waimanalo Gulch landfill complained about its smell and its effect on the area.
Nettie Nunuha Waianau, a Nanakuli resident and member of the Waianae Neighborhood Board, and Patty Teruya, also of the board, said they hope the city will explore alternatives such as plasma arc technology, shipping out trash and other alternative disposal technologies.
The Campbell Estate, owner of the proposed Makaiwa Gulch landfill site, "vehemently opposes" locating the landfill there, said Steve MacMillan, the estate's chief executive officer.
The committee will hold another meeting at 7 tonight in the Kailua Recreation Center.
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Oahu Municipal Solid Waste Statistics
>> 1.6 million tons per year generated.>> 500,000 tons per year recycled.
>> 600,000 tons per year burned at HPOWER, reducing it to 168,000 tons of inert ash and residue to bury.
>> 500,000 tons per year landfilled, of which 200,000 tons per year go to a privately operated construction and demolition landfill. (That leaves 300,000 tons per year of garbage landfilled at Waimanalo Gulch Municipal Landfill.)
Expected growth in garbage generation: 200,000 tons per year during the next 10 years.
Source: City Environmental Services Director Frank Doyle
