Council funds short-term
alternative to trucking
Hilo trash

KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii » The Hawaii County Council has approved money for a facility that would divert trash from the near-capacity Hilo landfill, apparently putting an end to a plan to truck Hilo's garbage to West Hawaii.

Mayor Harry Kim acknowledged that the council's approval to add $2.2 million to a $4 million appropriation is a short-term solution.

"We know this is unacceptable," Kim said. "Once a sort station is implemented, it won't be necessary."

Council members meeting at Keauhou on Wednesday also sought assurances from Kim's administration that a long-term solution to the Big Island's trash problem is forthcoming.

They were told proposals for waste-reduction technology would go out by the end of the year, and that a contract with a vendor would be ready to sign within two years.

But some council members were skeptical.

"A sort station is another word for long haul," said Councilwoman Virginia Isbell of South Kona. "We don't have permission to extend the life of the landfill."

Hawaii County officials had been looking at the possibility of having county and private haulers run as many as 80 trucks a day, carrying some 225 tons of East Hawaii trash, to the Puuanahulu landfill in West Hawaii while exploring a new high-tech method of garbage disposal and finding up to $60 million to pay for it.

County environmental managers also plan to apply to the state Health Department to extend the life of the Hilo landfill, which is due to fill up and close next spring. Kim said the sort facility would allow the county to separate items from the trash, increasing the likelihood that the Health Department would grant an extension.

The Health Department has granted the county several extensions over the past 12 years, which Lawrence Lau, deputy director for environmental health, pointed out when he wrote the county in June expressing concern that officials hadn't implemented a solid waste management plan.

State health officials approved the county's 2002 Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan, which also emphasized recycling and recommended a new waste-reduction facility in East Hawaii.

But the county still has not decided whether to go with waste-to-energy combustion, thermal gasification or anaerobic digestion technology, where a plant might be built or how to pay for it.