Time remains short for trash disposal plan

After years of indecision and delay, the administration says it will build another unit to burn 300,000 tons at the garbage-to-energy plant and line up a contractor to ship another 100,000 tons off island.

Officials haven't said how much these waste projects will cost, with Mayor Mufi Hannemann saying only that adding to the existing HPOWER facility will be about $100 million cheaper than another proposal for using new technology.

Taxpayers need to keep a close eye on the price tags of these projects, but getting rid of the garbage from close to a million residents is an expensive undertaking, particularly on an island.

Just a few days before, the city Planning Commission had given reluctant approval of the administration's request to keep open the Waimanalo Gulch landfill beyond expiration of a May 1 permit. Though the state Land Use Commission must also sign off on the two-year extension, the city now has some breathing room to tackle the problem.

But that still isn't a lot of time. Officials, including the City Council which balked at a previous administration's plan to expand HPOWER, have to get on the stick. In addition to disposal, they should look at decreasing the amount of material that comes in with consumer goods, increase recycling beyond the current pilot program and educate the public about cutting waste streams.