Kaua’i County officials say they understand that getting community support for any new landfill location is going to be a tough sell.
The site choices become narrow even before considering neighborhood acceptance. With all the conditions imposed by state and federal environmental agencies about where landfills can’t be located (near shorelines, flood-prone places, ithe state conservation district, urban areas, military bases, water sources, airports, etc.), much of Kaua’i is automatically eliminated from any consideration as landfill location.
Economic conditions, including landowners who don’t want to sell or lease parcels suitable for landfill development as identified by environmental consultants, limit the qualifying sites even further.
So when the county’s landfill siting consultant, Earth Tech, came up with a list of seven potential landfill sites, several were eliminated quickly by landowners not wishing to sell or lease to the county for landfill purposes.
The clock is ticking, though, with the Kekaha landfill having between three and five years of existing dump life left, and a tentative timetable of over six years required to develop a new Kaua’i landfill that would last 30 years.
Of the seven sites the consultant originally identified, only those on Grove Farm Co. land (Koloa and Kipu) are available to the county for lease or purchase.
State sites across Kaumuali’i Highway from the existing landfill, and off Ma’alo Road (the road to Wailua Falls near Kapaia), are not for sale or lease to the county. The state has indicated the parcels will remain in agriculture.
Gay & Robinson land near Ele’ele, Alexander & Baldwin-owned land near Numila, and private property above Kealia, all identified as potential landfill sites, are also not for sale or lease, according to the study.
Ranked by several criteria, the consultant recommended Kekaha as the top expansion spot.
With no other options except Puhi and Koloa, the county opted to negotiate with the sole willing seller, Grove Farm, and its sister company Lihu’e Land, to find a centrally located site.
The one tentatively chosen by the county is Lihu’e Land Co. property near Kalepa Ridge and Hanama’ulu, and only a few hundred feet away from the state’s Ma’alo Road land.
In order to guarantee a 30-year lifespan, any new landfill site must be at least 133 acres, Earth Tech calculates. The Kalepa site the county may acquire from Lihu’e Land is around 100 acres.
The consultant’s study estimates a new landfill would cost $7.5 million to build at Kekaha and $10.3 million at Kipu, with annual operating costs over $2.6 million at either site. It estimates the combined planning studies, permit processes and environmental impact statement would cost just under $1.3 million.
The entire process of getting a new landfill ready to accept trash, the study estimates, takes six and a half years for a facility designed to last 30 years.
The county “must develop a new municipal solid-waste landfill to handle wastes beyond the four to six-year capacity at the existing Kekaha Municipal Sanitary Landfill Phase II,” the study concludes.
In 1999, Kauaians generated 67,590 tons of solid waste that ended up in the landfill. By 2020, estimates are that the island will crank out 110,000 tons of garbage a year.
At the same time the county is negotiating to acquire Lihu’e Land acreage for a landfill, a Honolulu firm continues negotiating with Grove Farm to acquire land near Puhi on which it hopes to build a private sanitary landfill.
Staff writer Paul C. Curtis contributed to this report.
