Oahu’s next landfill slated to be named this month

The site for Oahu’s next municipal solid waste landfill will be announced in November, city officials say.

That action, boosted in August by the state Land Use Commission’s decision to modify a special-use permit to extend a prior deadline to Dec. 31 to find the city’s alternate landfill, means the city has just over two months to officially name its next dump.

But whether that new dump site — which replaces the 35-year-old Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill in Kapolei — will actually be usable remains to be seen.

The city Department of Environmental Services asserts the state Legislature needs to change an existing state law, Act 73, governing where a dump can legally and safely be located in order to achieve a new, permanent landfill location on Oahu.

Likewise, ENV recently issued a formal “request for information” toward shipping solid waste “off-island” as an interim measure, while the city develops a landfill — a process that could take years to complete.

But such a contract, some argue, may prove too expensive for the city to afford.

In a recent update to the City Council’s Public Infrastructure and Technology Committee, ENV Director Roger Babcock said both options, and perhaps others, will be reviewed to allow for the next city-run dump on Oahu.

He noted in an Oct. 15 city report, entitled the “Oahu Landfill Siting Study Supplemental Technical Memorandum,” the city remains interested in selected properties eyed for landfills.

But those sites — including three in the Windward side communities of Kailua and Waimanalo, and one in West Oahu’s Kapolei — require either an amendment or repeal of Act 73, he said.

Act 73 places restrictions on locating waste disposal facilities, particularly those close to conservation lands or half-mile “buffer zones” near residential areas, schools or hospitals, as well as near airports or tsunami inundation zones.

Babcock said amending that law could do one of two things: reduce buffer zones down to a quarter-mile or eliminate them altogether, thereby opening up more lands for potential city dump sites.

In addition, the Honolulu Board of Water Supply has objected to the city siting a landfill within its so-called no pass zone, an area that covers the interior of the island where Oahu’s potable water aquifer is located.

At the meeting, Council member Andria Tupola, the committee’s chair, questioned the city’s plan to rely on state-level changes to avert current challenges for a new dump site.

“So are you saying that the announcement next month will come from the sites that are within the ‘no pass zone’?” she asked during the Oct. 24 meeting. “Is that where the site selection is going to happen?”

Babcock replied, “We’re not saying yet which site we’re going to select.”

“But you guys couldn’t possibly be announcing anything that requires the modification of Act 73, since we’re not in charge of that and the (Legislature) is not in session, correct?” Tupola asked.

“We could name a site that would require legislative action to modify Act 73,” Babcock replied.

“So you guys … hope that the Legislature would just agree with that?” she asked.

Babcock again affirmed the city’s approach would likely follow that course.

“Interesting,” Tupola concluded.

Several public testifiers also wanted to ensure that once the Waimanalo Gulch landfill closes in 2028 that no new dump will be located on the West side.

David Carona, a Nanakuli- Maili Neighborhood board member, said his concern over state-level changes to the Act 73 requirement is that it’s “an all or nothing type modification.”

He noted such a change may cause the expansion of the Waianae-based PVT Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility — the only location designated by the city and county for disposal of construction and demolition waste on Oahu.

Waianae resident James Manaku Sr. wanted to ensure Native Hawaiians — particularly those living in West Oahu — were “protected” from more hazardous material.

“We’re talking about a race of people that are disappearing,” he told the Council. “We are the people of the islands. Come on people, protect us.”

Council member Calvin Say suggested the city find other ways to gain a new landfill.

“Is it possible to get the governor to do a governor’s proclamation?” asked Say, alluding to similar executive actions that helped Maui County gain a new waste disposal site following the deadly wildfires there last year. “I’m bringing this up as an alternative … the process that took Maui County, in regards to the Lahaina (fire) waste, was very quick on the permitting process side.”

Say suggested Act 73 changes — related to Oahu’s next landfill — also could be done by a governor’s proclamation.

To that, Tupola said “I think a huge fight would happen, but it’s a possibility.”

Meanwhile, the city has issued a formal “request for information” over the transshipment of Honolulu’s waste off-island.

With a closing date of Nov. 30, the RFI says the city is preparing for an “interim approach” for the disposal of municipal solid waste to an approved, nonhazardous waste landfill outside Oahu, over a 10-year period.

“The city is requesting interest and information regarding a future option to transship approximately 650,000 tons annually of municipal solid waste to an off-island landfill as the city designs and constructs a future landfill,” the document states. “The city intends to work with a private contractor to receive, process, bale, store, transport to port, and transport and unload to a Subtitle D landfill.

“The contractor will provide the city with an easement sufficient for a city- owned scale to obtain flow control of waste.”

“After 2028 and during the new landfill planning, design and construction phases, the option to ship municipal solid waste as an interim solution will provide the necessary time to lessen the impact on the current city disposal system,” the document states.

Babcock said the RFI is “online for folks to respond to.”

“That is to see whether there are contractors who are interested in shipping waste from the city off- island,” he said. “So we will see what we get from that. It is an RFI, not a (Request for Proposals) — asking for proposals and costs — it is asking for feasibility.”

Once completed, the city would then decide “whether or not to pursue an RFP for a contract,” Babcock said.

However, Say said he believed shipping the county’s waste out of state would be too expensive to consider.

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” Say added. “But I do hear stories about our Western states who export their waste to the Third World countries in Asia, and that’s how we created that big garbage patch” in the Pacific Ocean.