Oahu’s next landfill will be named in November, city officials say

The location for Oahu’s next municipal solid waste landfill will be announced in November, according to city officials.

The action, bolstered in August by the State Land Use Commission’s decision to change its special use permit and extend the deadline to Dec. 31 to find an alternative city landfill, means the city has just over two months to officially name its next landfill. .

But whether this new landfill, which will replace the 35-year-old Waimanalo Gulch sanitary landfill in Kapolei, will actually be usable remains to be seen.

The city’s Department of Environmental Services argues that the state Legislature needs to change the existing state law, Act 73, which determines where a landfill can legally and safely be located, to create a new, permanent landfill on Oahu.

Likewise, ENV recently issued a formal “request for information” regarding the removal of solid waste “off-island” as a temporary measure while the city builds a landfill, a process that could take years.

However, some argue that such a contract could be too expensive for the city.

In a recent report to the City Council’s Public Infrastructure and Technology Committee, ENV Director Roger Babcock said both options, and possibly others, will be considered to allow the city’s next landfill to be built on the island of Oahu.

In an Oct. 15 city report entitled “Supplemental Technical Memorandum on Oahu Landfill Siting Study,” he noted that the city remains interested in individual properties designated for landfills.

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

Act 73 places restrictions on the siting of waste disposal facilities, especially those located near protected lands or half-mile “buffer zones”, near residential areas, schools or hospitals, and near airports or tsunami flood zones.

Babcock said amending the law could do one of two things: reduce buffer zones to a quarter-mile or eliminate them entirely, thereby opening up more land for potential city landfills.

In addition, the Honolulu Water Board objected to the city placing the landfill in the so-called exclusion zone, an area that covers the interior of the island where the Oahu drinking water aquifer lies.

At the meeting, Councilman Andria Tupola, the committee’s chairman, questioned the city’s plan to rely on changes at the state level to prevent ongoing problems with the new landfill.

“So what you’re saying is that next month’s announcement will come from sites in the ‘restricted area’?” she asked during the Oct. 24 meeting. “Is this where the site selection will take place?”

Babcock responded, “We’re not saying yet which site we’ll choose.”

“But you guys can’t announce anything that requires Act 73 to be changed because we’re not in charge of it and (the Legislature) isn’t in session, right?” – Tupola asked.

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

“So you guys… are hoping the Legislature will just go along with it?” she asked.

Babcock reiterated that city officials will likely stay the course.

“Interesting,” Tupola concluded.

Several public witnesses also wanted to ensure that when the Waimanalo Gulch landfill closes in 2028, there will be no new landfill on the west side.

David Carona, a Nanakuli-Miley borough board member, said his concern about the statewide changes to Act 73 requirements is that it is an “all-or-nothing modification.”

He noted that such a change could lead to the expansion of PVT’s Integrated Solid Waste Management facility in Waianae, the only site designated by the city and county for construction and demolition waste disposal on Oahu.

Waianae resident James Manaku Sr. wanted to make sure that Native Hawaiians, especially those living in West Oahu, were “protected” from more dangerous materials.

“We are talking about a vanishing race of people,” he told the Council. “We are islanders. Come on people, protect us.”

Councilman Calvin Seay suggested the city find other ways to get a new landfill.

“Can the governor be forced to issue a gubernatorial proclamation?” Seay asked, referring to similar executive actions that helped Maui County get a new landfill site after deadly wildfires there last year. “I offer this as an alternative … the process that happened in Maui County regarding the Lahaina (fire) waste was very fast in terms of the permitting process.”

Seay suggested changes to Act 73 regarding Oahu’s next landfill could also be made through a governor’s order.

To this Tupola said: “I think there will be a serious fight, but it is possible.”

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

RFI says the closing date is November 30th. The city is preparing for a “temporary approach” to disposing of municipal solid waste to an approved non-hazardous waste landfill outside Oahu over a 10-year period.

“The City is seeking interest and information regarding a future option to transfer approximately 650,000 tons of municipal solid waste per year 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, package, store, transport to the port, and transport and discharge to a landfill called D.

“The contractor will provide the city with an easement sufficient to allow the city to control waste streams.”

“Beyond 2028 and during the planning, design and construction stages of a new landfill, the option of municipal solid waste disposal as an interim solution will provide necessary time to reduce the impact on the city’s current disposal system,” the document states.

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

“That is, to see if there are contractors who are interested in transporting waste from the city off the island,” he said. “So we’ll see what we get out of it. It’s a request for proposals, not a (request for proposals) — it requires proposals and costs — it requires a feasibility study.”

Once completed, the city will decide “whether to issue a request for proposal for the contract,” Babcock said.

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

“I don’t think it’s going to work,” Seay added. “But I hear stories about our Western nations exporting their waste to third world countries in Asia, and that’s how we created this big garbage patch” in the Pacific.