Question: Whatever happened to plans for a compost-making facility for the area north of Schofield Barracks in Wahiawa?

Answer: Hawaiian Earth Recycling LLC is hoping to break ground for the facility in November, project manager Greg Apa said.

“We’re finally getting there,” Apa said. “It’s been a long road. But it’s been worth it.”

Apa said it will cost a little more than $40 million to build the facility.

Hawaiian Earth, which sells Menehune Magic brand compost, has two locations on Oahu: a composting facility at Campbell Industrial Park and a transfer station at Kapaa Quarry in Kailua.

Hawaiian Earth said composting materials will be contained by a berm and covered with a membrane that blocks up to 95 percent of odors.

Under the design, composting materials will be placed on concrete pads. Liquid that drains off will be directed into pipes and into a tank for reuse.

The Wahiawa facility will replace Hawaiian Earth’s Campbell Industrial Park composting site, which will be converted to a transfer station.

The lease for the Campbell Industrial site expires in 2015, and the amount of land that can be leased there will be reduced to 14 acres, the business’s environmental impact statement says.

With the expansion and relocation to Wahiawa, Hawaiian Earth plans to process about 150,000 tons of green waste, food waste and dewatered sludge per year to produce compost, soil amendments, potting mixes and erosion-control materials.

The city’s request for proposals sought a composting facility that would process at least 100,000 tons a year, reducing the waste stream to the municipal landfill.

The city will pay the operator $118 for each ton of compostable material it takes in, according to the request for proposal.

Hawaiian Earth’s environmental impact statement was accepted by the state Office of Environmental Quality Control in September 2011, and the project has been reviewed by more than 20 city, state and federal agencies and by elected officials, Apa said.

Apa said the project has received approval from various groups, including neighborhood boards in Wahiawa-Whitmore Village and the North Shore.

The board of the Wahiawa Community & Business Association voted in 2011 to support the proposed facility.

Board officials said recycling organic matter such as green waste, food waste and sewage sludge is a necessity in today’s world.

The company said it plans to develop a retention basin for rainfall runoff and a separate collection and re-use system for contaminated water.

The sewage for composting would come from the city waste treatment facilities at Honouliuli and Kailua and perhaps other areas.

The site is surrounded by agricultural and military lands.

The nearest structures are about one mile from the southern boundary of the project site, Hawaiian Earth said.

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This update was written by Star-Advertiser reporter Gary T. Kubota. Suggest a topic for “Whatever Happened To…” by writing Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-210, Honolulu 96813; call 529-4747; or email cityeditors@staradvertiser.com.