The city will pay a $125,000 fine and spend about $108,000 in upgrades and improvements for its role in the spillage of contaminated storm water from the only municipal landfill into the ocean in December 2010 and January 2011.
The Honolulu City Council on Wednesday approved a consent decree reached recently by city attorneys with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health.
The agreement must be now enter a 30-day public comment period before it can be formally approved by U.S. District Court.
City Environmental
Services Director Lori Kahikina said the city already has completed most of the
upgrades and improvements and is prepared to pay the civil penalty. Half
of the civil fine will go to the EPA, the other half to the Health Department.
Waste Management Hawaii, the contractor that operates the Kahe Point landfill for the city, will need to pay $300,000 in civil penalties with the money split evenly between the EPA and DOH. Waste Management Hawaii’s parent company is Waste Management Inc., the nation’s largest private solid waste disposal company.
During a heavy storm that lasted several weeks, rain accumulating at a reservoir above the landfill poured into a “cell” of waste, causing it to overflow and send millions of gallons of debris-laden storm water down a concrete spillway and into waters off the Ko Olina Resort and nearby public beaches.
A number of those beaches were forced to close, some for weeks,
because of the pollution. Medical waste, including
syringes and vials that
appeared to contain blood, were among the debris
that washed ashore. The
effluent included iron,
zinc, lead and other contaminants that exceeded permitted levels.
City and Waste Management officials contended that the spillage was due to naturally occurring background levels in the soil. They also pointed out that the contractor was just weeks away from completing a $21 million storm
diversion system and
$1 million detention basin that likely would have avoided the overflow.
“My understanding is that we were two weeks away from tying up this major storm drain system that we installed, and then this 100-year storm came and all hell broke loose,” Kahikina said Wednesday.
The five “enhancements” undertaken by the city include:
>> Installation of a primary trash screen near the opening of the box culvert.
>> Installation of additional air intakes and vents on an existing underground drainage pipe.
>> Revision of the site’s storm water pollution control plan.
>> Compliance with detention basin operating and monitoring parameters.
>> Applying for an individual National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit.
Kahikina said two of the three air vents have been installed and the third is scheduled to be installed next week and the primary trash screen is also slated to be installed next week.
The revised pollution control plan is completed and will be submitted when the consent decree process is done.
