City officials have made little real progress in selecting a new landfill site to replace the Waimanalo Gulch facility in Kapolei, which is scheduled to close in 2028. With the deadline approaching, the city finds its options dwindling, and what few that are left more difficult to reach.
One thing is certain, though: Oahu will need a municipal landfill after 2028. There is no other viable option. The island’s 1 million residents will not stop producing garbage and it can’t be shipped elsewhere (too expensive). A zero-waste community is a noble goal, but not a near-term practical reality.
No, the city will need to make a decision, and fairly soon. New landfills require extensive regulatory approvals and can take years to open — from seven to 10 years, by some estimates. Under the current deadline, the city has five.
At this point, the city will need considerable support and cooperation from the public and the state and federal governments. At a Honolulu Planning Commission meeting last week, the director of the city Department of Environmental Services, Roger Babcock, said the city is looking at federal lands as the best option.
Among them are sites in Lualualei in Waianae, Iroquois Point, Waipio Peninsula near Pearl Harbor, and property near Bellows Beach in Waimanalo. Mayor Rick Blangiardi is leading discussions with the federal government on the possibility of operating a municipal landfill on its property.
It’s an appropriate and necessary effort in light of the narrowing of options for the city over the last few years.
In 2020 a new state law, Act 73, imposed restrictions on locating waste disposal facilities close to conservation lands; within half-mile “buffer zones” near residential areas, schools, hospitals or airports; and in tsunami zones.
In 2022, six sites were rejected after Board of Water Supply Manager Ernest Lau and Deputy Manager Erwin Kawata urged the city to avoid the “no pass zone,” where Oahu’s potable water aquifer is located.
Out of necessity, the city sought a two-year extension to the Dec. 31, 2022, deadline to find a new site, a request that has languished at the Honolulu Planning Commission for nearly a year without a decision.
Certainly the federal government, especially the military, should be open to helping the city. A new landfill will serve the entire island population, including military personnel.
It also would be an appropriate way to demonstrate that the military wants to be a good neighbor, especially as it seeks to renew leases on state-owned land for training purposes.
Those leases have been called into question in light of recent abuses, particularly the military’s poisoning of drinking water by jet fuel leaking from the Red Hill fuel facility. That is on top of the environmental havoc caused by years of training exercises that have left land littered with unexploded ordnance.
Should negotiations with the federal government fail, the city most likely will need to seek repeal or changes to Act 73 to give it more flexibility in choosing a site. The Legislature should consider any such request with an open mind.
Otherwise, the only choice left would be to keep Waimanalo Gulch open beyond 2028. It’s certainly possible; the facility could operate until 2036 if necessary. Moreover, the landfill recently completed significant health and safety upgrades. The upgrades lifted 12 years of federal oversight and a 2019 consent decree, following a major release of contaminated stormwater into the ocean in December 2010 and January 2011.
However, extending Waimanalo Gulch’s lifespan would violate promises made by city administrations — including the current one — to the Westside community, which has endured its smelly neighbor since 1989. In any event, the landfill was never meant to last this long. The original operating contract was for 15 years. Since then, the landfill has been expanded and the deadline for closing it repeatedly extended.
No, the city cannot keep kicking this can down the road. The sooner it locates and develops a well-designed, environmentally friendly sanitary landfill, the better.
