WAILUKU >> State and Maui County officials are seeking to bury wildfire debris from Lahaina in a new West Maui landfill instead of the island’s main waste repository.
The state Board of Land and Natural Resources is scheduled to consider at a meeting today whether to grant permission for Maui County to use 53 acres of state land in Olowalu, about 5 miles from Lahaina in a former cinder quarry, to exclusively and permanently store the debris.
A memorial for fire victims could also be part of what is developed on the site, recognizing that ash might contain some elements of human remains from the Aug. 8 wildfire, which killed at least 99 people.
Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen, in a Sept. 20 letter to Gov. Josh Green, requested use of the state-owned Olowalu site, which is next to a closed landfill, to receive debris from the fire, which destroyed 2,200 buildings in Lahaina.
In the letter, Bissen said county officials planned to have the Central Maui Landfill 25 miles from Lahaina be the final disposal site for the fire debris but that the Olowalu quarry site would be more practical and beneficial.
A state Department of Land and Natural Resources staff report said the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency favor the Olowalu site as the final disposition site for the debris from the Lahaina wildfires and another fire that destroyed 19 homes in Upcountry Maui, also on Aug. 8.
At a Thursday news conference in Wailuku, Maui County Council Chair Alice Lee said the Council has sent the state Land Board a letter supporting the Olowalu plan.
“The idea that people will be closer to their remains, and the fact that if it becomes a memorial and people have the opportunity to spend time there … this is important to the people of Lahaina,” she said.
Lee also said proceeding with the Olowalu plan is important to do without delay so that recovery can take place.
“For people to rebuild, the debris has to be removed,” she said.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is removing household hazardous materials — including batteries, solvents, pesticides, pressurized fuel cylinders, oils and materials thought to have asbestos — from burned properties. This work is about 85% complete, and material removed is going to a hazardous-waste facility outside Hawaii.
Council member Tamara Paltin, who represents West Maui, said at Thursday’s news conference that exporting an expected 300,000 to 400,000 tons of debris that includes ash, metal and concrete could cost 10 times as much as the Olowalu plan, estimated to cost around $35 million.
In Paltin’s view the Olowalu plan is preferable to hauling the debris to the Central Maui Landfill, where the island’s trash is deposited, in part because of the distance and the idea of mixing ash with elements of human remains in the current landfill.
Paltin acknowledged that a lot of residents want the debris shipped off of Maui, though she regards the Olowalu plan as the best case among “not really a lot of great options.”
According to the DLNR staff report from Maui District Land Agent Daniel Ornellas, “Development of the Lahaina Wildfire Final Disposition Project site at Olowalu for wildfire debris and ancillary purposes is the most practical option for disposal of debris from West Maui.”
The report said benefits of using the Olowalu site instead of the Central Maui Landfill include reduced travel time and traffic as well as not reducing the remaining use of the Central Maui Landfill by two years if fire debris were deposited there.
DLNR is recommending that an environmental assessment not be required given the characteristics of the site next to a closed landfill and probable minimal or no significant effect on the environment.
Paltin said she understood that the plan involves wrapping and heat-sealing debris in giant sheets of plastic film, like a burrito or laulau, for transportation by truck to the Olowalu site, where the wrapped bundles would be buried in the old quarry to be lined with clay and plastic before being covered with plastic and concrete.
The DLNR report said about 12.3 acres of quarry area immediately east of the closed Olowalu landfill and about 1,000 feet mauka of Honoapiilani Highway would be filled with the debris.
The Land Board meeting, which has many agenda items, is scheduled to begin at 9:15 a.m. in the Kalanimoku Building at 1151 Punchbowl St. in Conference Room 132, with an online Zoom feed and YouTube livestream.
