Tuesday’s announcement by the City and County (C&C) of Honolulu of a proposed landfill site over one of Oahu’s precious aquifers strains credibility.

The C&C claims that it “will ensure aquifer protection by exceeding federal and state design standards for safe operations and regulations for monitoring solid waste landfills” — based in part on the observation that the existing Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill “has not leaked through its liner” over “roughly 35 years of operation.”

With all due respect to city Environmental Services Director Roger Babcock, justifying the siting of a landfill with potentially zillions of tons of poisonous waste over an aquifer just isn’t acceptable. Our aquifers are needed for, we hope, hundreds of more years of drinking-water use.

To offer a proposal based, in part, on another site with 35 years with no CURRENTLY KNOWN leakages simply isn’t reasonable. The current proposal may well include appreciably improved standards — but even improved standards should not be acceptable for threatening Oahu’s fresh-water resources.

If the last hundred years of science has shown us anything, it has shown us that science doesn’t really “know” anything. Science, at its best, establishes a set of beliefs based on the best of contemporary knowledge. Even a casual observation of the progress of science shows one after another of honestly held scientific beliefs being replaced by newer and better knowledge.

Oahu cannot trust its survival resources to what might be, again, at best, our best contemporary knowledge. Just for one easy example: Aloha Stadium was built with steel that the best science at the time told us would not need to be painted and would last nearly indefinitely.

Forty or fifty years from now we won’t be able to just dig up and move decades of trash after finding it is poisoning, or even worse, has already irreparably poisoned our aquifer.

Likely as not, the C&C of Honolulu even knows that, with the multiple legal and regulatory challenges such an effort will face, it will never actually build on this proposed site. Very possibly it is merely putting this proposal forward to satisfy today’s legal and political needs while gaining a few more years to try to find a real solution.

Part of the problem in finding a site for the next badly needed Oahu landfill is that Oahu has been approaching the problem as the C&C of Honolulu.

Oahu needs to recognize that its population is just under 69% of the state of Hawaii. As nearly 70% of the state, Oahu needs to be bargaining as the state of Hawaii.

The state needs to reopen negotiations with the state’s second-largest landowner, the U.S. government — in particular, the U.S. Department of Defense and its various services.

Leases for multiple DoD bases and training areas are currently or will soon be up for renegotiation by the state. Functional landfill sites, not situated above aquifers, have already been identified on DoD-controlled properties. Especially after the Navy poisoning of the aquifer below the Red Hill fuel-storage site, it is time for DoD to contribute some of its resources for the needs of our island community.

The state really needs to take the position that no DoD leases, for any service, will be renewed unless land suitable for a new Oahu landfill is supplied to the C&C of Honolulu.

Henry Bennett is a publishing professional who has worked with numerous local academic/research institutions. He lives in Manoa.