State Health Department officials said Thursday they are considering imposing additional requirements on the property owner of a proposed Hawaii Kai cemetery after stormwater washed stockpiled asphalt off the site onto neighboring properties.

The Department of Health inspected the property Thursday and "is considering requiring additional controls and best management practices under the existing stormwater permit," said Gary Gill, the Environmental Health Administration’s deputy director.

A health inspector found that asphalt had run off onto adjacent properties owned by Kamehameha Schools and a nursery and possibly into a stream, Gill said.

An official of the property’s contractor/manager said proper procedures have been followed and that the contractor is operating within city permit requirements.

In January, Hawaii Kai residents raised concerns with city officials that floodwaters would likely cause the asphalt rubble to run off the 69-acre parcel owned by Hawaii Kai Memorial Park LLC and into waterways.

"This is sort of what we anticipated," said Elizabeth Reilly, president of Livable Hawaii Kai Hui, who also lives in the area and volunteers at Aloha ‘Aina ‘o Kamilo Nui, the nursery where asphalt runoff was found. "With this weather event, we’re right at that threshold where we remain concerned."

"It’s basically a basalt rock valley. Is that appropriate for the fill to be there permanently? With the weather event and what we observed, is it appropriate to move forward with the cemetery?" she said.

She said the water has been sheeting off the stockpiling site.

The asphalt, some of which had been in piles in January, had been flattened out, causing the area to resemble a giant parking lot.

Reilly said Bill McCorriston, agent for Hawaii Kai Memorial Park, told residents in February he would present cemetery plans to the community members, some of whom wondered whether the site was simply a place for companies to dump construction debris.

East Honolulu was hard hit by the recent storm system, and torrential rain from the surrounding mountains flooded into Kamilo Nui Valley, which is near the marina, and down into the marina itself.

At the Kamilo Nui Valley site where Royal Contracting, which is contractor and part-owner of the proposed cemetery at 7488 Hawaii Kai Drive, had accepted up to 100 truckloads of asphalt a day for several weeks in December and January, a Royal Contracting official estimated 40,000 to 50,000 cubic yards of fill has been brought in since 2006.

By Thursday the water from the stockpiling area had run off, bringing with it chunks of asphalt down a dirt and gravel roadway. Water continued to run over sections of silt screens, meant to keep the fill material in, onto neighboring properties. Floodwater had also eroded and brought down sections of previously stockpiled concrete rubble.

Reilly said the city and state should provide answers to the community’s questions as to whether the stockpiling occurring at the site are really "a permitted land practice."

Hawaii Kai Neighborhood Board member Gary Weller, who has been working on the stockpiling issue, said he was outraged after seeing photos of the runoff. "We warned stormwaters were going to run into the marina," he said.

Weller said the asphalt debris contains oil and other pollutants that are running into waterways and the ocean.

Gill said that although asphalt is generally considered inert and not hazardous or containing toxins, any discharge of material, even clean soil, can harm the environment if it enters waterways and ultimately the ocean, smothering corals, for example.

Materials not considered hazardous "still should not be discharged into waterways," he said.

Leonard Leong of Royal Contracting said his company has put up silt fences made of fabric and that it follows the required city grubbing and stockpiling permits to prevent runoff. He doesn’t believe the stockpiled asphalt is bleeding any pollutants if the city roads they were taken from don’t.

"I don’t think the Department of Health gets involved," he said. "We apply only to the city."

"As for the asphalt to reach the marina, I would find it difficult to understand. Farms, I could see that."

He said he would have any debris cleaned up if he receives any complaints from farmers, and said Thursday he would send someone out to check the area.

The property owner’s stockpiling activity is covered under a stormwater permit, which will expire in October, but Gill said the Health Department can require midway through the permit that best practices be implemented.