Several residents living downwind of a 169-year-old Nuuanu cemetery are making a stink about the odors from its old cremation units.
Judd Street resident Ed Lee, who has led the charge against Oahu Cemetery, has been going door to door, raising concerns about the diesel fuel smell, as well as "strong chemical" and plastic smells coming from embalming fluids and body bags.
"Sometimes it’s so powerful that they need to leave their homes," Lee said of his neighbors, and he contends that black soot falls outside and a fine, gray ash settles inside his house from the crematorium.
The Oahu Cemetery Association’s chief operator disputed allegations of any soot or ash coming from the crematories and said the cemetery’s proposed upgrades will eliminate diesel as an operating fuel.
The cemetery, at 2162 Nuuanu Ave., applied in March for a state Department of Health permit to replace its three aging crematories, the oldest built in 1907, with new, cleaner-burning units.
The department is holding a public hearing at 5:30 p.m. Thursday at the Kawananakoa Middle School cafeteria, 49 Funchal St., to allow residents to voice their concerns. The department will take those statements and consider them when reviewing the cemetery’s permit application, department spokeswoman Janice Okubo said.
Okubo said the department’s Clean Air Branch chief maintains that the new units should burn cleaner.
Although the department has no legal requirement to have a public hearing, it is having one because of a history of complaints from residents.
Scott Power, chief operating officer of Oahu Cemetery & Crematory, founded in 1844, said the new units will greatly improve air quality.
"It’s going to have a positive impact on our neighbors," he said.
The cemetery’s board has for six years planned to replace the old ones with new $3.5 million units and a new building. It went forward in May 2012 to develop plans, and sent out 700 mailers to neighbors sharing its plans, Power said.
The proposed state-of-the-art, automated units will be powered by synthetic natural gas or propane only, eliminating the diesel smell, which is "95 percent of the issue," and will have a minimal amount of emissions, Power said.
The board selected a U.S. Crematory Equipment model that is used in Maryland, the state with the strictest emissions standards. The model can handle up to 1,000 pounds (remains plus casket), he said.
The historic 70-foot smokestack will remain standing but will not be in use.
If approved, the three new units will be placed in a new building next to the existing one, each with its own 40-foot stack, and the old units will be destroyed.
Power said the cemetery, one of the state’s oldest, performs on average seven cremations a day, or roughly 2,000 annually, which is about 28 percent of the state’s 7,000 total.
Oahu Cemetery also has been a wholesaler of cremations, performing them for four other locally owned funeral homes without crematories of their own.
Lee, the Judd Street resident, said he anticipates the numbers to grow. He said that even with the new proposed units, the emissions will contain heavy metals, including arsenic, mercury and lead, and particulate matter that affects air quality.
"There’s no such thing as a clean, zero-emissions operation," Lee said. "An air permit is permission to pollute that will affect the neighborhood."
But Power said these emissions, like those from a car, disperse sufficiently so as not to cause harm, and that the cemetery must follow the Health Department’s guidelines and regulations to avoid any negative impact.
And he claims Lee has been spreading misinformation and exaggerations to legislators and the public, including allegations of ash around his home.
Power said each of the crematories has two chambers, one burning at 900 degrees F and the other at 1,600 degrees, and that no ash rises out of the smokestack.
And not everyone shares Lee’s vehemence.
One 85-year-old woman who has lived in the neighborhood since 1945 said the smell doesn’t bother her.
Keoni Miller, who lives in the Judd Street house purchased by his great-grandparents after World War II, said the bad diesel smell "blows right through our house." But because the cemetery is part of the community and generations of his family have been buried there, he declined to sign Lee’s petition.
Miller said Lee came to his door, raising concerns about the smell and emissions, but never mentioned the proposed new replacement units.
"It seems if they are going to build new ones, the pollution would be less," he said.
Another Judd Street resident, who declined to give his name, said, "You always worry about what’s coming out of the smokestack."
He said he hopes an environmental assessment would be required and that the state would take air samples, chart the drift of the pollutants and assess air quality under different wind conditions. He also wants the Health Department to get a base line of residents’ health by offering blood tests to see whether there are any abnormalities.
