Officials for the city, which has dithered for decades about the ultimate disposition of the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill, can be allowed to exhale a bit after a state panel cleared the way for its continued operations until 2028.
But beneath the muted sense of relief they may feel after Thursday’s decision, surely they also feel the sting. Through two days of presentations and deliberations, the state Land Use Commission slapped the city for failing to make its case, or to provide enough current evidence of the landfill’s capacity and other operational information.
And the city deserves that strong rebuke. The commission voted 6-2 vote to approve the city’s application for a special use permit on the Leeward Oahu landfill, enabling operations to continue within the 200-acre site. But that decision came only after harsher verdicts had been contemplated.
The deliberations began with commissioner Gary Okuda’s motion to deny the permit outright. The city had not met its burden of proof that the landfill qualified as a “special use” under law, he said.
Okuda and others echoed a complaint that the city had not included data about site selection or waste diversion efforts more current than 2012.
His motion failed only narrowly, 4-4. Message received — one hopes.
The formal, written decision won’t come for a few weeks, but what must begin immediately is a redoubled effort to find a replacement site to take over once the permit lapses. Substantial study has been done on that, including an assessment prepared for the city Department of Environmental Services in 2017, listing five locations that scored relatively well.
Based on the comments made by the commission this week, the Caldwell administration would be wise to settle on a location other than on the Waianae Coast.
Opposition groups from the West Side have vigorously protested about how long they’ve put up with the neighboring landfill beyond when the city has promised to close it.
And they were displeased — rightly — with the recommendations to the LUC made by the city Planning Commission on the permit application earlier this year.
The city panel decided in June in favor of permit approval but required only that the city identify an alternative site by Dec. 31, 2022, a location that would not need to be operational by then. And the Planning Commission stipulated only that the alternative “may replace” the existing landfill “when it reaches capacity at a future date.”
All of that seems rather indefinite, which is not encouraging to community members who have long ago run out of patience.
The landfill opened in September 1989 on 200 acres; only about half the property was used for the landfill and support activities. The initial operator Waste Management of Hawaii, was given a 15-year contract, extended to a second 15-year term in 1999.
Promises to limit its lifespan started three years later. The state Health Department allowed a height increase of the landfill; city officials said then the plan was to close the facility in 2007. So it’s understandable that the community is at the end of its rope.
The city’s mission now also includes pressing forward with ongoing commitments to reduce its load of solid waste — challenging, given the market changes that have depressed the global demand for recycled materials.
Continuing the search for alternatives to landfilling must be a major thrust of the city’s environmental services and sustainability agendas.
Even with optimal success, the waste stream won’t reduce to zero, and given shipping costs, Honolulu can’t avoid the need for some landfill space. The quest to find it starts now.
