City's proposed landfill site draws strong opposition at Wahiawa town hall meeting
WAHIAWA (HawaiiNewsNow) - For the first time, Wahiawa area residents got the chance to react to the city’s proposal to build a 15-acre landfill on agricultural land in Central Oahu.
Nearly all of those who spoke had concerns, complaints and skepticism about the plan, along with some anger.
“This should go down in the trash! With the rest of your trash!” said a Mililani Mauka resident, drawing applause from the overflow crowd at Wahiawa Elementary School.
“Why are we destroying active (agricultural) land when we all claim to support ag?” asked North Shore Neighborhood Board chair Kathleen Pahinui.
The biggest concern by far is the proposed location 800 feet above an aquifer, with residents fearing another incident like what happened at Red Hill, where military jet fuel leaked into the water supply some 100 feet below.
“City officials must come up with better proposals that are both creative and innovative, unless we want to repeat another Red Hill disaster! Once is enough!,” the Mililani Mauka resident said.
The current landfill at Waimanalo Gulch in Leeward Oahu has a liner that the city says has never been breached. However, an overflow there in 2011 left medical waste -- including syringes -- on West Oahu beaches.
“The reason why we were able to know what happened at the Waimanalo Gulch is that it went into the Pacific Ocean. Very different from aquifers, where we cannot see what’s happening underground. It could be years before we find out that there’s contamination,” said former city councilmember Heidi Tsuneyoshi.
Board of Water Supply chief engineer Ernie Lau -- who opposes the landfill site -- said it is possible for a leak to go through 800 feet of soil, without any cap rock layers to stop it.
He also said any landfill is considered to be a facility that lasts forever.
“The containment systems -- will they last 30 years? Sixty years? Two hundred years?,” he asked.
The proposed landfill with have two liners to prevent leaking. And city Environmental Services Director Roger Babcock said he believes the landfill will not affect the water system.
“My answer is that I’m confident that we can meet the regulations and rules that are set down for us so that it’s protective of public health, and it’s the law of the entire country,” said Babcock.
He also said the trash has to go somewhere, and the proposed site is the one that ticks the most boxes on where landfills can go on Oahu.
“This isn’t Hogwarts,” he told the gathering. “I can’t do an incantation and wave a wand and have it disappear.”
Despite city officials’ attempts to win public support, a city council committee has voted against the plan. And now many of the nearest residents are on record begging them them to find another site.
“We don’t need another disaster on our hands,” the Mililani Mauka resident told Babcock directly. “You’re playing with fire! You don’t play with fire!”
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