But despite all the problems, Hawaii County is making some strides on its solid waste programs. Its diversion rate for 2010, the most recent data available, is second in the state. Hawaii County diverted 35.9 percent of its garbage into recycling programs, compared to 41.5 percent on Oahu, 35.3 percent on Maui and 25 percent on Kauai, according to the state Department of Health Office of Solid Waste Management report to the 2011 Legislature.
By NANCY COOK LAUER and ERIN MILLER
Stephens Media
Hawaii County is on its third Environmental Management director in as many years. It’s on its second Solid Waste Division chief.
County taxpayers have spent nearly $3 million on consultants and studies over the past 11 years.
The County Council in 2006 opted for a waste-to-energy garbage incinerator, then two years later, after more than $1 million in studies, opted out.
County administration sold its landfill bulldozer, an essential piece of equipment in controlling the fast-growing Hilo landfill, then rented it back, wasting almost $1 million of taxpayer money. Attempting to stop the bleeding, the County Council last January voted to buy a new D8 bulldozer through a five-year lease-to-own agreement for $796,000, including interest and maintenance.
The county in 2003 began to build a reload facility to send Hilo garbage to West Hawaii, then changed its mind, leaving the $9.3 million white elephant vacant years later. Several private companies have recently expressed interest in using the facility in a public-private partnership, but the administration is reluctant, saying it wants to use government workers there instead.
The county also wants to keep its options open. The Integrated Resources and Solid Waste Plan specifies that the facility will be used to sort Hilo-side garbage to be sent to West Hawaii to be disposed of at the Puuanahulu landfill, if expansion of the Hilo landfill is not an option.
“If trucking waste to the West Hawaii Sanitary Landfill is the more feasible option, the county may begin that activity while the (Hilo landfill) is still active,” the report adds.
The county let 33 private garbage haulers lag far behind paying their bills, resulting in more than $1.5 million in arrears taxpayers may never see. County administrators announced in September they filed lawsuits against the biggest scofflaws, but Deputy Corporation Counsel Brooks Bancroft said last week that some haulers have yet to be served court papers.
Dating back to the early 1990s, county officials have hesitated in taking major steps to address the problem of what to do with rubbish on an island with limited space for disposal. The default answer, for the better part of 20 years, has been to make steeper the slopes of the Hilo landfill, delaying the inevitable need to close that site.
The county envisions a day when the Solid Waste Division will become self-supporting. Indeed, the division this year is slated to receive $7.8 million from state grants and tipping fees. But that pales in comparison to the $18.2 million transferred from the taxpayer-subsidized general fund to run the division. An attempt to buffer that loss with a pay-to-throw system was quickly scrapped in the face of residents’ opposition.
But despite all the problems, Hawaii County is making some strides on its solid waste programs. Its diversion rate for 2010, the most recent data available, is second in the state. Hawaii County diverted 35.9 percent of its garbage into recycling programs, compared to 41.5 percent on Oahu, 35.3 percent on Maui and 25 percent on Kauai, according to the state Department of Health Office of Solid Waste Management report to the 2011 Legislature.