In just 36 months, the Hilo landfill will be filled up and all garbage not recycled or composted will be trucked to the Puuanahulu landfill for disposal.
In just 36 months, the Hilo landfill will be filled up and all garbage not recycled or composted will be trucked to the Puuanahulu landfill for disposal.
That’s the current plan, and it’s a lot like the plan initiated by the county in 2010, where Hilo-side garbage was to be dumped into a $10 million sort station, to be separated and the residuals trucked to the West Hawaii landfill.
After years of West Hawaii opposition to trucking the waste, a dismal materials recovery rate at the sort station and an aborted attempt to construct a waste-to-energy incinerator, the county is back to square one.
The state Department of Transportation and the Federal Aviation Administration banned any new landfills within 6 miles of Hilo International Airport, Environmental Management Director Bobby Jean Leithead Todd said Tuesday. Besides, she said, Puuanahulu is a better site for a landfill because it gets less than 8 inches of rainfall a year. A Hilo landfill would require a leachate system to treat runoff.
Leithead Todd, addressing the council’s Environmental Management Committee, said the county submitted applications to close the Hilo landfill, which will have to be monitored for 30 years after it’s shuttering.
The landfill is filling up faster than anticipated. Most recent estimates put the lifespan at about five years.
“As the economy picked up, so has the rubbish,” Leithead Todd said.
Currently, the county uses the sort station to remove paper, organic waste and green waste from garbage before it goes to the landfill. Trash is dumped on the plant floor and workers operating a mini-excavator and loaders sort the recyclables by hand before reloading the truck for the landfill.
This time, it’s different, Leithead Todd said. The county will mechanize some of the garbage-sorting process, it will have a new enhanced composting operation in Hilo starting in July 2018 and more emphasis will be put on recycling, which will reduce the amount of residual waste going to Puuanahulu.
She said after the meeting the impact of a proposed anaerobic digestion waste-to-energy facility planned by BioEnergy Hawaii LLC for 15 acres at the West Hawaii Concrete Quarry is not yet known. The plan is currently in the draft environmental assessment process.
The county plans to haul all the green waste from the west side of the island to Hilo for composting, so the trucks will be full going both directions, saving the county money. The county needs to compost on the east side because of a lack of potable water at the Puuanahulu landfill.
“As I see the default plan would be to truck all of the refuse … over to Kona,” said Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille, introducing a resolution Tuesday asking the county to put out a request for proposals for a comprehensive waste disposal program compatible with the county’s zero waste program.
Wille and Puna Councilman Danny Paleka, who both suffered defeats Saturday in their bids to retain their seats, mostly had their game faces on, taking a workaday approach to their roles at Tuesday’s meeting.
Now that Saddle Road is complete, it’s expected there will be less north-side opposition to trucking the garbage. But Cory Harden of Hilo in testimony urged the county to forget about building any more landfills or constructing garbage incinerators.
“It’s unfortunate we wasted so much time on incinerator proposals. I hope we’re past that,” Harden said.
The county will begin its revisions to its 2009 Integrated Solid Waste Management Plan next year. The first step is creating a solid waste advisory commission and finding support staff. Then, a consultant is hired to conduct research and advise the staff. The state requires the plan to be updated every 10 years.
North Kona Councilwoman Karen Eoff asked if that process could be started sooner, but was told there’s no money in the budget for it. The last consultant cost $500,000.
“Maybe we could step up that date,” Eoff said.
In all, the county had spent more than $2.9 million on solid waste consultants since 2009, according to a 2012 West Hawaii Today analysis.
After initiating a long discussion and seeing opposition, Wille ultimately withdrew her resolution but promised to bring back another one before her term ends in December.
“I want to keep this on the urgent list,” Wille said.
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.