KAILUA-KONA — It was dumping Wednesday, but not rain.
In anticipation of Tropical Storm Madeline, solid waste facilities were closed around the island — which is standard practice when hurricane-like weather looms — but that didn’t stop some rogue residents from piling heaps of garbage in front of the closed locations, despite signs at the sites denoting the practice as illegal and punishable by fines.
John Medeiros, deputy director of the Department of Environmental Management, said the problem isn’t new.
“Any time we’re closed for a situation like that, people just disregard the signs and stack trash at the gates,” he said. “It’s something we’ve had such a problem trying to control.”
The department was forced to deploy its employees earlier than normal Thursday morning, equipping them with grapple trucks to remove the stockpiled refuse just so the transfer stations could open for scheduled operations.
But the extra work caused by illegal dumping doesn’t end there.
Medeiros said some people take advantage of closed sites to drop off potentially hazardous items such car batteries, paint, gasoline and tires, the dumping of which wouldn’t be permitted even during standard hours.
When refuse is left outside the gates during closed hours, employees are forced to sift through trash bags and sort the garbage for separate disposal.
The department installed surveillance cameras in the past in an effort to combat illegal dumping of regular and hazardous waste, but its equipment has been stolen right off the mounts.
Medeiros hinted that the county might soon engage a third-party security company to help catch perpetrators in the act and hit them where it really hurts — their wallets.
“It’s really hard to police,” he explained. “Right now, there is no statute that we can use to (levy) fines based on just taking a picture unless the picture captures people actually dumping.”
County employees aren’t the only Big Islanders inconvenienced by the practice. Medeiros said his office “gets calls continuously” from neighbors living next to solid waste facilities about garbage overflowing into the road.
“We need to get it off the street,” Medeiros said. “The vectors are what we are most concerned about. It’s a health issue.”
After speaking with supervisors islandwide, Medeiros didn’t think any hazardous waste was illegally dumped Wednesday.
But several of the sites reported heaps of trash mounded in front of their gates.
Medeiros said from what he could gather, transfer stations at Keaau and Pahoa were abused most.
Email Max Dible at mdible@westhawaiitoday.com.
