Letters | 3-4-15

Changes to green waste dumping ‘dumb’

Changes to green waste dumping ‘dumb’

Here we go again! Some years ago, the county initiated a smart, efficient and economical program to reduce landfill use, eliminate illegal dumping on private land and on out-of-the-way public lands. This free program created green waste dumping sites where homeowners and commercial operators could dump green waste close to where it was generated. We are blessed in Hawaii with a year-round growing season. But the blessing comes with a cost — lots of green waste.

Then just a few years ago, allegedly because of a lost lease, the county built the current green waste facility at Kealekahe. It is positioned with a wall that now requires hand unloading of most material, and is facing directly into the wind, so that users get the dust and grit in their faces and eyes.

Further, there are four parking stall sized positions for unloading — too close together for workers to work safely alongside larger trucks. Then, apparently realizing that engineering failed to consider the space needed, they closed one position. Great. A safer work area, right? Wrong. That space is simply blocked, but the lanes were not widened. Dumb? Wait, it gets dumber.

Now, with only a few weeks notice, the county director of Environmental Management is barring all commercial operators from using any transfer station green waste site, requiring them to travel to the Hilo or Puuanahulu landfills. In case Bobby Jean Leithead Todd hadn’t noticed, this is a big island. Operators will have to drive up to 140 miles round trip to get rid of green waste. Isn’t traffic bad enough? Oh, I forgot to mention that commercial operators will only have to pay 25 percent of the $85 per ton dump rate, instead of offloading for free. Such a deal.

So welcome back to the bad old days of piles of rotting green waste alongside our roads and on unsuspecting property owners’ vacant lots. Perhaps Brenda Ford is correct in her lawsuit that the current director of Environmental Management doesn’t have the qualifications for her job.

I should mention that I am just a homeowner who uses the green waste facility, so the new rule will help me by eliminating crowding — but dumb is dumb.

Howard Conant

Keauhou Mauka

Setting the record straight

To set the record straight, Glenn Johansen incorrectly quoted the first amendment on the U.S. Constitution.

It actually reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It reads “prohibiting,” not “promoting,” as Mr. Johansen stated.

Cindy Whitehawk

South Kona