c An application to the state seeking permission to pack trash more steeply at the Hilo landfill, $360,000. A study in waste, tallying the cost ADVERTISING BY ERIN MILLER WEST HAWAII TODAY emiller@westhawaiitoday.com At least $2.9 million of county money
A study in waste, tallying the cost
BY ERIN MILLER
WEST HAWAII TODAY
emiller@westhawaiitoday.com
At least $2.9 million of county money has been dumped into solid waste studies, plans and applications since 1990, a West Hawaii Today review of the county’s trash history showed.
One oft-repeated request — to check on the cost and feasibility of hauling rubbish from East Hawaii, where the landfill should have been closed years ago, to Puuanahulu on the west side — has cost taxpayers several hundred thousand dollars.
The county last year signed a $200,000 contract to consider the issue, three years after a consultant completed a half million dollar integrated solid waste management plan that also studied trucking costs. That study should be completed within weeks, Solid Waste Chief Greg Goodale said Thursday.
West Hawaii residents tend to come out in force to testify against the idea of hauling garbage from Hilo to Puuanahulu.
The biggest expenditure, by far, was the county’s ill-fated foray into the world of waste to energy. Two consultants, Hawkins, Delafield & Wood and R.W. Beck, took on the task of seeking waste management proposals, then bringing a recommendation to the council supporting Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. The county initially contracted to pay $500,000; after two years of work, the amount more than doubled, to $1.2 million.
And the end result? County Council members voted against signing a contract with Wheelabrator to build a $125.5 million incinerator, despite Mayor Harry Kim’s support of the project.
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.
Other study and plan expenditures since 1993 include:
c The county’s original integrated solid waste management plan, $264,000
c An updated integrated solid waste management plan in 2001-02, $400,000
c An environmental impact statement for waste reduction technology in 2005, $80,000 to $100,000
c An application to the state seeking permission to pack trash more steeply at the Hilo landfill, $360,000.
