HILO — The Hawaii County Planning Department has given its stamp of approval on a waste-to-energy plant in Waikoloa that could reduce the garbage headed to the landfills while providing natural gas for Kohala coastal resorts.
HILO — The Hawaii County Planning Department has given its stamp of approval on a waste-to-energy plant in Waikoloa that could reduce the garbage headed to the landfills while providing natural gas for Kohala coastal resorts.
The Planning Department found no significant environmental impact from the proposed facility that will be built with private equity. The Jan. 27 finding is scheduled to be published Wednesday in the state Office of Environmental Quality Control’s Environmental Notice.
“The County of Hawaii Planning Department has reviewed the comments received during the 30-day comment period on the draft environmental assessment,” said Planning Director Michael Yee in a letter to the state. “We have determined that the project will not have significant environmental effects.”
BioEnergy Hawaii LLC plans to lease just under 15 acres at the West Hawaii Concrete Quarry to build a waste separation and anaerobic digestion facility that will produce methane and other gases, with byproducts to include soil amendments and fertilizer. A smaller, closed thermal gasification unit will generate electricity, under the plan.
The methane will power garbage trucks currently run by Pacific Waste Inc., a sister company. Pacific Waste currently hauls about 80 percent of the commercial waste on the west side of the Big Island.
“We’re going to build a state of the art facility, and we know what we’re doing,” Guy Kaniho, BioEnergy Hawaii general manager, said Thursday. “We know when we pick up the trash, we’ll be able to process it.”
If all goes as planned, the facility will open in the summer of 2019. There will be opportunity for public comment before then, both in community meetings and before the state Land Use Commission, where the company will seek to amend its current special permit.
The 200-ton-per-day facility could divert as much as 70 percent of its municipal solid waste from the West Hawaii landfill at Puuanahulu, sending 30 percent to the landfill as residual waste. It could be expanded to 400 tons per day, under the plan.
The facility will emit no gas or smoke, and won’t be able to be seen from the roadways, the coast or the hotels, said planning consultant David Robichaux, of North Shore Consultants in Honolulu.
The West Hawaii landfill currently accepts about 300 tons of commercial and residential waste per day, and the soon-to-be-closed Hilo landfill accepts about 200 tons per day.
The estimated $50 million BioEnergy project includes backing from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s investment company Ulupono Initiative and other private equity with support from a $100 million special purpose revenue bond issued by the state.
The plant could also relieve the need for a $10.3 million compost operation in Hilo. That facility, financed with a county bond issue, has encountered opposition from neighbors, leading Mayor Harry Kim to reconsider the project.
The site entrance for the West Hawaii plant will be located 2.7 miles east of the intersection of Queen Kaahumanu Highway and Waikoloa Road. The facility will be located approximately one mile south of Waikoloa Road and accessed by a dedicated road way and utility easement. Its location is three miles overland to the nearest development in Waikoloa Village, three miles from the West Hawaii landfill at Punaluu, and four miles from the Waikoloa Beach resort area.
The full 248-page report: https://oeqc.doh.hawaii.gov/Shared%20Documents/EA_and_EIS_Online_Library/Hawaii/2010s/2017-02-08-HA-5E-FEA-Integrated-Resource-Recovery-Facility.pdf