Wahiawa landfill plans sidetracked

Yahoo

26-05-2025

New state legislation likely will upend the city's plan to close its current solid-­waste landfill in West Oahu and replace it with one near Wahiawa, on active pineapple fields above Central Oahu's freshwater aquifer.
State lawmakers on April 30 adopted House Bill 969, which seeks to ban landfills above potable groundwater sources or in agricultural districts in Hawaii. If signed into law by Gov. Josh Green, the bill would prohibit the construction, modification or expansion of any waste or disposal facility on land that is above a significant aquifer. The measure would narrow the prohibition on building a garbage dump within a half-mile buffer zone of residential, school or hospital property lines.
It also bans landfills from being built on the state's most highly productive, prime agricultural lands in counties with a population of more than 500, 000 people—meaning only Oahu, with fewer than a million residents, is affected by this legislation.
But as of this week, Green—who had traveled to Washington, D.C., through Friday to testify at a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on science and health matters related to the outbreak of infectious diseases like COVID-19—had neither signed nor vetoed HB 969. The 2025 legislative session adjourned May 2.
During his absence, the governor's office declined to comment on HB 969, its status or questions on Green's perspective over the future siting of new landfills.
Erika Engle, Green's press secretary, told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser any questions to the governor on either landfills or HB 969 could be addressed at another time. 'The timing will likely be around when the decision is made on what action to take with the bill, ' she added.
Green has the option to veto the landfill bill by June 24. The governor also could sign the measure into law or let the bill automatically become law without his signature. The latter two actions must occur by July 9, legislative staff note.
In the wake of HB 969's passage at the state Capitol, the mayor's office outlined three potential paths forward with regard to siting Oahu's next landfill.
Ian Scheuring, Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi's deputy communications director, told the Star-Advertiser, 'Should Gov. Green sign HB969 into law, the city's intended pathway, which was to safely construct and safely operate a state-of-the-art landfill that did not pose a threat to public health and did not contaminate Oahu's drinking water aquifer, will no longer be considered a viable option.'
Scheuring said if the Legislature had amended Act 73 during the 2025 legislative session, it would have opened up additional locations that the city could have considered for a potential landfill site. But that didn't happen, he said.
'Amending the buffer zone would have opened up additional locations that the City could have considered as options for a potential landfill site, but because those options would have been closer to homes, schools and /or medical facilities, our preference was the site in Wahiawa, ' Scheuring said.
With the preferred site in Wahiawa no longer a viable option, and with the Legislature having declined to amend Act 73, he said the city expects to move forward with the third pathway, 'which is to seek an extension of operations at the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill.'
'There are multiple ways in which the city could pursue an extension of operations at Waimanalo Gulch, including by going back to the state Land Use Commission, ' Scheuring asserted. 'The city is currently evaluating those options.'
HB 969, which was among eight anti-landfill bills floated during the 2025 legislative session, arose due to a Wahiawa-area site—west of Kamehameha Highway and north of Paalaa Uka Pupu ­kea Road—where the city proposed a new dump on agricultural land owned by Dole Food Co. Hawaii.
Announced in December, the city said it hoped to negotiate a purchase of about 150 acres—the amount of land needed for a solid-­waste landfill—out of what it described as an approximately 2, 360-acre parcel now owned by Dole.
Dole had stated its opposition to the city having a landfill on its active farming property.
And that site, according to the Board of Water Supply, is about 800 feet above Central Oahu's prime groundwater source.
BWS objected to the city siting a landfill within its so-called 'no-pass zone, ' an area that covers the interior of the island where Oahu's potable water aquifer is located.
The planned Wahiawa landfill site is one of six sites—on the North Shore and in Central Oahu—BWS rejected in 2022 due to their proximity to the island's aquifer.
But the city's actions came as it faced a state-­imposed Dec. 31, 2024, deadline to find an alternate dump site, ahead of the planned closure of the over-35-year-old Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill in Kapolei, in accordance with a 2019 decision and order by the state Land Use Commission.
That West Oahu dump is set to close in 2028, though the landfill will not reach full capacity until 2032, the city said.
In recent years Blangiardi vowed he would not site a new landfill in West Oahu—an area that already features Waimanalo Gulch, the privately owned construction and demolition landfill, PVT Land Co. Ltd. in Nanakuli, and the HPOWER waste-to-energy facility in Kapolei.
Anthony Makana Paris, chair of the Makakilo-­Kapolei-Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board, opined that any pledge to keep landfills out of West Oahu effectively ended with the passage of HB 969.
'We're pretty used to it because waste is a billion-­dollar industry, and it impacts everything and everyone in our communities, ' Paris said, adding the latest actions over landfills in West Oahu are nothing new. 'We've been in this conversation for like 20 years.'
In particular, he noted the city promised 'to shut down Waimanalo Gulch in 2008, ' and then again 'eight years after that.'
Paris said multiple extensions were granted in subsequent years to keep Waimanalo Gulch open.
'Now we're in 2025, and because of this bill, HB 969, it's become apparent to our community that the likelihood of (the city's landfill ) remaining at Waimanalo Gulch is extremely high.'
Still, Paris said it comes down to 'environmental justice ' for West Oahu.
'It's a textbook case in my mind because the highest concentration of Native Hawaiians—and Native Hawaiian homesteads—is on West Oahu, ' he said. 'And all of the policies, and their interpretation by actors, sadly continues to keep (solid waste operations ) on this side.'
The Makakilo-Kapolei-­Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board has not taken an official position on HB 969, but Paris said the the board did issue a resolution pertaining to solid-waste sites and HPOWER in West Oahu.
He said the board's 2023 measure, Resolution 12, supports 'host community compensation ' for neighborhoods affected by active-­operated landfills and waste-to-energy facilities.
The resolution states, 'Scientific and public health studies have shown that there are statistically significant negative health impacts from landfills and waste-to-energy facilities for those living up to two miles away from their operation depending on local geography and micro-climates.'
It asserts that 'people living near active landfills and waste-to-energy facilities have experienced a myriad of health problems including increased risk of reduced lung function, asthma, ataxia, paralysis, and lung cancer as their home air quality has been negatively impacted by such operations.'
The resolution stated that Blangiardi's Landfill Advisory Committee recommended that 'a Host Community (Compensation ) Benefits package be established not only for the next community to host a landfill, but also include communities that have borne the burden of past Oahu landfills.'
Via the resolution, the neighborhood board supports 'host community compensation for neighborhoods impacted by active landfills and waste-to-energy facilities.'
Resolution 12 states that any 'funds made available as compensation to the neighborhoods of Makakilo, Kapolei, and Honokai Hale for the impact on the community by active landfills and waste-to-energy be placed into a community fund that would manage and grant funds to the direct benefits of the neighborhoods of Makakilo, Kapolei, and Honokai Hale.'
Paris continues to support the resolution's request for a remedy for West Oahu residents living near landfills. He said the city should provide a 'community compensation package, ' adding that he doesn't 'like to use the word 'benefits, ' because it's not a benefit to have (a landfill ) in your community.'
In recent months Honolulu City Council Chair Tommy Waters also has expressed concerns over the lack of information from city officials regarding the actual cost of a new landfill, much less the potential reuse of the existing dump at Waimanalo Gulch.
During an April 24 Zoom meeting with the Star-­Advertiser's editorial board, Waters said, 'If you can't tell me how much it's going to cost to set up a new landfill—when we've got so many other priorities in the city—I'm not sure it's a responsible thing to do, to site a new landfill at this point in time.'
Waters said that Blangiardi 'has kind of backed himself into a corner in that he promised not to ' have a new landfill in West Oahu.
'It's tough, right ?' he asserted. 'But ultimately, I think we should all recognize that putting (a landfill ) over an aquifer is a bad idea.'
Waters added, 'I'm wondering if (city officials are ) just crossing their T's and dotting their I's, and they will end up coming back to the conclusion that (the landfill ) needs to stay right where it's at.'