• Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part article on a meeting last week to discuss the Environmental Assessment for a lateral expansion for the Kekaha Landfill. The first part was in yesterday’s edition and can be found
• Editor’s note: This is the second of a two-part article on a meeting last week to discuss the Environmental Assessment for a lateral expansion for the Kekaha Landfill. The first part was in yesterday’s edition and can be found online.
by Lester Chang – The Garden Island
Kaua‘i County officials said their priority is to expand the Kekaha Landfill before it reaches its capacity by 2009.
Without approval of an expansion plan by the state Department of Health, the county will have no choice but to shut down the landfill, opening the way for a public health hazard and imposition of stiff fines, Mayor Bryan Baptiste and other county officials said last week at a Waimea Neighborhood Center meeting on a draft environmental assessment on the proposed expansion.
The 50 or so audience members at the meeting hosted by the county and Earth Tech, a Honolulu consultant, were urged to submit written comments or e-mails to the consultant before a 30-day public comment period ends Aug. 24.
Baptiste said if he had his way, the next landfill would be put somewhere else.
“I agree with you,” said Kekaha community leader Jose Bulatao Jr. “I don’t believe the next landfill should be in Kekaha.”
Baptiste said he will press for the formation of a 20-member county committee to identify alternate sites for a landfill and to hold public meetings on its findings. The members of the group will be selected from throughout the island, Baptiste said.
Baptiste said residents will be given ample opportunity to give their opinions on the location of the next landfill and that the county will hire consultants for the work.
Turning philosophical, Baptiste said putting a landfill on an island as beautiful as Kaua’i seems absurd, although necessary.
“If you are going to have a landfill, you should try to make it as minimal as possible,” he said.
Kekaha resident Bruce Pleas said the closed landfill — the first phase — continues to pose a health risk to all of West Kaua‘i.
Because the old landfill has no underground lining, contaminants, he believes, continue to percolate through the ground and into the ocean, affecting marine life and beachgoers, Pleas said.
“The groundwater is contaminated and is perilous to everything in west Kaua‘i,” he said.
Fujimoto said the county doesn’t have all the answers raised by residents, but in the short-term, plans to ask the state Department of Transportation to help clean debris on the roads, block dust from the landfill and will consider landscaping the boundaries of the facility and providing compensation to the Kekaha residents for having had the landfill in their community for nearly six decades.
“We are not hiding anything,” he said.“That is the last thing we want to do.”
Among those attending the meeting were Joanne Nakashima, a representative for Sen. Gary Hooser, Kaua‘i County Council Chairman Kaipo Asing and Ed Renaud, the deputy director of the Public Works Department.
Those wanting to submit recommendations by Aug. 24 can contact EarthTech at 523-8874 or Michelle Mason at michelle.mason@earthtec.com
• Lester Chang, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) or lchang@kauaipubco.com.
