LIHU‘E — Taxpayers’ money thrown into trash studies just keeps accumulating. A $1.8 million contract with off-island consultant AECOM to produce an environmental impact study for the island’s next landfill includes two updates to the Kaua‘i County Council — one
LIHU‘E — Taxpayers’ money thrown into trash studies just keeps accumulating.
A $1.8 million contract with off-island consultant AECOM to produce an environmental impact study for the island’s next landfill includes two updates to the Kaua‘i County Council — one was held in January, and the next is scheduled for later this year.
But council members feel relevant questions were not addressed by AECOM officials in January. After Council Chair Jay Furfaro asked for a workshop “as a courtesy” to a client, the response from AECOM was “yes” — as long as they’re paid an additional $10,000 for the visit, which includes plane tickets from Canada.
County Engineer Larry Dill said at a council meeting April 10 that the Public Works Department has money in its budget to fund the workshop, relieving the council from funding it out of its budget. But before approving the workshop, council members wanted to find out first if it would be valuable to hold it.
The $1.8 million contract had a $207,000 component to provide a feasibility study to find out which waste diversion activities would be feasible at a Resource Recovery Park attached to the landfill, Dill said at a council meeting.
The island’s next landfill will likely be at Ma‘alo, near Hanama‘ulu, according to Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s past statements. But the process has to go through an EIS first.
“Define feasible,” Councilwoman JoAnn Yukimura asked Dill, who didn’t have an answer.
To Yukimura, it was a waste of money to do a feasibility study only on recycling activities at a Resource Recovery Park adjacent to the new landfill. A comparison with decentralized recycling should have been provided to the council, but that was not done, she said.
“Why are we spending so much money, because we don’t know … what the decentralized cost is for some of the activities like composting?” she said.
Dill said that was not what was in the scope of the contract with AECOM.
Councilman Gary Hooser, however, said the contract states the consultant should “identify (a) short list based on trade-offs identified through the feasibility study and trade-offs based on qualitative and quantitative comparisons, and rely on data developed in other studies … to assist in this comparison.”
Based on what he read, Hooser said it looks like there should have been a comparison of alternatives, “not just a rubber stamp saying, ‘Yes, this is feasible.’”
Furfaro said he wanted to be clear that the workshop agenda has specific items that are in scope from the contractor. The council, he said, wants to get clarity, including on economic and financial impacts of the options that the council wants to pursue.
“Urgency is the key word here,” said Furfaro, who asked Dill to figure out a date. “We’re going to have questions come from all members in one communication.”
• Léo Azambuja, staff writer, can be reached at 245-0452 or lazambuja@ thegardenisland.com.
