Island Watch

Kaua’i Landfill Expansion Is Finally Approved by BLNR

When Hurricane ‘Iniki hit Kaua’i last September, it generated in one day the amount of refuse that ordinarily the county would take four years to accumulate. Had the county’s planned expansion of its landfill, proposed back in 1983 to the state Board of Land and Natural Resources, been approved in timely fashion, the county might have been better positioned to deal with at least one aspect of ‘Iniki’s devastation.

However, for nearly in years, the BLNR had been sitting on the request from the county that 135 acres of state land needed for the expansion be set aside by executive order of the governor. The environmental impact statement had been completed (and accepted by Governor Ariyoshi!). The design work had been completed. Everything appeared to be in order.

Low Priority

For years the project languished. In August 1988, the county managed to get the item on the Land Board’s agenda. The year previous, the Hanalei landfill was closed permanently and the landfill at Haleleha outside Lihu’e was thought to have at most four more years of utility. Developing the Kekaha landfill, designated by county plan to be the sole landfill for the entire island, was becoming urgent.

Despite this, the Board, following the lead of the Kaua’i Land Board member, Herbert Apaka, deferred action, so that Amfac, Inc., owners of Kekaha Sugar Company, could have time “to discuss the land withdrawal” that this expansion would require from Kekaha’s state leased land that was occasionally used by the company as pasture.

The matter was brought before the Board once more in October 1988, but Apaka again had it deferred. This time, he wanted to know “how the county intended to dispose of buried cars” at the Kekaha landfill. Moreover, Kekaha Sugar was unhappy over the prospect of losing “low-cost flood-irrigated pasture land.” Fencing concerns were yet another issue.

In 1989, the county responded to the Land Board’s questions in what it thought was a satisfactory manner. Nonetheless, it was not until January 1992, nearly three years later, that the landfill expansion reappeared on a Land Board agenda this time along with a determination by the Office of Environmental Quality Control that the 1983 EIS was sufficient to meet any new statutory requirements that had arisen since it was developed.

The Land Board, bowing to Apaka’s concerns, thought of still more questions for the county resulting in deferral yet again.

Try, Try Again

Hurricane ‘Iniki struck on September 11. The Kekaha landfill expansion appeared on the Land Board agenda of October 16. And, sure enough, Apaka voiced objections. Apaka said he wasn’t sure “what they’re looking for when they’re asking for” the landfill expansion -despite the long history of this coming before the Board. Apaka suddenly got recycling religion, asking the county now for a recycling plan that he said should be submitted to the Legislature. Because the landfill was to be lined, Apaka said, that meant that the county could put it anywhere, and therefore it did not need to be sited at Kekaha.

Other Board members were puzzled by Apaka’s hostility. Still, the Land Board tradition of allowing the Board Member from the island to set the pace held firm. Apaka moved to defer; Sharon Himeno seconded the motion, and the vote carried. Chris Yuen, the Big Island Board member, alone voted against Apaka’s motion.

One Last Time

November 20, 1992. The setting: The Land Board conference room in the Kalanimoku Building of Honolulu. Attending are Mayor JoAnn Yukimura, members of her cabinet, and John Harder, solid waste coordinator for the state Department of Health (and former solid waste coordinator for Kaua’i). Placed into the record is a letter from the Kaua’i County Council, “humbly” beseeching the Board’s approval of the landfill expansion.

Item F-11 on the agenda is the expansion of the Kekaha landfill, before the Board for the nth time.

Yukimura describes the county’s difficulty dealing with the debris generated by the hurricane as a “critical, tenacious, onerous problem.” Harder outlines the state’s solid waste management program and vouches for the county’s plan.

Apaka, however, continues to raise niggling questions. Paty counters, and, in a rare display of pique, tells Apaka: “I don’t want the Board to be picky in the face of crisis.” The Board goes into executive session, where matters are apparently resolved.

Emerging from the closed-door session, Apaka finally moves to approve the expansion, subject to a face-saving condition that the county prepare a landscaping plan. The motion carries.

Kaua’i Council Rejects Planning Board Nominee…

The Kaua’i County Council’s brief alliance with Mayor Yukimura’s administration lasted no longer than the time it took to get the landfill expansion approved by the Land Board. After that, it was back to politics as usual.

The latest showdown came over the mayor’s reappointment of Mina Morita to the County Planning Commission. Morita came under extensive criticism from the county Planning Committee for her past activities in opposition to unlimited commercial boating out of the Hanalei River.

When she went before the council as a whole, the reception was just as chilly. Morita was grilled by the council in executive session on her activities relating to environmental concerns. In the end, her involvement was held against her, with five of seven council members voting against her reappointment.

While Maui Nominee Embraces Development…

Bill Nishibayashi, nominated by Mayor Linda Lingle to the Maui County Planning Commission, is senior representative of the Maui division of the Hawai’i Carpenters Union. Like Morita, Nishibayashi has been criticized not for his own actions, but for those of a fellow carpenter, Steve Suyat.

According to The Maui News of February 18, 1993, Suyat, who heads the union’s legislative committee for Maui, testified before the Planning Commission last January in favor of a restaurant development at Kaniaole Point in Kihei that the county administration has opposed. Suyat told the commission that he would always be testifying in favor of projects “as long as developers and owners have made a commitment that it’s going to be a union project.”

That remark prompted some members of the public who heard Suyat to challenge Nishibayashi’s ability to act independently of the union if appointed to the Planning Commission.

Nishibayashi told The Maui News that while carpenters are generally pro-development, “Of course, the Carpenters Union cannot always be supporting everything.”

Lingle defended her appointment, telling the newspaper, “I think Bill represents the way a lot of people feel” about development. “It’s obvious he has a particular point of view.”

And Big Isle Gets A High-Tech Ecologist

One of the last things departing Mayor Lorraine Inouye did was name Carol Burgess to the Hawai’i County Planning Commission. Burgess is an environmentalist who has been especially active (and notably successful) in trying to wean the Department of Transportation of its habit of spraying pesticides to control roadside weeds.

This did not put her in good stead with the County Council. It let her nomination die without action.

When Steve Yamashiro took office, he did not resurrect Burgess’ nomination but nominated instead Jay Hanson. Hanson could be described as a high-tech ecologist whose desk-top publishing system generates frequent broadsides on philosophy economy and other issues. Hanson, active in the West Hawai’i Sierra Club, has also been outspokenly critical of the state’s plans to develop a spaceport in Ka’u and of the STARS launches on Kaua’i.

Hanson’s nomination passed council review, although Council Members James Arakaki and Bob Rosehill voted against him. According to the Hawai’i Tribune-Herald, “Arakaki, who voted against Hanson at the Committee on Planning level, said he wanted to be consistent. Arakaki, a Hilo councilman, said he resented published comments Hanson wrote claiming wealthy people have enhanced influence with elected representatives.”

Perhaps Hanson’s comments struck a nerve with Arakaki. Both he and Rosehill have been accused of receiving illegal campaign contributions from Honolulu businessman Tom Enemoto. The state Campaign Spending Commission is investigating.

Eddie Alonzo, a 33-year-old auto mechanic from Kea’au, was also named to the Planning Commission by Yamashiro. His nomination, too, has brought its share of controversy. Alonzo’s hearing in the county Planning Committee saw charges of gambling and drug involvement being raised against him. He acknowledged having been granted deferred acceptance of a no-contest plea to a “petty misdemeanor” charge of gambling. That was dropped from his record after a year’s probation, he said.

Alonzo denied any rumors that he was involved in drugs. The Planning Committee forwarded his nomination to the council on a 3-2 vote, with Helene Hale and Brian DeLima the dissenters.

The only commissioner to breeze through Planning Committee review was Melvin Martinson, a retiree from Kohala.

Thar She Blows: PGV Does It Again

The learning curve at Puna Geothermal Venture seems to have flattened out completely. On February 8, the company began to clean out its new production well, KS-9. Immediately levels of hydrogen sulfide soared. In surrounding neighborhoods, concentrations of 672 parts per billion were recorded (PGV is not allowed to cause levels to exceed 25 parts per billion). At the plant itself, lethal levels of 250,000 parts per billion were recorded.

Before the clean-out began, Department of Health staff had been sent to the plant to monitor developments. After two hours of waiting outdoors for the clean-out to begin, they moved to an office on the old HGP-A plant site nearby when the releases of H25 began, the DOH staff were notified not by PGV officers, but by Bob Petricci, a nearby resident and longtime protester. Petricci had to climb a fence and scream at the DOH personnel to get them to leave the office and take note of the poisonous plume. “They were sitting around drinking coffee, eating doughnuts and making jokes while people were choking and vomiting,” Jim Albertini, spokesman for the Big Island Rain Forest Action Group, told the Hawai’i Tribune-Herald.

Seven protesters were arrested for trespassing. Five of the arresting officers themselves complained of the effects of breathing hydrogen sulfide. Several were hit directly by the steam cloud, according to Lieutenant Dale Fergerstrom. Two PGV employees were overcome by gas; several families in the surrounding neighborhoods complained of vomiting and other health effects.

Rift Zone in the DOH?

PGV has been faulted repeatedly in the past for failure to give timely notice of H2S releases to the county Civil Defense Administration. Once more, PGV was tardy in its’ reporting. The releases began about 9:20; Harry Kim, county Civil Defense Administrator, has said PGV did not give notice to his office until 11:07 a.m.

Deputy Health Director Bruce Anderson showed remarkable calm in the face of the storm. One of the PGV workers felled by the gas had not been wearing his mask properly Anderson said. As to the residents’ health complaints, Anderson suggested they might be “psychogenic.” “At this point in time, with the heightened community concern, any illnesses can be attributed to geothermal,” Anderson was reported to have told the Tribune-Herald.

On February 10, Harry Kim said Anderson informed him that the Health Department had given PGV the green light for resuming the interrupted clean-out. Following a meeting with Mayor Steven Yamashiro, other county officials, DOH staff, and a representative of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism, Anderson said PGV had “effectively addressed the technical problems” that led to the high H2S emissions.

On February 11, however, Kim reported that Health Director Jack Lewin, Anderson’s boss, had put on indefinite hold any resumption of activity at well KS-9.

‘Believe it or Not’

The Department of Health has placed new conditions in PGV’s permit to operate, allowing the department to issue fines if it violates notification procedures. Before that, fines were conditioned on emissions violations only. And, to deal with those emissions violations of February 8, the Health Department has fined PGV $10,000.

In a written statement, Lewin said: “Believe it or not, DOH still thinks geothermal is a viable Big Island energy alternative to fossil fuels.”

Even more optimistic is Steve Morris, vice president of PGV who said there was no real need to resume clean-out of well KS-9. Any debris left in the well will be dealt with when the well is hooked into the power plant, even though that may mean additional maintenance and repairs on some equipment. KS-9 should be producing power by the end of March, Morris said.

DOE Behind Makua Permit: So That Explains It

The Army’s efforts to obtain a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act permit for the open burning and open detonation of hazardous waste munitions at Makua Valley has run into a wall. The Environmental Protection Agency, which as late as last September appeared ready to approve it, has repented of its hasty approval. Following receipt of hundreds of letters finding fault with the Army’s 900-plus-page long permit application, the EPA informed the Army that more information would be required before the permit application would be given further consideration.

On February 20, the Army invited certain members of the Wai’anae community to tour Makua Valley. The Army officers also brought our from the continental United States the experts who prepared the flawed permit application, including an engineer from Halliburton NUS, the contractor that prepared the application.

In 1984, Halliburton NUS published a slick ad, touting its quality services. “If we told you we had a process to do your job right the first time, prevent defects, deliver on schedule and still minimize costs, you might call it impossible. We call it quality” the ad claimed, going on to note that, “It costs far less to do a job right the first time.”

Since then, quality control at Halliburton must have slipped a notch or two. The draft permit application to the EPA went through half a dozen iterations before being accepted by the EPA. Now, apparently it must go through several more before it will be let out of the starting gate.

The Army said it had spent more than $1 million to prepare the draft RCRA permit and was prepared to spend $500,000 more. Halliburton NUS’ commitment to quality apparently does not include a money-back guarantee.

Experience, Indeed!

Halliburton was a subcontractor to Martin-Marietta, it was explained, which in turn was a contractor to the Department of Energy. The DOE was asked by the Army to prepare its RCRA permit applications for Makua and other Army facilities nationwide because of its far greater “experience in the environmental field,” an Army officer said.

The Department of Energy has plenty of experience, to be sure. But that experience has been mostly in the field of polluting. The cost of trying to remedy environmental problems at the DOE’s own nuclear weapons facilities has been estimated in the hundreds of billions of dollars.

The Burning Continues

The EPA revoked the interim permit the Army had for the open burning and open detonation of waste munitions. That may have given some people the impression that all OB/OD activities at Makua had ceased.

Not so. The Army has taken the stand that the EPA may not regulate any OB/OD activity it says is needed in the course of training. These so-called training activities constitute by far the greater proportion of OB/OD events; for example, in 1992, the Army destroyed some 50 tons of munitions in the course of training (counting only the weight of the explosive content of the munitions, not their total weight), while it disposed of just 2 tons of munitions described as waste. On February 20, the Army acknowledged that the open burning and open detonation of munitions associated with training was continuing at Makua Valley.

Chidiac Sues Wife Of Akahi Developer

Charles Chidiac, whose Ka’u resort proposal appears dead for now, is suing Nora Lum for $127,000. Nora is the wife of Gene Lum, who is trying to develop a 27-hole golf course on agriculture-zoned land in South Kona.

Chidiac’s suit claims that the money he is seeking is the balance owed on a loan he made to Nora. No details on the nature of the loan were disclosed in court filings.

The Lums’ own resort development has not been without controversy. Between July 30 and August 8, 1991, at a time when the county Planning Department was considering how to process the Akahi resort request, family members contributed more than $21,000 to the campaign fund of Big Island Mayor Lorraine Inouye. On August 13, the Planning Department reversed an earlier determination that the developers would have to prepare an environmental impact statement and obtain a county General Plan amendment.

Inouye donated the money to charity. An investigation by county prosecutors found no violation. Following Planning Commission approval of the golf course, a contested case hearing was held in November and December. In mid-February, the hearing officer, Stuart Oda, recommended that the Planning Board of Appeals uphold the commission’s approval. That board was scheduled to consider Oda’s recommendation on March 12.

In addition to the golf course, Gene Lum had sought to build a 54-unit lodge as part of the resort, but no action has been taken on that request so far.

Meanwhile, Chidiac himself is being sued – by his former partners in the Hawaiian Riviera Resort, who are seeking to take title to the land; and by C. Brewer, which claims Chidiac has defaulted on a mortgage it accepted for a parcel of land it sold to him.

Volume 3, Number 9 March 1993