Posted on 08/21/2002 9:57:27 PM PDT by Vidalia
HILO - About 400 residents in the Pepeekeo area have signed a petition opposing C. Brewer Environmental Industries' proposal for a waste - to - energy plant in their backyard.
At least that is what Pepeekeo Roy Skogstrom said Tuesday at a public hearing here on the draft addendum to the county's 1994 Integrated Solid Waste Management plan (ISWMP).
Skogstrom said C. Brewer within the last year has conducted several public meetings in the Pepeekeo area, revealing its incinerator proposal would mean 250 tons of trash per day would trucked from Hilo to Pepeekeo, then 50 tons of ash generated from incineration would be trucked to Puuanahulu landfill in West Hawaii via the Hamakua Coast and Waimea.
"What I don't get is why would you build a plant some place besides where the trash is," said Skogstrom, after pointing out most of East Hawaii's garbage is generated in the Hilo and Puna areas, not Pepeekeo.
Skogstrom was among about 30 people who testified at Hilo's public hearing on the ISWMP addendum Honolulu - based Harding ESE consultants were paid nearly $400,000 to draft. Similar hearings were scheduled Monday evening in Kona and Tuesday evening in Waimea.
Within the addendum is a 10 - year, $100 million plan to address the mandatory closure of the Hilo landfill in April 2004 and alternatives for how East Hawaii's trash, estimated at 200 tons per day, will be disposed. At this point, there aren't a lot of alternatives.
What's proposed is that recycables will be sorted from the trash on the Hilo side, and what can't be recycled will be hauled to Puuanahulu - at least until a waste reduction facility is built.
The consultants, working with county Environmental Manage - ment commissioners, narrowed the list of possible technologies for the waste reduction facility to three: incineration, anaerobic digestion and gasification.
At Tuesday's meeting, some griped the list of possible technologies was limited to three, and the addendum doesn't provide much of information about even those, including the technologies' effects on the environment.
Waimea resident Wayne Hagar reiterated what a Kona resident said at Monday's hearing, that the ISWMP addendum doesn't seem to be a plan, but "a reaction."
He called the addendum "shortsighted" because "it considers one side of the situation. Everything in there is about how much it's going to cost. There's nothing in there about revenue generation."
He suggested electricity be generated from landfill gases and the sale of recycables, and gave the consultants handouts about the Monterey, Calif., waste management system, which he believes is "a model site" that uses recycables as commodities and landfill gas to generate electricity.
Hagar later suggested the county could have saved the money paid to Harding ESE by photocopying its 1994 plan. He said the draft addendum is more like "an emergency action plan for the closure of Hilo landfill."
Skogstrom, meanwhile, said Pepeekeo residents are opposed to the C. Brewer's proposed incinerator, mostly because of the trucking of trash involved, and "the emissions of heavy metals and dioxins."
Skogstrom said the ash created from incineration would be considered hazardous waste and would have to be "landfilled separately." That is, unless the county purchases "vitrification" equipment, which essentially turns the trash into a glass - like substance that may be used to pave roads, he said.
He said he gave the petition to Hamakua Councilman Dominic Yagong, Environmental Manage - ment Committee chairman.
The council, likely within one month, will take up the ISWMP addendum, after environmental commissioners hand it over to them. Commissioners are expected to discuss the addendum at their meeting today.
A 5:1 reduction in the landfill mass, yet the bitching and moaning continues, even after knowing about the problems with Oahu and the stench created.
Guess I will just have to buy C. Brewer (since they are broke to da max), bring in four cost and environmentally efficient processes and show these inbred, nepotic, bureaucratic asses who subscribe to the Peter Principle not only in governmental affairs but also in private how to do things...
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