Carlisle: Landfill Always Compliant With Permits
UPDATED 1/26/11 10 a.m.
The state is investigating whether operators of the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill violated any permits when they discharged garbage-laden stormwater during recent heavy rains in Leeward Oahu. If the answer is yes, it wouldn’t be the first time.
At Monday’s Honolulu City Council hearing about the landfill crisis, Mayor Peter Carlisle commended Waste Management’s handling of the incident and painted a rosy picture of recent history at Waimanalo Gulch.
“Waste Management has, to the best of our knowledge, always been compliant with the requirements of permits,” Carlisle told council members at the joint hearing of the committees dealing with public safety and infrastructure.UPDATE
Carlisle is incorrect: This isn’t Waste Management’s first rodeo.
In February 2006, the Hawaii Department of Health cited Waste Management and the city for 18 types of violations at Waimanalo Gulch over a two-year period and levied a $2.8 million penalty. The alleged violations included:
- Failure to place daily soil cover on the active MSW landfill workface on at least 27 days
- Failure to submit annual operating reports in a timely manner
- Failure to report the overfilling in a timely manner
- Failure to place intermediate soil cover on the ash monofill for over a year
- Allowing excessive leachate (liquids) in landfill sumps for over 120 days
- Failure to measure and maintain records of leachate levels in landfill sumps for over a year
- Failure to record the location of asbestos disposal and maintain records for over six months
- Failure to monitor methane gas and maintain records for two years
- Failure to comply with other conditions of the Solid Waste Management Permit, Special Conditions
Read the full [pdf] from the Department of Health.
That was nearly five years ago, presumably long before Carlisle had his eye on the mayor’s office. But there was a more recent citation.
In May 2010 — just eight months ago — the Hawaii Department of Health again cited Waste Management and the city for alleged violations at Waimanalo Gulch, according to a second [pdf]. This time, the Health Department claimed landfill operators failed to:
- Construct the west berm in accordance with design specification;
- Notify DOH of the noncompliance during and after the construction of the west berm; and
- Submit timely interim and final Construction Quality Assurance reports for the construction of the west berm.
The department imposed a $424,000 fine.
Waste Management has not always been compliant with permit conditions. If that’s the best of the city’s knowledge, then the city just isn’t paying attention.
UPDATE: The day after the fact check published, Managing Director Doug Chin handed the following statement to Civil Beat at Honolulu Hale:
Regarding the Mayor’s statement before the joint Council committee hearing on landfill medical waste that “Waste Management has, to the best of our knowledge, always been compliant with the requirements of the permits,” the statement left out the phrase, “as to medical waste”, which was one of the subjects of Monday’s hearing. The omission was unintentional. Thank you, Civil Beat, for catching this.
