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More than 200 people turned out for a community meeting in Lahaina this week focused on the county’s plans for burying huge amounts of toxic waste from the August wildfire that killed at least 100 people.

County and federal officials repeatedly said at the meeting that they have reached no final decision about where to permanently store some 400,000 cubic yards of ash and debris contaminated with arsenic, lead, cobalt, copper and an array of other substances harmful to human health.

But for the time being, plans are moving forward so that a temporary facility under construction in Olowalu can start receiving material in mid January. The community should expect to see “a lot of trucks,” officials said, as that works gets underway at the site roughly 7 miles south of Lahaina.

It’s unclear when a permanent site will be selected, but a county slide presentation showing the location of the temporary landfill in Olowalu marks an adjacent area on the map as “Final Ash/Debris Containment Area.”

In his public remarks at the meeting, Olowalu resident Shayne Agawa, county director of environmental management, described it as the “proposed” final site.

He explained how infrastructure experts in his department reviewed and ranked numerous possible locations for the debris. They selected six and added two more after receiving input from the community. Ultimately, Olowalu came out on top.

The criteria they used included the time involved in acquiring a site, proximity to Lahaina, distance from residential areas, schools and hospitals, natural features such as wetlands or drinking water sources, and other factors.

The new landfill for the fire-related debris, if authorized, would be double-lined with impermeable material and engineered to prevent leakage into groundwater. The landfill would have monitoring wells and other features to detect and control any leaks.

“If anything gets into the groundwater,” Agawa said, “we’ll catch it.”

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency more than 30 years ago that all landfills eventually leak. That’s because liners can fail and systems to collect the toxins, called leachate, can crack, collapse or otherwise malfunction. The EPA confirmed last month that this remains the agency’s position.

Given that the proposed Olowalu dump site sits a short distance from the ocean and one of Hawaii’s , community members and some experts have expressed concerns about possible contamination leaching into groundwater and finding its way into the highly productive nearshore environment.

The Olowalu reef has been designated a Mission Blue Hope spot, which is a place considered critical to ocean health. Among its many attributes, the roughly thousand-acre Olowalu reef hosts the largest population of manta rays in the United States, according to .

In written testimony to the Maui County Council, The Nature Conservancy asked whether the county has considered other options besides Olowalu for the disposal of the fire debris instead of placing it about a quarter mile from the ocean.

“Is it possible to use the Olowalu site for immediate needs and to construct a permanent site elsewhere that does not pose such a threat to the precious Olowalu reef?” wrote Scott Crawford, director of the Maui Marine Program.

Agawa said shipping the contaminated waste off Maui to the mainland would cost an estimated $4 billion and take about three years, making it financially prohibitive and too slow. And the county lacks the infrastructure at other sites, like Kahului.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Col. Jesse Curry, who is overseeing phase two of the Lahaina cleanup involving debris removal, said the immediate goal is to get the contamination off the land in Lahaina and into a controlled space to prevent environmental hazards and public health risks. A secondary goal is to speed up the rebuilding process and to jumpstart Lahaina’s economic recovery.

He described how heavy machinery will scrape 6 inches down into the ash footprint of each contaminated property. Testing will be done to ensure any contamination is below accepted safety thresholds.

If contamination above safe levels is still detected, excavators will scrape another 6 inches into the soil to a maximum depth of 1 foot.

“We anticipate that we won’t have to go that far,” Curry said.

Once excavation is complete, burned lots will be backfilled with 3 inches of gravel or cinder, he said.

The ash and debris will be hoisted into large trucks that will be lined with material to contain the waste, then covered and sealed in a burrito-like fashion. Crews will spray water on the waste to control ash from becoming airborne.

Eddy Garcia, a West Maui regenerative farmer, urged the county to slow down and consider that highly toxic substances such as dioxins and furons are likely in the debris because PVC piping and transformers burned in the fire.

PVC, or polyvinyl chloride, is a ubiquitous product used in plumbing, wiring and cable insulation. When burned, it can release , according to the EPA.

Another audience member who submitted a written question asked about landfills on the mainland that are designed to handle hazardous waste.

Mark Wingate, a debris disposal expert with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said the Lahaina ash and debris do not meet the threshold for needing to go to such specialized landfills.

Residential fire debris is exempt from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Wingate said.

California has had eight significant wildfires in the last decade and all the debris has gone to what’s called Subtitle D landfills, facilities designed to handle non-hazardous solid waste.

Rebekah Uccellini-Kuby, a permaculturist and landscape architect, posted a comment on Maui County’s Facebook page saying EPA has maps showing where the most toxic ash is located. That portion, which she estimates is about 1/20th of the total volume, should be sent off the island along with batteries and other hazardous household waste that EPA is already shipping to the mainland.

Mayor Richard Bissen closed the meeting by saying it’ll ultimately be up to him to decide where Lahaina’s toxic waste ends up.

“We’re going to make the best decision for the most people that we think is safe,” Bissen said. “For our environment, our people, our children. That’s our goal.”

He acknowledged the risks of storing a large volume of fire debris at Olowalu.

“It’s not a perfect situation,” Bissen said.

Others said the waste should undergo bioremediation methods to make it less toxic. Agawa said that’s something he’s considering.

At a special meeting of the Maui County Council on Friday, members will vote on which would authorize a one-year right of entry for the Army Corps to take fire debris to the temporary disposal site at Olowalu.

“I just want to clarify that a yes vote for Bill 120 does not finalize Olowalu as a final site. It just allows a one-year timeframe for the right of entry between the state and the county and then between the county and the Army Corps to continue debris removal from Lahaina,” Agawa said.

A on Bill 120 estimates the landfill’s costs at approximately $65 million, which includes design, permitting, construction, monitoring and management of the site, as well as operational expenses.

The county’s Solid Waste Division is required to monitor and manage the final disposal site for 30 years under the Hawaii Department of Health administrative rules. According to Agawa, the county plans on monitoring and managing the site in perpetuity.

The county said in a news release Wednesday that in Olowalu will begin Friday and is expected to conclude Jan. 11. The work will be done at night, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., to reduce the impacts of wide-load trucks on daytime traffic.

Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.

Civil Beat’s coverage of climate change is supported by The Healy Foundation, the Environmental Funders Group of the Hawaii Community Foundation, Marisla Fund of the Hawaii Community Foundation and the Frost Family Foundation.