Report of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Landfill Site Selection and Site Data Sheets (PDF):
http://www.kauai.gov/Government/Departments/PublicWorks/SolidWaste/NewLandfillSite/tabid/71/Default.aspx
Monday, August 31, 2009
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Power Point Kauai MSW Landfill
PRESENTATION ON LANDFILL ISSUES (PDF)
This is a county power point file used in 2008 at community info meetings.
Saturday, August 29, 2009
TGI - Kalaheo pegged for new landfill
Kalaheo pegged for new landfill
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By Michael Levine - The Garden Island
LIHU‘E — Kalaheo it is.Kaua‘i Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. made good on a promise Friday and ended more than a decade of speculation, sending to the Kaua‘i County Council his administration’s recommendation and intended plan of action for the siting of a new landfill between Kalaheo and Numila Camp on the island’s South Shore.
“Back in March I promised to make the recommendation this month,” Carvalho said in a written statement released just before the close of business Friday afternoon. “The siting of a landfill is long overdue, and I’m committed to moving the process forward as quickly as possible.”
The so-called 127-acre “Umi” site, located along Halewili Road, was the highest ranked among eight potential sites evaluated in a study conducted by consultants and the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Landfill Site Selection, comprised of community members from across Kaua‘i.
Carvalho’s recommendation “mirrors” the results of that study, said to take into account potential sites’ proximity to population and transportation, projected cost of acquisition and development, and its consistency with the General Plan, among other factors.
“They performed an invaluable service in developing the criteria on which each site was to be evaluated,” Carvalho said. “Based on that foundation, and the ‘double-blind’ process that was utilized, the resulting rankings can be viewed as objective and reasonable.”
The administration announced that it would be conducting outreach in the communities of Brydeswood and Numila, which border the recommended site. In anticipation of questions and concerns, the mayor will “explain how the study was developed, why this conclusion was reached, and what the process will be going forward.”
The landowner, Alexander and Baldwin, has already voiced opposition to the proposal through one of its subsidiary companies.
“Kaua‘i Coffee strongly objects to the proposed new landfill site. The 127-acre site is smack in the middle of Kaua‘i Coffee’s operations and would severely impact a coffee business that we have been trying to sustain and grow for the past 25 years,” Kaua‘i Coffee Company President Wayne Katayama said in a written statement provided to The Garden Island late Friday afternoon.
“This is land we recently designated as Important Agricultural Lands (IAL), it is in active agricultural use and it supports a large number of workers on this island,” Katayama said. “It therefore would be a tragic loss, not only for Kaua‘i Coffee but for the entire community, for the county to proceed with the selection of this site for its new landfill.”
Tim Bynum, who serves as chair of the County Council’s Public Works Committee and will be heavily involved in the four- or five-year process of preparing Kalaheo to join the existing, nearly-full Kekaha Landfill as a home of the island’s garbage, said in a phone interview Friday afternoon that he had spoken to A&B and members of the administration about the site during the evaluation process.
“It’s going to require the consensus of the council over a whole series of decisions,” Bynum said, adding that while the recommendation will be under “the most intense scrutiny,” he saw no flaws in the selection process and said the administration “wisely went with the site that received the highest score.”
“Siting a landfill has become an icon of the most difficult public decision to make,” he said, likening the political ramifications of the selection to siting a nuclear power plant and voicing his support for the Carvalho administration.
“The nature of the beast is no matter which site was selected, there would be strong arguments that will come from elements of the community why there are problems with the site,” Bynum said. “The problems might be different for different sites, but there’s no great place to put a landfill.”
Council Vice Chair Jay Furfaro said the county’s legislators will be asked by its executive to acknowledge Carvalho’s recommendation and also to approve funds for the acquisition and development of the site.
“By charter, we are the controllers of the checkbook,” Furfaro said in a phone interview Friday.
The County Council has no meeting scheduled for next week as there are five Wednesdays in September.
Beth Tokioka, executive assistant to the mayor, said Friday that the General Fund Capital Improvement Projects budget contains a line item with just over $630,000 for a new landfill “site acquisition/study” from which an Environmental Impact Study will be funded.
“Obviously it’s not enough for actual land acquisition as well, so that would have to be approved separately by the council,” Tokioka said in an e-mail.
See future editions of The Garden Island for ongoing coverage of the county’s government’s work to site a new landfill outside of Kalaheo.
To view the report of the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Landfill Site Selection, go to www.kauai.gov.
View Comments for this newstory at http://kauaiworld.com/articles/2009/08/29/news/kauai_news/doc4a98a24827ee5480627077.txt
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