Maui Narrowly Avoids Landfill Crisis after Waste Volume Jumps Unexpectedly

posted in: July 2007 | 0

Late last year, Maui solid waste division chief Tracy Takamine delivered some startling news to the Maui County Council’s budget and finance committee: Phase IV-A of the Central Maui Landfill, which receives the bulk of the island’s waste and had just received its operating permit from the state in January 2006, would reach its capacity in a few months.

It was designed to have a life of at least two years.

The Central Maui Landfill’s phases I through IV sit on 55 acres of land purchased by the county from Alexander & Baldwin in the 1990s. The landfill began accepting waste in 1987. Phases I and II spanned 17 acres. Capacity in Phase I was reached in 1998, and Phase II, although expected to reach capacity in 2002, received waste up until the end of 2005. Phase III is used for composting and biodiesel production.

Phase IV was originally designed by local engineering firm Masa, Fujioka, and Associates to be a 26-acre landfill with a capacity of 2.2 million cubic yards. However, after some controversy, it was scaled down by another firm, Parametrix, which with contractor Rojac Construction, promised to do the job much more cheaply. Disputes between the state Department of Health and the county over the redesign of Phase IV’s liner and leachate collection system held up its permitting for years. The DOH’s concerns were eventually resolved and the county was required to hydrologically isolate Phase IV-A from the rest of the landfill. Today, the DOH solid waste permit issued to the county for Phase IV-A and B covers about 18 acres.

The projected life span of Phase IV-A, completed in December 2005, was based on a disposal rate of 400 tons of waste per day. Once it opened, however, the landfill received between 600 and 655 tons of waste per day — about 8.5-9.3 pounds of waste per Maui resident per day (compared to 6.8 pounds per day in 1995). By Takamine’s estimation, Phase IV-A would fill up between December 2006 and February 2007.

To prevent a crisis, the county council needed to approve funding to construct Phase IV-B immediately. Phase IV-B, Takamine said, would cover eight acres adjacent to the landfill and would require excavation, drain pipe and liner installation, and the filling of a leachate lagoon. Because the lowest bid had come in at about $5.2 million – $2.2 million more than the amount appropriated by the council for fiscal year 2006 – the county administration asked the council to approve additional bond funding of $3.3 million for construction and a contingency amount.

During the meeting, council member Riki Hokama asked Takamine, “Can you make the committee understand better how we were unable to anticipate this huge 50 percent increase in tons per day?”

Takamine explained that the increase was due to a few factors. Phase IV is a new facility that requires anyone who drops off their trash to drive onto a scale first. In the old days, residents used to drive their loads right up to the landfill itself and dump them.

“With this new facility, everything goes into bins. We then, before we take the bins to the phase of the landfill, we route it through the scale and we weigh everything. So we get more accurate on the weighing,” he said.
In addition, he said that the real estate market has caused more homes to be built over the last few years. At the same time Phase IV-A opened, the county added 3,500 homes to its automated trash pick-up system, he said.

“[P]eople get this 96 gallon cart, there is a tendency to throw more trash away. [It’s] picked up twice a week…very, very easy. Those are the main factors that I see that might have contributed to this increase other than just more people throwing away trash,” he said.

Another factor may be that less waste is being diverted for recycling. A January 29, 2007 report by Virginia consultant Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc. shows that the county’s diversion rate has dropped from 34.3 percent in fiscal year 2003 to 30.8 percent in fiscal year 2005. In 2005, the county withdrew its agreement with Maui Recycling Service, a curbside pickup service, to deliver mixed paper to the central Maui composting facility.

As a result, “Thousands of pounds of compostable material are landfilled every day,” Maui Recycling’s website states.

Whatever the reason for the increase in waste being disposed of in the landfill, the council recognized the need for immediate action and approved the release of funds to complete Phase IV-B. In February, the DOH gave its approval to open a 2.7-acre segment of Phase IV-B. Last month, it gave its approval to open the remaining 5.3 acres. According to Takamine, Phase IV now has about four or five more years of capacity based on the current rate of about 600 tons a day. As of mid-May, Phase IV-B had already begun accepting waste while the county completed improvements to the surrounding drainage areas and roadways.

To avoid last-minute funding requests in the future, Maui Mayor Charmaine Tavares’ proposed budget for fiscal year 2008 includes $2 million to help acquire land for Phase V and $300,000 for design and permitting. Takamine says that the county is currently negotiating with adjacent landowner Alexander & Baldwin to acquire land for Phase V, and that a disposal rate of 600 to 700 tons a day will be used to determine capacity.

In addition, the county has begun two projects, a $150,000 master plan for the Central Maui Landfill by California engineering firm A-Mehr, Inc., and a $400,000 integrated solid waste management plan for all of Maui County – which includes Lana`i, Moloka`i, and Kaho`olawe – by Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, Inc.

Takamine says the master plan is about 60 percent complete and that the management plan should be completed by the end of this year or early next year.

With regard to recycling, Tavares proposed $2 million for a recycling drop-box and redemption center in Lahaina; $1 million would be used to acquire a new site, the rest would be for construction. Takamine says that Phase III of the landfill, where county contractor EKO Compost recycles green waste and food sludge, needs to be reconfigured to make room for the growing operation. Earlier this year, EKO, which in the past has sold its compost, was giving it away because it had run out of space.

“There is not enough room for composting,” Takamine says, adding that the company plans to move its staging area for mulching to another site. Right now, he says, “it’s very tight.”

— Teresa Dawson

Volume 18, Number 1 July 2007

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