For five years, the state Department of Health has been going after the operator of an illegal dump in Wai`anae. There’s no mystery as to the responsible party. There’s no lack of evidence. On occasions too numerous to count, the department has issued warning letters and notices of violation and proposed fines.
And the result? Little more than a bulging file in the Department of Health’s Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch.
The City and County of Honolulu has also gone after the owner of the site for various and sundry violations. It, too, has a dismal record and its enforcement actions – amounting to forgiveness on curing the violation and paying pennies on the dollar for fines – are risible.
The victims here are not just the residents of Wai`anae, who have been living with the inconvenience and potential hazards associated with this site for at least a decade. They include as well legitimate business operators, whose livelihood is undercut by the waste haulers and operators of illegal landfills that can charge more cheaply for their services to the extent they escape regulation.
When the regulatory agencies entrusted with protecting the health and safety of Hawai`i’s people and the quality of its environment fail to act in these cases, they are actually encouraging illegal dumping.
What can be changed?
For one thing, enforcement personnel must be beefed up. A shortage of enforcement agents has been an obstacle in the past, and over the last year, the Department of Health’s deficit in this area has grown even larger. In addition, high-level administrators in the DOH need to back up the work of their inspectors by following through with enforcement action and not letting issues drag on. The open dump at Puhawai Road has been around for a decade, and so far, no one has paid a dime in fines for creating or perpetuating it.
The fact that landfill is in Wai`anae may have played a part in this inaction. All too often, in Hawai`i as elsewhere, communities that are economically disadvantaged are the first to be polluted and the last to be cleaned up.
The lack of cooperation between the city and state agencies on getting the property’s owners to follow the law is another contributing factor. Had they worked together, perhaps permits would not have been issued when they shouldn’t have been and branch heads would have been motivated to close operations down sooner.
The economic incentives for illegal activities must end, through swift, severe, and certain penalties. The City and County’s disgraceful policy on settling rewards – pursuing ten percent of a fine, sometimes less – after violations are cured helps no one but the violator. The only thing worse is the Department of Health’s utter failure to make any punishment stick.
Meaningful punishment will not only deter potential violators, it will go far toward removing the advantage now enjoyed by the unregulated operators – and, at the same time, will increase incentives for recycling and reduction of construction and demolition waste. Most haulers take their waste from demolition to disposal, and skip efforts to reuse or recycle material.
Finally, there’s room for involvement of everyone and anyone who needs to have a roof repaired, a patio rebuilt, or a carport torn down. When interviewing contractors, demand to know where they will be hauling the waste and require proof that the destination is fully licensed and permitted.
The Department of Health sponsors well-meaning workshops and discussions with contractors. Nothing is wrong with educating the people who are on the front lines of dealing with waste. But much more is needed to get to the root of the problem. Should the state require haulers to provide on demand receipts for each load of waste they dispose of to ensure their delivery to licensed sites? That might generate a mountain of red tape and require an army of enforcers, but it would be one way of discouraging the use of illegal dumps.
Better yet would be for the Department of Health to figure out why it can’t make existing regulations work. Is it a lack of will, a lack of personnel – or a lack of regard for the citizens of Wai`anae and other depressed areas?
Whatever it is, the DOH should find it and fix it and never again let an illegal dump grow and fester for a month, let alone a decade.
Volume 11, Number 3 September 2000
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