Controversial Landfill Expansion To Receive Trash Soon

Michael Levine/Civil Beat

KAPOLEI — My window is rolled down and my arm is hanging out in the sun. Wind blows in my face. There's a patch of green on one side and deep blue as far as I can see in the other direction.

No, I'm not cruising down to Ala Moana Beach Park for a barbecue. I'm in the passenger seat of Waste Management General Manager Joe Whelan's white Chevy Z71 4X4 as he gives me a tour of Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill.

Throw out your expectations of a landfill. It's not 1970 anymore. Plastic bags blowing in the wind, bottles strewn about, seagulls digging for food and an unholy stench are nowhere to be found. On a recent windy morning, the island's biggest dump was proudly described by City and County of Honolulu Department of Environmental Services Director Tim Steinberger as "one of the best-run landfills in the country."

Whelan, Steinberger and Environmental Services Deputy Director Manny Lanuevo first showed me an aerial view of the 200-acre property and then took me for a drive to see where more than 500 tons of trash are deposited every day, but which in a matter of a couple of years will just be for ash from H-POWER. The days of this facility taking residential garbage are almost over.

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