Hawaiian garbage waits on new plans
Officials review proposed change in off-loading site
Sunday, January 10, 2010
Get ready to say “Aloha” to Hawaiian garbage.
After a three-year delay, garbage from Honolulu could begin making its way to a landfill in Roosevelt, at the east end of the Columbia River Gorge, this year. That’s the word from Jim Hodge, the Seattle-based entrepreneur who heads Hawaiian Waste Systems.
However, garbage is piling up in Honolulu while federal environmental regulators analyze a change of plans by the company.
A story in the Honolulu Advertiser last week described complaints by neighbors to the company’s solid waste transfer station, which began accepting municipal waste in October in anticipation of shipping it to Roosevelt.
Those neighbors are reporting problems with buzzing gnats and odor, according to the Advertiser story.
“They’re all over your face, they go on your shirt,” a worker at one nearby company told the newspaper, referring to the gnats. As for the odor, the worker said, “you can smell it in the air conditioning.”
Hodge said the storage problem in Honolulu has already been addressed with insecticide, but the company is still waiting for clearance from federal environmental regulators to begin shipping garbage to the mainland.
And that process has been delayed by a change in plans on the receiving end.
Rather than hauling the waste on ocean-going barges all the way through three sets of dams on the Columbia River, Hodge said the company prefers to off-load the compacted and shrink-wrapped municipal waste at Portland, Longview or Rainier, Ore. It would then be hauled by rail or truck to Roosevelt.
It’s a matter of efficiency, Hodge said.
“We can store it at the port and pick up 10 or 20 containers a day, so they would be metered into Roosevelt, rather than 300 going in at one time,” he said Friday.
In 2006, the U.S. Department of Agriculture approved the company’s original plan to barge the waste directly to Roosevelt. The agency’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service found that the proposal would not introduce exotic nonnative pests from Oahu, which could pose a serious environmental threat to the Pacific Northwest. The USDA required the garbage to be transported in baled air-tight packages.
Hodge characterized the switch to off-loading at a port along the lower Columbia as an “administrative change,” but a USDA spokesman said it’s more serious than that.
“We don’t have the luxury of saying, ‘Gee whiz, it’s all the Columbia River. It all looks the same to us,’” said Larry Hawkins, a USDA western regional spokesman in Sacramento. “I don’t think the residents of Washington or Oregon, either one, would be satisfied with that.”
Hawkins said the agency expects to finish an environmental assessment of the company’s new plan soon. It will then be published in the Federal Register, with a 30-day period for public comment.
The city of Honolulu has agreed to pay Hodge’s company $99 per ton to ship 100,000 tons of municipal waste to Washington annually. That’s a small portion of all the trash generated on Oahu, which is running short of landfill space. The city of Honolulu also incinerates waste.
Erik Robinson: 360-735-4558 or erik.robinson@columbian.com.
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Good for Hawai'i. Much of their garbage is generated by mainland tourists, so it's only fair that we on the mainland assist in relieving the situation and keep Hawai'i serene. Well, as serene as we can, anyhow. Hopefully the site issues are rectified soon.
Jeff_Johnson — January 10, 2010 at 12:31 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Shipping Hawaii's garbage half way across the Pacific Ocean and up the Columbia River Gorge whether by barge, rail or truck is such a bad idea. Yes it will provide some jobs to the region but compared to the consequences it just doesn't make sense. The insects will eventually get through. Murphy's law applies. There will be adverse enviornmental impact just in the amount of fuel burned getting it up the Gorge. Figure in the potential for accidents, spills, etc. it just isn't worth the risk. True there isn't much space on the small island of Ohau but the "Big Island" of Hawaii has plenty of room for a landfill. Let's just keep Hawaii's trash in Hawaii and let them deal with it.
BeezerGeezer — January 10, 2010 at 12:41 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Please... Get some facts before spouting off a bunch of meaningless eco-rhetoric. Goods are shipped in from all over the world every day, and the risk of invasive insects coming in is no greater with this than with those containers of goods, especially as Hawai'i is a small, isolated island chain with far fewer insects than the mainland. And adverse environmental impact from fuel burned getting up the Gorge? Really? Did you even think before you typed that? The Columbia River is a major commerce route with barge and ship traffic traversing it daily. A barge of garbage isn't going to cause any more pollution than any other ship, and as Global Warming and the entire Climate Change scam is dying a slow death, save the carbon emission whining, as the atmosphere is fine. Further, garbage is shipped up the river to landfills already, so the risk of spillage and accidents is already present, but minimal. This won't affect that area either.
Please, at least try to think before posting. Otherwise, it just comes off as spam.
Jeff_Johnson — January 10, 2010 at 12:53 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Fact: It's less than three hundred miles from Ohau to the Big Island of Hawaii and it's over 2,500 miles from Honolulu to Portland, OR.
Fact: There is more risk envolved and fuel consumed moving a flat bottom barge of garbage across 2,500 miles open ocean, across the Columbia Bar and up the Columbia River Gorge than from the relatively short distance between Honolulu and Hilo.
I was home ported in Pearl Harbor for nearly three years and am very familiar with Ohau and made several weekend trips to the Big Island of Hawaii. Even on Ohau there is room for a landfill. True they'd probably have to tear up a sugar cane or pineapple field to do it. And the Big Island has plenty of ranch land that a few hundred acres could easily be converted into a landfill. The locals just don't want to do it.
Yes, there is plenty of commerce moving up and down the Columbia with all the risks and impact involved. But we are talking about GARBAGE here, not consumer goods. So why do it? I have thought about it and am sure most people that do will agree with me. This just doesn't make sense.
BeezerGeezer — January 10, 2010 at 2:20 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
BeezerGeezer, where is Ohau?
goldenoldie — January 10, 2010 at 3:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
Oops! Pardon my spelling, but you know where I meant...Oahu or is it O'ahu? What the heck, I'll just call it Honolulu county.
BeezerGeezer — January 10, 2010 at 4 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
"Fact: It's less than three hundred miles from Ohau to the Big Island of Hawaii and it's over 2,500 miles from Honolulu to Portland, OR."
And that has what to do with what?
"Fact: There is more risk envolved [sic] and fuel consumed moving a flat bottom barge of garbage across 2,500 miles open ocean, across the Columbia Bar and up the Columbia River Gorge than from the relatively short distance between Honolulu and Hilo."
Again, what does that have to do with what? Unless you're the one paying the fuel bill, then this is another non-point. And more risk involved? Back that up, please.
Glad you were lucky enough to have been based in Hawai'i. Clearly you haven't been back lately. The cane and pineapple fields lay empty, thanks to trade agreements shipping off production to SE Asia. But regardless, this isn't about that, it's about Hawai'i making a decision to reserve it's very limited real estate for something other than landfill. Eastern Washington has more than enough open, unused land, so good for Hawai'i, and for us, for making this deal. It will benefit all, and contrary to your empty rhetoric, presents very minimal risks.
Jeff_Johnson — January 10, 2010 at 4:33 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
I did, Beezer...just giving you a bad time!
goldenoldie — January 11, 2010 at 6:34 a.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
"Much of their garbage is generated by mainland tourists, so it's only fair that we on the mainland assist in relieving the situation..."
That's an extremely poorly reasoned justification. The bottom line is that someone is willing to pay to get rid of their garbage, someone is willing to pay to take it, and the government is charged with controlling land use decisions in the interest of protecting the environment. One can only hope that all three do their jobs.
"...and keep Hawai'i serene."
Clearly YOU haven't been there lately. I have. And I once lived there.
"Eastern Washington has more than enough open, unused land..."
So does the State of Hawaii. Again, you've missed the point. One of Hawaii's islands (Kohoolawe) was once used as a military bombing target, and later was the object of a failed ordinance clean-up effort. Why does uninhabitable land in Hawaii rate greater protection than inhabited land in Washington?
zippy_skippy — January 18, 2010 at 1:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
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