HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.C.R. NO.	311
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2008
STATE OF HAWAII

HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

REQUESTING No NEW LANDFILLS ON THE LEEWARD COAST.

     WHEREAS, the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill, located on the Leeward Coast, is the only existing landfill on Oahu that is capable of receiving the total daily output of municipal solid waste; and

     WHEREAS, Waimanalo Gulch Landfill, the only city owned municipal solid waste facility receives approximately four hundred thousand tons of municipal solid waste every year; and

     WHEREAS, the Department of Health has issued citations and fines to the City and County of Honolulu and to Waimanalo Gulch Landfill's contracted operator, Waste Management Hawaii, for violations, such as exceeding the landfill's allowed height, failure to cover garbage with soil daily, failure to monitor levels of methane gas, failure to measure and maintain records of liquid levels in landfill sump pumps, and failure to record locations of asbestos disposal; and

     WHEREAS, in addition to the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill that takes in all of Oahu's municipal solid waste, the PVT Landfill which is the depository for all of Oahu's construction and demolition waste, including asbestos, is also situated on the Leeward Coast, more specifically in Nanakuli; and

     WHEREAS, residents along the Leeward Coast continue to experience many health-related problems, including asthma, cancer, and other serious illnesses that may be a result of the presence of the PVT Landfill; and

     WHEREAS, with the expected growth in the amount of municipal solid waste generated on Oahu, the City and County of Honolulu created a blue ribbon panel in 2003 to study the possibility of a new location for municipal solid waste disposal; and

     WHEREAS, despite the existence of the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill on the Leeward Coast for eighteen years, the blue ribbon panel's recommendations for a new location were still largely biased toward siting the new landfill on the Leeward Coast; and

     WHEREAS, the Leeward Coast has had a history of community neglect, not only having to endure the existence of the island's only municipal solid waste landfills, but also increased traffic, educational woes, homeless populations, and abandoned military ordnance; now, therefore,

     BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-fourth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2008, the Senate concurring, that the Legislature requests that no new landfills be established along the Leeward Coast, including Nanakuli, Waianae, Maili, Makaha, and Makua; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that any future health or environmental issues from closed landfills be rectified by the State and the City and County of Honolulu; and

     BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, the Director of Health, the Chairperson of the Land Use Commission, and the Mayor and the Chairperson of the Council of the City and County of Honolulu.

OFFERED BY:

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Moratorium on New or Temporary Landfills on the Leeward Coast of Oahu