No Toxic Waste Above Our Water
Join us next week for two opportunities to protect our precious wai!
Have you heard? The Honolulu mayor has proposed to place Oʻahu’s next landfill on prime agricultural lands in Wahiawā - and just 800 feet above a drinking water aquifer. Given that landfill liners are far from infallible, and that all landfills are expected to leak, the contamination of this drinking water source with toxic landfill “leachate” - whether years from now, or decades - will only be a matter of time, if this proposal is allowed to go through.
While we absolutely cannot continue to burden West Oʻahu with our island’s waste stream, we also cannot afford to risk contaminating yet another aquifer that we know will be critical to our future water security.
Once again, we must come together to take a stand to protect our limited and fragile water supply, and do right by our ʻāina as well as the future generations who will already face unprecedented challenges in the growing climate crisis.
Next week, we need your support at two critical events to take a stand against the placing a landfill above Oʻahu’s precious wai. Here’s how you can help:
Tuesday: No Waste Over Our Water Signwaving & Press Conference
Next week Tuesday, January 28, join the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi, Oʻahu lawmakers, allies, and fellow water drinkers to rally for a future where clean drinking water isn’t jeopardized by toxic waste.
Join the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi at 10am for sign making and/or 10:30am for signwaving along Beretania St. mauka of the capitol, in the lead-up to an 11am press conference with Oʻahu lawmakers and community leaders. Please bring your friends, homemade signs, or materials for sign making (we’ll have some on hand too).
Sign making, 10am with the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi - in the rotunda
Signwaving, 10:30am with the Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi - Beretania St. side of the capitol
Press conference, 11am - Hawaiʻi State Capitol Rotunda
State Representatives Sean Quinlan and Amy Perruso
Honolulu City Council Vice Chair Matt Weyer
Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi Director Wayne Tanaka
And a surprise guest!
Honolulu City Council Resolution 25-003 Final Reading
On Wednesday, January 29, the City Council will vote on the final adoption of Resolution 25-3 CD1, which reaffirms the Council’s longstanding opposition to placing landfills near any underground drinking water source. Please take a moment now to submit testimony in strong support of this resolution - instructions to submit testimony and sample testimony can be found below:
Testimony instructions
Select “COUNCIL Meeting (January 29, 2025 @ 10 AM)” from the dropdown menu and click “Select”
Scroll down to RES25-003 and click “Select”
Click on “Support” and enter your name, email, and other requested information
Where it says “I wish to provide” select “Written Testimony” or “Written and Oral Testimony” from the dropdown menu (please consider testifying orally in person or via Zoom)
Submit your testimony as a comment (i.e. typed directly into a box on the testimony page) or as an attachment (sample testimony below)
Forward this email and ask your friends to do the same!
Sample testimony
Aloha Chair Waters, Vice Chair Weyer, and Members of the Honolulu City Council,
My name is [your name] and I am in strong support of Resolution 25-3 CD1, which opposes placing a landfill over any drinking water source.
Our aquifers are the literal lifelines of our islands, providing clean water for our families today and for future generations. With our sole source South Oʻahu aquifer already compromised by the Red Hill Facility’s decades’ worth of fuel spills, risking further contamination of yet another drinking water source is unthinkable. Whether it is jet fuel or landfill leachate, storing toxic chemicals above drinking water is a terrible idea.
Protecting our water is about protecting our health, our environment, and the future of everyone who calls Oʻahu home. I urge you to pass Resolution 25-3 and ensure that our aquifer, our island, and our future generations are safeguarded from avoidable and irreversible harm.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Sincerely,
[Your name]
For more information on why we must all oppose this landfill siting proposal, check out Representative Quinlan and Sierra Club of Hawaiʻi Director, Wayne Tanaka’s, op-ed in yesterday’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser here and my article in this month’s January Mālama Monthly here.
Mahalo for standing with us to protect Oʻahu’s water. We hope to see you next week!