Another Red Hill - for our Grandchildren?

By Wayne Tanaka, Chapter Director | Reading time: 3.5 minutes

Last month, the Honolulu Mayorʻs selection of a parcel in Wahiawā for the next municipal landfill came as a surprise to many. Not only would the landfill be placed in the heart of prime agricultural lands owned by Dole Plantation, in a time where local agricultural production will be key to our future food security - but it would also be situated mauka of the “No-Pass Line” established by the Board of Water Supply, directly above a drinking water aquifer. 

This decision not only raised immediate concerns by area lawmakers and Board of Water Supply Chief Engineer Ernie Lau, but also went against the recommendations of the City’s Landfill Advisory Committee, which made clear, after over a year of study, that a landfill should not be located above any drinking water sources.

A subsequent legislative informational briefing in January with Lau and representatives of the City’s Department of Environmental Services shed further light on the implications of this siting decision: 

The ash to be stored in the landfill will contain any number of heavy metals, cancer-causing PFAS “forever chemicals,” and other toxic substances that do not break down easily or at all from incineration. The rainy conditions in Wahiawā means that this ash, when combined with rainwater, will create much more toxic “leachate” than the 3.6 million gallons produced annually at the much drier Waimānalo Gulch landfill in West Oʻahu. While city officials claim that this leachate will be continually pumped out and trucked to a wastewater processing facility, all landfills - even modern ones - are expected to leak. Accordingly, whether from slow chronic leaks or larger releases due to floods, fires, human error, deferred maintenance, or other causes, toxic leachate will inevitably, at some point, be discharged into the surrounding environment, and percolate into the underlying groundwater aquifer.  

With the ongoing Red Hill water crisis still unfolding, protecting our remaining clean water is absolutely critical if we wish to do right by our children, grandchildren, and all future generations, who will already face unprecedented challenges as our climate continues to destabilize and water and other natural resources become ever more scarce. Accordingly, we have a generational responsibility to ensure that we do not threaten yet another drinking water source with potentially irreversible contamination, whether in our own lifetimes, or during the lives of generations born after we have passed on.  

Fortunately, there are likely to be many opportunities to stand up for our island and for our future generations’ water security. The City Council is currently considering Resolution 25-003, introduced by Councilmembers Matt Weyer and Radiant Cordero, which has already passed Weyer’s Housing, Sustainability, Economy, and Health Committee after a hearing on Tuesday, January 14; public testimony at future hearings before the full Council will help show the community demand to prioritize water protection. 

Sharing news of town halls and other meetings, including an upcoming town hall scheduled for Wednesday, January 15, from 6-8pm at Wahiawā Elementary, will also help spread the word about this critical issue. Signing up for action alerts, including Sierra Club’s CapitolWatch list, will also provide you with other opportunities to advocate for legislative fixes that could open up other locations, such as golf courses, for consideration, without threatening West Oʻahu with yet another landfill (something that must also not be allowed to happen, given the multigenerational health and socioeconomic burdens that West Oʻahu’s predominantly Native Hawaiian communities have already been forced to bear to serve our entire island’s waste disposal needs). 

Finally, advocating to decisionmakers, including our Congressional delegation and Navy officials, may help to get the Navy to reconsider its decision to deny the City the use of its lands for the landfill, a siting option that would not threaten any drinking water source.  

These are just a few of the things that can be done in the near-term to prevent another “ticking time bomb” from being located above our precious and limited drinking water supply. In the long-term, we can and must also explore ways to reduce our waste stream, with policies that can address our unsustainable overconsumption of goods and products, and ensure that this next landfill will be our island’s last.