HONOLULU (KHON2) — The city will be announcing the site for Oahu’s next landfill next week on Tuesday, Dec. 10. The decision has been years in the making and is already stirring tension as residents across the island brace for the possibility that their community could be the chosen location for the controversial project.
Director of Environmental Service, Roger Babcock, is under no illusion that there are challenges ahead, knowing no matter which site is selected, it will be met with resistance.
“Nobody wants a landfill in their backyard or near them. But as we just said, we have to have a landfill somewhere,” said Babcock.
The island’s existing Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill on the Leeward Coast has already been expanded twice and cannot be expanded a third time. Oahu generates over 1.2 million tons of waste annually. While much of it is diverted through recycling, about 225,000 tons still require disposal in a landfill.
“We also need a landfill for things that we can’t burn. There are some things that we’re not permitted to burn,” said Babcock.
The 11 potential sites span locations across the island. Four of them are in Councilmember Matt Weyer’s district, which covers parts of the North Shore and Windward Oahu. But they are in an area the Board of Water Supply opposes because they’re too close to the island’s aquifer.
“My hope is the mayor would support, you know, the water supply. The amazing work that they’ve been doing,” said Weyer. “So given that the sites in District Two are within that no-pass zone, I think most people would agree that that’s just not a possibility.”
The other potential sites are near the Kapaa Quarry, near the Ameron Quarry, an area occupied by the Hawaii Youth Correctional Facility, an area near Castle Junction and Pali Highway, an area near Waimanalo Country Farms and the area near the UH West Oahu Campus in Ewa.
Babcock said once they announce the selected sites, they’ll do public outreach and look into incentives such as community benefit programs for residents in the area.
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“We’re not going to find some magical place, you know, that everybody’s going to love, right? But we still have to find a place,” said Babcock.
The city has a deadline to have a new landfill ready by 2028.