Contact: Eric Rose
(805) 581-7246

Testimony by Paul Burns of Waste Management Regarding Landfill Closure

Passing Bill 37 would close the City-owned WGLF to MSW in 2007, and to all waste in 2008.

Good morning Mr. Chairman, Councilmembers. My name is Paul Burns. I am the manager of Waste Management's operations in Hawaii and I am here today to speak to Amended Bill 37.

Passing Bill 37 would close the City-owned WGLF to MSW in 2007, and to all waste in 2008. I would like to touch on two points.

• First, there is likely to be a significant economic impact as a result of passing this Bill. We feel that we simply must raise the issue of the increased cost to City and County taxpayers associated the passage of this Bill. Our estimates put this increase in excess of $40 million per year and as high as $80million/year. This could result in an increase in property taxes on the Island. We encourage the City Council to complete its own, full, review of the cost associated with this bill before voting on it.
  
  
• Second. Since there is no other permitted facility on the island to accept MSW, we can only assume that the City would have to either site a new landfill on the island or to ship waste offshore. As you know, siting new landfill is a lengthy process - and is likely to take longer than 2 years. At the same time, shipping waste offshore requires an approval process as well. The USDA has not yet approved any requests for offshore disposal of waste from Hawaii. Furthermore, if WGLF closes to MSW in 2007, there would be no backup on-island disposal site for the Honolulu's MSW. This puts the City at great risk for solid waste disposal.
  
  
• Offshore shipment of waste has significant logistical ramifications to the City. For example, when H-Power is not operating, there are approximately 3,000 tons of waste to be disposed of each day. It is simply not reasonable to expect a barging operation to be able to flex with the extreme tonnage variations that the system currently manages. If the operation was to fall behind, accumulated of waste on the island would be difficult to handle, store and manage. We urge the Council to consider the environmental impacts of handling and storing these large volumes of waste and the inherent risks associated with barge shipment of the material to the mainland.
  
  
• Regarding the Status of the WGLF. We recognize that there has been a lot of recent media attention about the status of the City's landfill. As several of you know who have visited the landfill over the past several months, it is in great shape! In one newspaper article last week, the DOH recognized that the violation is about historical operations issues at the landfill that have mostly been resolved.