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U.S. EPA orders City and County of Honolulu and Waste Management to address stormwater violations at Waimanalo Gulch Landfill

Release Date: 12/02/2011
Contact Information: Dean Higuchi, 808-541-2711, [email protected]

HONOLULU – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency this week issued an order to the City and County of Honolulu and Waste Management, Inc., to take immediate steps to address stormwater violations at the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill on Oahu.

EPA’s ongoing review of operations at the landfill revealed violations of the Clean Water Act and the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit regulating stormwater discharges from the landfill.

“The City and County of Honolulu and Waste Management must quickly complete work on stormwater protections at the landfill,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “We will be closely monitoring the work so runoff from future storms is properly controlled and residents’ health and Oahu’s coastal waters are protected.”

EPA found the City and Waste Management failed to comply with the requirements of the state of Hawaii’s NPDES stormwater general permit on at least three occasions associated with storm events in December 2010 and January 2011. The order cites failure to:

· prevent runoff of surface water that had come into contact with waste,
· control erosion to prevent loss of landfill cover or washout of refuse slopes,
· properly manage leachate, and
· retain and remove silt from surface water before it was discharged from the site.

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