Illegal Honolulu Dump May Contain Asbestos

In Hawaii, a joint investigation by the Department of Health (DOH) and the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) seeks to discover who has been illegally dumping trash in a remote region of the Wai'anae Valley on the westernmost edge of the island of Honolulu.

The trash, according to officials, looks like construction debris, and has been surreptitiously and systematically hauled in, dumped and then buried at the Haleahi Road location for years.

The Department of Health's Solid and Hazardous Waste Branch chief Steven Chang announced on Friday, July 17, that investigators from his office are also pursuing leads on potential dumpers that will later be turned over to the state's Attorney General's office for possible prosecution against what Chang describes as "criminal" actions.

The DHHL's deputy director, Kaulana Park, also inspected the illegal landfill on July 14 and is reportedly launching the agency's own internal investigation, which creates a curious set of circumstances, since Jay Foster, the owner of Wai'anae trucking company Fosters Trucking LLC, admits he has been hauling waste to and from the landfill with the full knowledge and authorization of DHHL officials.

Foster has since come forward because he suspects the DHHL is trying to dissociate itself from an agreement the agency made with him in 2005 to collect rubbish on Hawaiian Home Lands property in Wai'anae Valley and move it to the area of the illegal dump site before transferring it elsewhere.

Foster believes the agency is trying to dump the problem on his shoulders and says that, since the story broke last week, his calls to DHHL officials have gone unanswered.

Foster's claims are not without merit. A document from Jan. 21, 2009, bearing the signature of a DHHL representative, clearly shows that Foster has permission to remove materials from the Haleahi Road site and transport them to the PVT Landfill, owned by the PVT Land Company, Ltd. and licensed to accept hazardous wastes, including asbestos.

Foster's document also indicates that the bill for any charges Foster incurs should be submitted to the State of Hawaii DHHL, and Foster himself insists he was told by the DHHL land agent that his operations - which involved moving trash from one location to another on DHHL property until enough waste had been accumulated to take it to the PVT Landfill - were not illegal.

Foster, who did much of the work on his own time, further admits that the locking gate he put on the Haleahi Road property had been broken open numerous times by others using the site as an illegal dump.

PVT's Vice President, Stephen Joseph, said on July 17 that Foster's DHHL license for the Haleahi Road location has been suspended pending the results of the state's investigation. The DHHL has not commented on Foster's claims.

The Haleahi Road site came to light earlier in July after a community group, including Lucy Gay (the director of Continuing Education & Training at Leeward Community College in Wai'anae), Alice Greenwood (a Hawaiian activist) and Carroll Cox (an environmental watchdog) examined and photographed the Haleahi Road site along with a group of adult Leeward College students.

The real concern with the site, in addition to its illegality and the fact that it is a blight on an otherwise beautiful, tropical landscape, is the possibility that some of the construction debris may contain asbestos.

Asbestos, a mineral widely used in everything from insulation to floor and roofing tiles until about the mid 1970's, when health officials began to recognize its dangers, is the leading cause of a number of diseases, including asbestosis (a respiratory disease), lung and digestive-system cancers, and malignant mesothelioma.

This latter, which targets the mesothelial lining of the chest and abdomen, causes a form of largely incurable cancers which lie dormant for decades before manifesting. Once diagnosed, however, most mesothelioma patients are given about a year to live.

Sources: Honolulu Advertiser, KHON

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