U.S. EPA Orders Honolulu, Waste Management Inc. to Address Storm Water Violations

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued an order to the city and county of Honolulu and Waste Management Inc. to take immediate steps to address storm water 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 (NPDES) permit regulating storm water discharges from the landfill.

“The city and county of Honolulu and Waste Management must quickly complete work on storm water protections at the landfill,” said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA 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 that the city and Waste Management failed to comply with requirements of the state of Hawaii’s NPDES storm water 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.

The order requires completion of a project to completely separate storm water generated outside of the landfill from storm water generated at the landfill; submit to EPA for review and approval a study to evaluate the adequacy of the landfill’s storm water detention basin pond and an enhanced storm water monitoring plan; and submit monthly monitoring reports.

Waste Management Inc. is the contractor operating the landfill for the city and county of Honolulu. In December 2010 and January 2011, rains caused a section of the landfill to flood with storm water, causing waste to be released, which resulted in beach contamination and beach closures. EPA's previous order to Waste Management in January, which has since been completed, addressed the response and cleanup measures that were immediately needed to stabilize the landfill’s structure and storm water controls.

Source: U.S. EPA