State of Hawai'i County 2005 Year in Review/2006 Looking Forward

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State of the County 2005 - The Year in Review 2006 - Looking Forward: Projects and Issues Environmental Management Barbara Bell, Director 2005 in Review Wastewater: • Agreed on a timeline with US Environmental Protection Agency for Large Capacity Cesspool closures. This maintains compliance for this federal mandate. • To aid in the collections of sewer fees, property owners are now ultimately responsible for sewer bills at their property. Solid Waste: • The Bottle Bill began January 1, 2005. Our County has the highest redemption rate, around 60%, which is excellent for the first year of the program. • We secured a US Environmental Protection Agency Brownfields grant for an island-wide inventory and assessment. This will help to catalogue potentially contaminated sites around the island, and then prioritize for clean up and re- development actions. • Landfill diversion increased from 15.7% to 20% from July 2004 - June 2005. This is 1,457 tons/month. July through October, 2005 landfill diversion was 26%. • We received US Environmental Protection Agency funding for Kona Recycles at Kealakehe. You are consistently recycling about 50 tons/month of cardboard, newspaper, glass and plastics, about 5 '/z% of the trash at that Transfer Station. • As of July 1, 2005, we began the Derelict Vehicle Amnesty Pilot Program to remove up to two vehicles on private property. This is in addition to the current abandoned vehicle disposal program that handles removal of vehicles from public roadsides. • Fall of last year, we instituted recycling collections at transfer stations. We expect this to help our landfill diversion and provide convenience to residents. For more information, please call the Recycling Division at 961-8942. Looking Forward The following actions are being taken to prevent the possibility of trucking East Hawaii trash to Kona: • Applying for expansion of the Hilo landfill, through slope steepening. We expect the Department of Health to approve; this allows approximately two to four years of additional use at the Hilo landfill. • Recent affirmative vote (last vote coming February 1) by Council for funding of the Reload building, at the proposed Sort Station Complex. This helps with waste screening and adds another 2% landfill diversion. • Our procurement for a waste-to-energy facility is on track. • If necessary, we will consider shipping East Hawaii trash off island for disposal as an intermediate measure.