The South Hilo Sanitary Landfill will close for good by the end of June.
The county Department of Environmental Management is expected to finish a months-long project to permanently shut down the South Hilo landfill this month, said Greg Goodale, the department’s Solid Waste Division chief.
“We’re actually ahead of schedule,” Goodale said. “But soon, we’ll have the entire landfill sealed off.”
Goodale said the closure of the landfill has been a long time coming: the last load of rubbish was deposited in the landfill in December, and contractors have worked to decommission the site since August.
The closure project, carried out by contractor Kiewit Construction, includes a soil cover for the 40-acre landfill, as well as polyethylene liners, synthetic turf and storm drains to contain runoff and prevent contaminants from leaching into the groundwater.
Environmental Management Director Bill Kucharski estimated last year that the project would cost $20 million.
Goodale said the state intended to close unlined landfills throughout Hawaii by the early 2000s, but the Hilo landfill remained open because it appeared to not pose a risk to environmental health.
Now, however, the more-than-50-year-old landfill — Goodale said it was constructed sometime in the late 1960s — has reached its capacity, containing a total of 3,208,204 tons of refuse.
After the South Hilo landfill stopped taking refuse last year, all trash from both sides of the island has been transported to the West Hawaii Sanitary Landfill near Waikoloa village. Goodale said at the current rate of use, that landfill is estimated to reach its capacity within 50-60 years.
“We’ve been looking at some options to extend its lifespan even further — we’re talking more than a century,” Goodale said.
Some of those potential options include allowing the West Hawaii landfill to be extended higher, deeper or with steeper slopes, Goodale said.
The closure of the South Hilo landfill will not substantially alter waste management procedures, Goodale said.
Trash will still be collected at county transfer stations as normal and be brought to the East Hawaii Regional Sort Station near the South Hilo landfill, from where it will be transported to the West Hawaii site.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
