Editor’s note: Read a related story about developments at the landfill.

• January Garbage Spill Was Second In A Month

A Wednesday hearing about last month’s landfill spill turned hostile as new reports surfaced showing more violations at Waimanalo Gulch.

A report by the Department of Health says landfill operator Waste Management violated clean water laws three weeks before heavy rains sent medical waste and other debris into the Pacific Ocean and onto Leeward beaches.

The meeting turned into a harsh interrogation of Waste Management general manager Joe Whelan, sparking arguments between lawyers and between commissioners. At one point, the Hawaii Land Use Commission chairman accused landfill operators of having been caught with their “pants down.”

Congresswoman Colleen Hanabusa also made a surprise appearance, though she let her lawyer voice her concerns. Notably absent was the Department of Health, which is investigating the spill. Reached during Wednesday’s hearing, Department of Health spokeswoman Janice Okubo was surprised to hear of the meeting, and said no Department of Health official was attending.

The city appeared before the commission, which had asked for a written explanation of what caused the spill and how to prevent a similar incident.

Whelan, who was under oath, detailed a series of heavy rains — two December storms and one in January — that flooded the landfill to the point of “catastrophic” structural failure. To prevent that from happening, Waste Management released contaminated stormwater into the ocean.

But commissioners struggled to understand why it got to that point. The first storm should have been enough of a warning, said Land Use Commission Chairman Vladimir Paul Devens.

Whelan said Waste Management responded immediately to the first storm. Workers constructed a temporary dam and continued to work on a required diversion channel — under construction since November 2009 — that would prevent water from gathering the way it did. After the second major storm, Whelan said Waste Management took further steps.

“We also reinforced another berm that we constructed in the first storm,” Whelan said. “All of that failed because of the magnitude of the storm.”

Antagonistic from the beginning, Devens rejected this and other explanations.

“I have a real hard time believing this was unavoidable,” Devens said. “(You) just hoped it wasn’t going to rain. … You folks were caught with your pants down.”

“No I wouldn’t characterize it that way—” Whelan began before Devens again spoke up.

“I know you wouldn’t characterize it that way, but isn’t that what happened?” Devens said. “There were no preventative measures in place while this was going on … We had this massive discharge and there was just a lack of urgency.”

Devens wasn’t the only critic. Congresswoman Hanabusa — acting as a longtime intervenor in matters pertaining to Waimanalo Gulch — looked on as her lawyer attempted to get Whelan to admit wrongdoing weeks before the landfill spill.

Violations Occurred Before the Spill

The biggest surprise came when Hanabusa’s attorney, Richard Wurdeman, revealed a State Department of Health report that found Waste Management violated the law by discharging trash-soaked landfill water into the ocean weeks before the January storm.

“It appears the landfill owners and operators violated Hawaii water pollution rules, discharging pollutants into state waters without authorization,” Wurdeman said.

Though Wurdeman continued to press Whelan for answers, city lawyers repeatedly advised the landfill manager not to answer questions about the pending investigation. The questioning became so intense that Commissioner Thomas Contrades intervened on Whelan’s behalf.

“He said he’s not going to answer!” Contrades said to Wurdeman. “If my counsel told me not to answer, I would not answer. It’s ridiculous! I have never in my life ever had such a situation. I’m terribly insulted by what you’re doing. I would never treat a man like that.”

Wurdeman echoed Devens concerns about how the January spill happened, suggesting Whelan was “denying all of these allegations” about ill-preparedness and clean water violations.

At this point, Whelan became irritated, saying, “I’m not denying or admitting anything. Because this is an investigation that is ongoing with the Department of Health, it would not be prudent for me to comment on it at all.”

The city’s Environmental Services Director, Tim Steinberger, said he was taken aback by the aggressive tone at the hearing.

“I was kind of surprised,” Steinberger said. “You know, you’re being requested to present a status report so that the commissioners can get clarity as to what occurred. The adversarial position that Colleen Hanabusa’s attorney took surprised me.”

Hanabusa — who still owns property near the landfill — later told Civil Beat she’s disturbed by developments at Waimanalo Gulch.

“There is such a history at Waimanalo Gulch and it spans for me personally over 10 years, battling it in various forms,” Hanabusa said. “One of the problems we have in issues such as this, not only are they very complex but people are no longer there. Administrations change. Even for Waste Management they have gone through so many different people who technically head it.”

Waste Management and the city are still working to get the landfill back in order, while meeting a series of deadlines ordered by federal government in the wake of the spill. At the same time, a city-appointed advisory committee is exploring new landfill sites as required by the Land Use Commission. Meanwhile, city officials hope to keep the landfill open past a July 2012 when their permit to run the landfill there expires.

If not for the “rather distracting” spill, Steinberger said the Environmental Services Department would have started working on getting the permit extensions last month. Now, that process will begin this month or in March at the latest, he said. Steinberger acknowledges Wednesday’s meeting was hostile, but declined to speculate on what it might mean for the city’s attempts to stay at Waimanalo Gulch.

“You know until we come forth to this commission with our request, I couldn’t really answer that,” Steinberger said. “We’ll see what their thought is at that time. But we are still continuing down that road.”