Kaua’i County Council Chair: ‘We’re in crisis mode’ with lone landfill approaching capacity

The Kaua‘i County Council continues to seek short-term solutions to avoid a catastrophe at the island’s only landfill, which is relentlessly approaching capacity.

About 90,000 tons of waste enter the Kekaha Landfill on the West Side of Kaua‘i each year. But current permits do not allow the landfill to operate beyond November 2027.

On Wednesday, the council was briefed on several initiatives under way to extend the life of the Kekaha Landfill. These include new permits to increase the landfill’s maximum height in two locations.

According to county personnel, the active portion of the Kekaha Landfill — known as “Phase Two” — is set to receive a permit that will increase its maximum height, keeping the landfill open an additional three years, through 2030.

The county also is seeking approval to increase the height of a closed portion of the landfill. That endeavor will require construction, an environmental impact assessment, land use permits and Department of Health approval, all of which could take an estimated four years to implement.

But if this second permit request is approved, the lifespan of the landfill would be extended by another 16 years, through 2046.

County solid waste personnel also expect to release two requests for proposals sometime within the next two months. One seeks a processing facility for diverted construction and demolition waste.

The other proposal request seeks alternative waste management technologies like anaerobic digestion (a process through which bacteria break down organic matter in the absence of oxygen) and pyrolysis, which transforms organic materials into their gaseous components.

Other technologies also include gasification, which also converts carbon-containing materials into gases, and mechanical biological treatment, which combines a sorting facility with a biological treatment like composting or anaerobic digestion.

Efforts to establish a new landfill elsewhere on Kaua‘i, while ongoing, have been significantly hampered by exclusionary zones established by state and federal regulations. These zones prevent landfill development in or near tsunami inundation zones, flood zones, wetland areas and other areas like shorelines and airports.

Council Chair Mel Rapozo on Wednesday said immediate steps must be taken while these ongoing initiatives and others, like a materials recovery facility and a curbside recycling program, move forward.

Rapozo, a former police officer, conveyed his point by describing a proper response at the scene of a traffic accident.

“We’re in crisis mode,” he said. “We gotta go take care of the bleeding, first, before we can take care of the broken bone.”

With the county’s next fiscal year beginning July 1, Rapozo said: “We want to make sure that we have options when we get to budget.”

The council on Wednesday called for ideas from county personnel and the public. Three hours of public testimony, including a presentation by the activist group Zero Waste Kaua‘i, followed the initial landfill briefing by Allison Fraley, the county’s environmental services manager.

Many who testified were affiliated with Zero Waste Kaua‘i and all demanded solutions.

Jesse Brown-Clay, who cofounded the mission-driven small business Compost Kaua‘i five years ago, also applauded the county Solid Waste Division for its work so far.

“I wonder if any of us in this room understand how difficult her position is,” Brown-Clay said in reference to Fraley. “For all the feelings of frustration that we have, we also need to support Allison and her division.”

Several council members latched onto one testifier’s suggestion that the county raise garbage collection fees to encourage participation in a proposed curbside recycling program.

“I love the idea of, whack them on the trash, free on the recycling,” Rapozo said. “If we provide the [recycling] barrels, they will do it.”

The county currently is determining the economic viability of a curbside recycling program and a materials recovery facility, which would receive, separate and prepare recyclable materials for marketing to manufacturers.

A county-funded working group also is identifying feasible and cost-effective composting programs for possible implementation on Kaua‘i. The working group of commercial composters, food waste composters and subject matter experts will issue a report at the end of 2025.