Climate Change Will Make It Harder To Protect The Environment Around Oahu’s Next Landfill … The effects of a warming planet are also expected to make it more expensive to safeguard land and water.
The beaches were spotted with used syringes, catheters, raw sewage and other garbage.
In late 2010 and early 2011, heavy rains caused a Leeward reservoir to overflow above Oahu’s only municipal landfill, Waimanalo Gulch. The landfill’s filtration system and backup retention ponds were overwhelmed, and millions of gallons of contaminated water flooded the sands of Ko Olina resort and nearby beaches, from Ewa to Nanakuli.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sued the owner of the landfill, and the operators were indicted for “knowingly discharging pollutants into U.S. waters,” and repeatedly lying to federal and state health officials about having an adequate stormwater system. The landfill operators pleaded guilty to criminal violations of the Clean Water Act, paid $400,000 in criminal fines, $200,000 in restitution to local businesses and spent thousands of dollars upgrading their stormwater drainage system in the following years.
