Pine Puts Pressure On Illegal Dumping
Following the dumping of debris into Waianae from dredging operations at Hawaii Kai Marina, City Councilwoman Kymberly Marcos Pine has demanded the Hawaii Kai Marina Association remove all debris and return the tons of dredged materials to holding areas in its own community.
SER Trucking, located in Waianae, has been accused of illegal dumping by asking area property owners to allow the dumping of materials generated from the Hawaii Kai site onto their land.
“Before they even had the trucking company, we already had made a request to the city to investigate,” Pine explained. “We discovered on Aug. 22 that they (SER Trucking and several other companies} were in violation.”
Research still is being done as to how this happened. In the meantime, Pine seeks stricter legislation to ensure that this type of incident doesn’t happen again.
“If someone does any dumping without a permit, it’s not just going to be a fine of $150 a day; I want to raise that to $1,000 a day,” she said.
Furthermore, she said, if it’s a repeat offender, instead of just a warning from the Department of Planning and Permitting, they automatically would be fined.
But Pine also wants to protect private homeowners who might not be familiar with the rules and regulations set forth by the DPP.
“It’s people like that whom we don’t want to hurt in any way,” she explained. “But these large companies are supposed to know the laws and regulations. Those are the ones that are more informed, and we certainly want to find them immediately.
“We want to work with our state legislators to see what new laws and regulations we can come up with together that will eliminate this type of dumping in our community. There are laws in the works, but it seems there’s an enforcement issue, as well.”
Despite the problems this illegal dumping has brought to the Leeward Coast, Pine said some good has come out of it.
“I think it’s really brought the community together in a positive way,” she said. “It brought the awareness that everybody is in charge of reporting suspicious activity.
“It’s also brought awareness to some longstanding practices, where some maybe lower-income landowners will be more susceptible to bigger companies that don’t want to use the city dump facility.”
Pine explained that big companies will attempt to save money instead by going to private landowners, who might have financial difficulties, and pay them to dump on their land.
For more information, area residents may call Pine at 768-5001.
Pine represents District 1 (Ewa, Ewa Beach, Kapolei, Honokai Hale, Ko Olina, Nanakuli, Maili, Waianae, Makaha, Keaau and Makua).
