City Taking Testimony On Composting Center

The city Planning Commission will hear testimony at 1:30 p.m. April 4 on Hawaiian Earth Recycling’s proposal to build a facility near Schofield Barracks to process sewage sludge for compost.

The hearing is in the Mission Memorial Conference Room on South King Street, and details are available by calling 768-8007.

The company has 10 acres of ag-zoned land available for the In-Vessel Composting Facility Project, and it seeks a special use permit to build and operate it. The property is at 65-1101 Wilikina Drive.

The new facility and accessory structures would combine stabilized, dewatered sludge with green waste and food waste to create marketable products such as compost, soil amendments, potting mixes and erosion-control materials. Up to about 150,000 tons could be processed each year in the new facility.

Odor is a concern mentioned by city planners, especially with the nearest residential area less than a half mile away. Hawaiian Earth Recycling (the makers of Menehune Magic organic compost) has stated that mitigation measures are planned and that Army households may detect odor “less than 1 percent of the time, and it would not reach the threshold of annoyance even 0.1 percent of the time at Schofield Barracks.”