Maui County: Lahaina wildfire debris will begin being moved from Olowalu to Central Maui in June

After a slow start to create a permanent site for the 2023 Lahaina wildfire debris, Maui County said the process is now moving quickly with semi-trucks scheduled to begin in June to transport the approximately 400,000 tons of debris and ash from Olowalu to Central Maui.

And, Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said on Saturday it is expected to take only five months, a much shorter timeframe than the year to 18 months county officials previously said it would take.

The tentative completion is at the end of October, said Shayne Agawa, the county’s director of Environmental Management.

It is not clear how many truckloads it will take, but early estimates were about 40,000 and Bissen said on Saturday it could be as high as 50,000.

Regardless of the number, Bissen said: “Definitely, it’s going to have an impact on our roads. But we’re going to try to be mostly safety No. 1 and try to be as smooth as possible.”

These were among the new details presented during a public open house on Saturday in Lahaina by officials from Maui County, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the state Department of Health and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The fire waste, estimated to fill five football fields five stories high, will be moved truckload by truckload along a 20-mile route. It starts at the temporary site in Olowalu, winds along the Pali coast to Māʻalaea and goes through Kahului to the permanent site currently under construction on land next to the Central Maui Landfill.

There was concern the debris would remain at Olowalu much longer than originally expected when the county’s attempts to acquire a 20-acre parcel land next to the Central Maui Landfill — first by purchasing it for $830,000 and then by going through the courts with eminent domain proceedings — both failed.

But in November, the county entered into conditional agreements with a subsidiary of Nan Inc., Hawaiʻi’s largest locally owned construction company, to purchase approximately 49 acres of previously quarried land and 30 acres of land currently being quarried adjacent to the Central Maui Landfill for $4 million.

The Maui County Council approved the acquisitions on Dec. 13 and earlier this year the county completed the sales, Bissen said. Of the 79 acres, 14 is being used for the permanent disposal site and the rest will be used for the much-needed expansion of the county’s municipal solid waste landfill.

Agawa said the two-phase plan to construct the permanent fire debris site is scheduled to be completed in June, with the county awarding two contracts to do the work for a total of $20 million.

The first phase is earthwork, which began Jan. 17 and is slated to be completed March 17. The approximately $5 million contract was publicly bid and awarded to Alpha Construction, Agawa said.

It involves a topography study “to know how the existing land is” before work begins on cleanup, grading and other tasks necessary to prep the land for the liner.

The second phase is putting in a protective liner. The approximately $15 million contract was awarded to Maui Kupono Builders and is expected to begin March 1, Agawa said.

The liner process is done in six layers that include soil bedding, plastic liners and gravel, according to information provided by the county.

“This is all regulatory, required by the Department of Health for a landfill like this,” Agawa said.

The landfill for the fire debris will be “subtitle D,” which is for nonhazardous solid waste.

The debris, which was wrapped in the burn zone with an environmental safe industrial plastic some call a “burrito” before being transported to Olowalu, will be wrapped again at the Olowalu temporary site before it is loaded into semi-trucks, weighed and then driven to Central Maui.

The plan is still underway about when the trucks will transport the debris, Bissen and U.S. Army Corps of Engineer Lt. Col. Joseph Kendall said. The presentation shown Saturday stated up to 50 trucks per day would operate during daylight hours.

This part of the project will be conducted by Oʻahu-based Environmental Chemical Corp., which was awarded the contract. Kendall said the cost amount of the contract will be determined as planning goes forward.

The company also was awarded the contract for removing debris from the burn zone to Olowalu. Officials said the removal of debris from Lahaina is “99 percent” complete and could be finished as soon as this week.

The Army Corps will continue to oversee the temporary debris site in Olowalu and will oversee the debris removal to Central Maui.

County officials said during Maui County Council meetings that the cost of transport could run $60 million. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is expected to pay 100% of the cost, although it could be just 90%.

“Right now, if we do it in a timely way, those costs are going to be borne by FEMA,” Bissen said. “And, we promised Olowalu that we would get it out of there as soon as we could.”

To minimize traffic congestion caused by the trucks making multiple daily roundtrips to transport the debris, the county is working on a plan that involves using a county-owned right-of-way and repaving private cane haul roads in place of portions of Kuihelani Highway.

“We’re trying to avoid the heart of Kahului and all the traffic there,” Agawa said.

But there is no realistic way to avoid going across the winding Honoapiʻilani Highway from Olowalu to Māʻalaea, and some parts of Kuihelani Highway. The route also will include crossing Veterans Highway.

Once all the debris from Olowalu is removed, Kendall said the Army Corps will “restore” the land and conduct ongoing soil and groundwater testing for any toxins.

“We look at the hazard analysis across the board, that’s part of our planning,” Kendall said. “So right now, we’re early in that plan. ‘Restore’ is the big word. Now, what restore means is what we’re trying to work on.”

The county originally identified Olowalu as the location for the permanent site, but protests by many residents in West Maui concerned about the environmental and cultural impacts, and a countywide survey, led to the selection of Central Maui as the location of the permanent site, despite the additional millions it will cost to transport the debris twice.

Jennie Kaahui, who was among 20 people from Olowalu invited to a private meeting that was held Saturday before the public open house, said she is happy the debris will soon be leaving Olowalu.

“I thought it was going to be a couple of years,” she said. “My great-grandma was actually born right where the dump site is. So that’s why it’s important. And we had to voice for our family, for that land, that we just don’t want it here.”