YOU WANT IT WHEN?: We tried- we really did.
But once again, like clockwork, our "little buddy" Leo Azambuja, apparently watched a different county council committee meeting than we did a week ago Wednesday (October 28).
Although the agenda item was a report on the new landfill, what actually happened apparently went completely over Azambuja's head.
The acronym MRF- standing for Materials Recovery Facility- never saw the light of day in the article on the meeting. But it was the central topic of discussion after it was discovered that, despite the desperate need for a MRF to move forward on curbside recycling, the administration, as many have feared, is apparently going to wait for the process of siting the new landfill and completing an environmental impact statement to even start actually building a MRF.
That's because, according to Councilperson JoAnn Yukimura, the administration of Mayor Bernard Carvalho is apparently so enamored of their vision for a Resource Recovery Facility at the same location as the new landfill that they won't even consider anything else.
Rather than starting the process now separately from the landfill siting- which won't be done until at least 2020 according to the administration's presentation- there were no plans presented to indicate that the administration even considered trying to get the MRF "done yesterday" so to speak, in order to divert trash from the old, nearing-capacity landfill so as to buy time for siting a new one.
That would mean construction of an MRF won't even start until June of 2016, Yukimura indicated after looking at the administration's timeline.
Not only that but siting the MRF and other resource recovery facilities inland and near the new landfill is a numbskull idea for a number of reasons despite widespread claims that it "sounds logical."
First of all, as Yukimura and Councilperson Tim Bynum both pointed out, hauling the recyclables far inland- where the presumed new landfill site is- and then back to the harbor will increase costs immensely. But siting the MRF near the harbor would actually make sense so apparently it wasn't considered by the administration.
What no one mentioned is the massive mix of trucks going in and out will cause unneeded congestion costing time and money. And of course if the facilities are too close to the landfill itself, it would put the kibosh on expansion into the area where the facilities are sited.
The reality is that, despite the fact that a MRF was supposed to be completed this year according to the Integrated Solid Waste Program the county approved years ago- and that the "pilot" curbside recycling program had to be suspended for lack of a MRF- there is apparently still no fire under the butts of the Department of Public Works to get the process started except as part of the landfill siting process.
County Engineer Larry Dill did come forward to say that the administration was supposedly working separately on a MRF but it seems like a CYA afterthought. It came only after former County Engineer and current Environmental Services Officer Donald Fujimoto seemed incredibly befuddled by the criticism, apparently because the administration has been so stuck on the concept of putting all the trash-related stuff in one place that they didn't see the need for a MRF as being the most important solid-waste-related project for the county right now.
The whole matter will be back on the agenda soon because the discussion was continually being cut short since the subjects of the MRF and the old landfill weren't even on the agenda.
But the fact that even after the embarrassment of having to cut short the pilot curbside recycling program, even after the passage of a new zero waste resolution by the council AND administration, even though the current landfill's life apparently won't get us to the opening of a new landfill and it's filling up faster than it was supposed to and even though all those recyclables are going into the current landfill because there is no MRF, the administration is still in la-la land with their grand plan for their one-stop opala palace.
Excuse us while we look for a place to get sick.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Very interesting. You are probably old enough to remember Paul Harvey and "The Rest of the Story." I think this is what we have here.
But don't be too hard on your journalistic buddy. As you know, small newspapers have a challenge filling positions with seasoned reporters and editors to help them. Garden Island and Maui News are perfect examples.
It's too easy to sit back and criticize what comes out of the small local media.
Lucky for us, you've added a lot of context the rest of us need to know about what's going on on your particular rock. It's why you're linked on the blogroll for All Hawaii News. Thank you for that!
:)
N
Paul Harvey was a lying turd, not a journalist.
Why not also ask JoA Yukimura why we can't use her "resource center" that was so badly thought out and designed it's barely useful for anything???
And thank FSM you're not going on and on about shipping trash off island instead of landfilling here. I guess Oahu's great flop finally caused the scales to drop off your eyes.
Thanks for the kind words Nancy. And normally I defend rather than chide working journalists and give them plenty of slack and professional courtesy. But part of my job is media criticism and Leo is not only not a professional but he is a "clear and present danger" to the Kaua`i community.
As THE government beat "reporter" for the Kaua`i "newspaper of record" and the ONLY commercial news source on the island (neither the Star Bulletin nor Civil Beat even have stringers much less even part time news correspondents) he has done, not just a dismal but an atrocious job in an incredibly important position. Not only does he botch almost every story in one way or another he has a habit of being able to be intimidated and manipulated by officials and so routinely files essentially false reports. He seemingly has no ability to tell a story and can't seem to get the idea of the inverted triangle or what "lede" is, much less find the the most important story line. He often misses the real story entirely.
The community is not just undeserved but, because TGI is where 99% of Kaua`i people get their news, people don't just have no idea what is truly going on but have damaging misconceptions as to the facts.
And this one is nothing compared to what he did Saturday. http://parxnewsdaily.blogspot.com/2011/11/azambogus.html
Thanks for the kind words Nancy. And normally I defend rather than chide working journalists and give them plenty of slack and professional courtesy. But part of my job is media criticism and Leo is not only not a professional but he is a "clear and present danger" to the Kaua`i community.
As THE government beat "reporter" for the Kaua`i "newspaper of record" and the ONLY commercial news source on the island (neither the Star Bulletin nor Civil Beat even have stringers much less even part time news correspondents) he has done, not just a dismal but an atrocious job in an incredibly important position. Not only does he botch almost every story in one way or another he has a habit of being able to be intimidated and manipulated by officials and so routinely files essentially false reports. He seemingly has no ability to tell a story and can't seem to get the idea of the inverted triangle or what "lede" is, much less find the the most important story line. He often misses the real story entirely.
The community is not just undeserved but, because TGI is where 99% of Kaua`i people get their news, people don't just have no idea what is truly going on but have damaging misconceptions as to the facts.
And this one is nothing compared to what he did Saturday. http://parxnewsdaily.blogspot.com/2011/11/azambogus.html
Post a Comment