“Malia Lt blue top Image”
”City Touts H-Power Plant on Radio Commercial Series, Waianae Residents Might Write the Ad a Bit Differently”
H-Power, the City & County of Honolulu’s garbage-to-ash plant in Waianae, was out of order and shut down nearly one third of the year in 2002, or for more than 100 days. That led to a massive pile up of garbage in the Waimanalo Gulch, the landfill in Waianae that receives ash from H-Power along with waste that cannot be burned.
In fact, the garbage that was neglected, and not burned, caused the landfill to fill up much quicker than expected, leading the city administration to ask the state Department of Health for a permit to expand the landfill’s height by 30 feet. The 30-foot extension was only expected to give the city about 8 more months before other alternatives to the Waimanalo Gulch would be needed.
That why it was odd to hear the City & County of Honolulu sponsoring a radio commercial on Clear Channel stations that claims H-Power has helped clean up Oahu’s environment and has been a wonderful and successful venture. “Thank you, H-Power,” the announcer says with a jolly, deep voice in the end of the commercial.
It is obvious the commercial is funded by the city administration and not by the people in Waianae who live next to the landfill, which has been piled high way past its capacity because H-Power has broken down so many times. If the Waianae residents wrote the commercial, they would likely say the H-Power system is antiquated and has deteriorated so extensively that more garbage is left unburned that burned