Mr. Franz Kraintz

Community Planner

Department of Planning & Permitting

City & County of Honolulu

 

Re: Opposition to the PVT Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility (ISWMF) Relocation to TMK: (1) 8-7-009:007

 

Aloha Mr. Kraintz:

I am a member of UNITE HERE Local 5, a local labor organization representing approximately 11,500 hotel, health care and food service workers employed throughout our State. As a Union, we believe One Job Should be Enough – to have a roof over our heads, to keep up with the cost of living, to raise our families, to retire with dignity, and to live in an island community which protects our health and welfare. I oppose the relocation of the PVT Integrated Solid Waste Management Facility construction and demolition landfill within such close proximity of our members, their kupuna, and their keiki. 

According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the life expectancies for those that live within a two-mile radius from the current PVT landfill are the second- and third-lowest in the State of Hawaiʻi. These neighborhoods include Nānākuli Homestead, Auyoung Homestead Road and Mōhihi Street, and Puʻu Heleakala. These neighborhoods have a life expectancy that is a full decade less than the State average (82 years).

The current PVT landfill has been operating in Nānākuli and Māʻili at its current location since 1985. A thin 750 feet “buffer zone” separates the hazardous waste materials dumped there  from the keiki and kupuna, places of worship, farms, and Ulehawa stream.

There are numerous testimonials since the 1980’s sharing stories of sickness and death in relation to landfills in general and the PVT landfill in specific. Also, there are numerous scientific studies that clarify the negative effects of landfills on human health, including the negative effects of construction and demolition landfills in specific.

The Hawaii State Constitution affirms that everyone in Hawaiʻi should have a “clean and healthful environment” (Article XI, Sec. 9). Let us seek pono by taking steps toward environmental and health justice for our communities.

 

cc: 

Mayor Kirk Caldwell

Councilmember Kymberly Pine

Councilmember Ron Menor

Sen. Maile Shimabukuro

Rep. Stacelyn Eli

Hawaii State Department of Health

Land Use Commission

Nānākuli-Māʻili Neighborhood Board