The main alternative to the landfill is burning the debris at H-Power, the city incinerator that breaks down waste and produces less than 10% of Oahu\u2019s electricity. The resulting ash is still sent to the landfill, but takes up less space and weighs less. When trash is too dirty or wet, however, it isn\u2019t flammable.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat introduces a component that doesn\u2019t burn and ends up in the ash and messes up the H-Power boilers when we\u2019re trying to burn it,\u201d Roger Babcock, director of environmental services, said.<\/p>\n
Now Patsy T. Mink Central Oahu Regional Park in Waipahu is acting as an enormous outdoor drying table to enable the flood water to evaporate.<\/p>\n
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Flood debris piling up at Patsy T. Mink Central O\u02bbahu Regional Park has continued to increase, to an estimated 6,000 tons. (Craig Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n
In the end, Babcock said, an estimated 80% of the flood debris or 20,000 cubic yards \u2013 the equivalent of an extra month\u2019s worth of Honolulu\u2019s municipal waste \u2013 will likely end up at the landfill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the disaster load is definitely a hit on the facility, he said it won\u2019t have a major impact on its operations or its projected lifespan. Around 225,000 tons of waste are landfilled there every year.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe amount continues to climb each day, but it\u2019s manageable. We\u2019re trying to reduce what we send to the landfill, and we\u2019re trying to take out all the metal. We don\u2019t want to bury that,\u201d Babcock said. \u201cBut you need to spread it out and have a contractor go through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of the only relief valves is a landfill operated by PVT Land Company<\/a>, which has a county contract to take commercial building and demolition waste. Those materials will be directed there once people start rebuilding, Babcock said, a process that will take months.<\/p>\n On Monday, the roar of heavy machinery enveloped a fenced section of the the regional park as contractors sorted and consolidated mounds of saturated bedding, window frames, twisted metal, stud timber, vegetation and appliances.\u00a0<\/p>\n Black construction cloth flapped in the wind against a temporary barrier fence, offering glimpses even from the ground of backhoe loaders picking over the remains of people\u2019s farms and homes severely damaged during flash flooding in Waialua on March 19 and 20.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean stuff was wrinkled against houses, against fences,\u201d said Brandon Rice, a Waialua resident who used his own heavy equipment to help clear the resulting debris. \u201cThere were Tupperware containers, plastic totes, sheet metal from roofs or fencing, and washers and dryers that washed down the road.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The staging area in Waipahu is effectively a super-sized outdoor recycling center where city contractors sort the wreckage. While the city\u2019s Department of Facilities Maintenance temporary collection sites at Otake Camp<\/a> and Long Bridge were closed earlier this week, residents could still take debris to regular collection centers<\/a>.<\/p>\n City crews will be back in Waialua on Monday for\u00a0curbside refuse collection and residents have been asked to separate damaged appliances from other debris, and schedule the pickup of hazardous items by calling (808) 768-3201<\/a>.<\/p>\n Residents Had Little Time To Sort<\/p>\n A lot of the clearing has already been carried out by locals who worked to move the soggy debris during the weekend after the storm. They piled debris into a temporary dump site in Waialua before city crews arrived in force.<\/p>\n It was hard to tell objects apart from one another, Rice said. Residents\u2019 best option was to \u201cjust grab everything and dump it into trailers.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cEverything was muddy, smashed and wrinkled,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n That helped clear kitchens, garages and driveways faster but is complicating the processing of the tons of detritus at the temporary staging area.<\/p>\n In many cases, the truckloads arriving at Patsy Mink park have been screened for flammable and hazardous materials by contract crews at the temporary dump sites.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe contractors were pretty decent at using machines to identify propane tanks and electronic parts. I saw them pulling batteries, propane and gas tanks out,\u201d Rice said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The amount of flood debris being trucked to the staging area should level off soon, Babcock said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe actually expect the piles to start shrinking,\u201d he said, as materials are diverted.<\/p>\n Nearly 100 truckloads had been delivered as of Saturday, a county press release said. Now the two county contractors, DRC Emergency Services<\/a> and Tetra Tech<\/a>, have to determine where it all goes.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cSome of it can be recycled, some is going to the landfill and some might be able to go to H-Power,\u201d Babcock said.<\/p>\n The county\u2019s municipal incinerator, H-Power<\/a>, turns an average of 2,000 tons of waste a day into ash that takes up 90% less physical volume and 75% less weight at the landfill, and \u201cthat space is precious,\u201d Babcock said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n H-Power Struggles With Muddy, Damp Waste<\/p>\n The county\u2019s ability to turn the sodden debris into ash is limited by the mass burn technology of the H-Power incinerator, which doesn\u2019t effectively burn material that is wet or contaminated by soil.\u00a0<\/p>\n Diesel fuel can be added to help material burn but that\u2019s much less efficient, Babcock said.\u00a0<\/p>\n That means more of the flood debris will have to be landfilled than might normally be the case.<\/p>\n Some products recovered from the trash can be recycled, including steel and household appliances.\u00a0<\/p>\n Those will be processed by county contractors and ultimately shipped in containers to the mainland, Babcock said. With large appliances, he said, \u201cthe contractors are taking out the chemicals and then they\u2019re shredding it. And then they\u2019re compressing it \u2013\u2013 just like junk cars.\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s no different from the current recycling workflow for recycling.<\/p>\n It is too early to estimate the final cost of the debris clean up, Babcock said, but it will certainly be \u201cseveral millions.\u201d The county is hoping to recoup most of that through insurance and from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he said, although the timing of a potential federal reimbursement is hard to predict.\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"Black](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/IMG_0949-1024x768.jpg\")
Part of the estimated 6,000 tons of debris from the March floods on O\u02bbahu\u2019s North Shore collected for sorting at the Patsy T. Mink Central O\u02bbahu Regional Park. Sediment runoff barriers snake around the piles of refuse. (Matthew Leonard\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/LUM_9112-1024x683.jpg\")
Waialua resident Brandon Rice used his own equipment to help remove debris from the March storms on the North Shore. Locals mobilized quickly in the two days after flash flooding and started piling up refuse before city crews arrived in force. (Thomas Heaton\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n![\"Rubbish](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/260323-kf-North-Shore-Clean-Up-342-1024x682.jpg\")
Rubbish is piled into the middle of a Wailua traffic circle on Monday. Residents used the circle as a make-shift refuse transfer center for nearby homes affected by the flooding. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/260322-kf-Waialua-Kukea-Loop-269-1024x682.jpg\")
Home goods and bedding piled up at the temporary staging center in Waialua. Saturated and mud-infused material clogs the county incinerator H-Power and will end up on the Waimanalo Gulch landfill. (Kevin Fujii\/Civil Beat\/2026)<\/p>\n
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