Wednesday marked the first day of fire debris removal in Lahaina.
The cleanup process of residential and business properties is led by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in coordination with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Hawai'i Emergency Management Agency, Maui County and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Phase 1 of debris removal involved site assessments, and removal of hazardous household materials and asbestos.
During Phase 2 beginning this week, the remaining debris is wet down with water to minimize dust, and “burrito wrapped,” or encapsulated in thick industrial plastic and sealed before transport to the temporary debris storage site in Olowalu.
More than 400,000 tons of debris are expected to be removed from Lahaina.
Air monitoring and surveillance of the area during the removal work is underway.
“We are dedicated to minimizing the dust produced from debris removal operations,” said Col. Jess Curry, recovery field office commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
“Our contractors are using dust-reduction methods that have been refined through the many lessons learned during successfully executed debris removal events from the past few years.”
Native Hawaiian cultural advisors of Maui are working alongside debris removal teams.
For many Lahaina residents, the cleanup marks a big step toward their goal of rebuilding.
Olowalu was approved as the temporary debris storage site during a Maui County Council meeting Friday. The vote came after hours of heated public testimony and emotional discussion from councilmembers.
Those opposing the site expressed concern about toxic runoff contaminating the nearby Olowalu reef and insufficient environmental protections of the temporary site.
But at the end of a 10-hour meeting, council members voting in favor of granting the right of entry for Olowalu said they did so with both the environment and Lahaina residents in mind.
“The uncontained, uncontrolled leachate, which is generated from water percolating through and accumulating contaminants and moving into subsurface areas, is already going into the ocean, every day that we don't contain it and it rains and that water goes into the ocean,” said West Maui Councilmember Tamara Paltin, referencing runoff following recent heavy rains in Lahaina.
“The reason Olowalu was chosen is because of its close proximity to Lahaina. Do we really think this toxic runoff is not getting to Olowalu? The longer that we leave it uncontained and unlined, the more it will get to that reef," she said.
Maui Mayor Richard Bissen has promised Olowalu will not be a permanent site.
In a discussion before casting her vote in favor of Olowalu as a temporary site, Paltin said that time is of the essence to remove toxic debris from the ground in Lahaina.
“Olowalu is not perfect, but it will be a lined containment. We don't have lined containment in Lahaina,” she said. “It'll be away from thousands of families that have no other choice in where they can live or go to school. My accountability is to the health and safety of the thousands of families, the reef, the ocean which connects us, including Olowalu reef.”
The county's goal is to move the debris to a final location within two years. That site has not yet been chosen — and officials stress the community will have significant input on that decision.
