“Picture the volume as roughly five football fields, five stories high.”
That’s how Bob Schmidt, deputy director of Maui County’s Department of Environmental Management, described the amount of debris from the Lahaina fire.
That translates to about 400,000 tons removed from Lahaina town and trucked to the temporary debris storage site in Olowalu.
Commercial and residential debris has now been cleared from all 1,538 Lahaina properties in the federal cleanup program. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers just finished debris removal of 148 commercial parcels, marking completion of an 18-month cleanup process.
“It's a big step towards enabling that forward momentum in terms of recovery and rebuild,” said Army Corps Lt. Col. Joseph Kendall.
The commercial structure portion of the cleanup started about a year ago.
“Cleared the debris of the final site on [February] 14th, so ahead of schedule on a really monumental task, in terms of partnership with the county, partnership with FEMA, partnership with the state and our contractor partners to make that happen,” he told HPR.
Officials urge patience during upcoming debris transfer
Up next is transferring all that fire debris to the permanent disposal site at the Central Maui Landfill.
Schmidt said that’s no small feat.
“As you can imagine, moving the estimated 400,000 tons of debris from the TDS to the PDS is an extremely complex operation with a multitude of moving parts,” he said, referring to the temporary and permanent disposal sites.
After a previous attempt to acquire land fell through, the county bought nearly 80 acres next to the Central Maui Landfill from Nan, Inc. in a $4 million agreement announced in November. That land — 49 acres of which was previously quarried, and 30 acres currently being used to quarry — will expand the landfill’s current capacity, as well as hold the fire debris.
Groundwork to prepare the site started last month. Schmidt said that means nonstop labor.
“We're currently pushing really hard. This construction is seven days a week, 24 hours a day, to make the deadline of June, to get the material moved,” he told Lahaina residents during a recent community update.
It will take about five months to move all the debris to the permanent disposal site.
Kendall said during this process starting in June, dozens of trucks will each take about four trips per day back and forth between Olowalu and the Central Maui Landfill. Similar to the transfer from Lahaina, the debris will be contained in the transport trucks in what’s known as a burrito wrap.
“Right now, our planning factor is approximately 50 trucks, taking multiple turns with the same type of plastic wrap that they saw removing debris from Lahaina, moving to the temporary site,” Kendall explained. “The debris will be wrapped on the site, weighed at the bottom of the site, and then moved to the permanent disposal site.”
Former cane haul roads will be used in Central Maui to help keep trucks off the main roads as much as possible. Exact traffic plans are still in progress, but Maui County officials asked for patience during what will be a logistically challenging debris transfer process.
“This will be one of the most complicated projects we're going to do," said Maui County’s Mahina Martin in the community update. "As we transport from the temporary site at Olowalu and head towards the Central Maui permanent site, you'll more than likely encounter our transportation of debris out of Lahaina, whether you're coming or going from the west side."
“It's important to keep this in mind that it is going to be a temporary few months, but we have to get through it together,” she continued. “It's a necessary part of ensuring that we can keep the Lahaina debris safe and contained in a location that we all planned for, which is Central Maui.”
Recovery work continues
Officials said that soil and groundwater will continue to be monitored at the Olowalu and Central Maui sites. Dust and air monitoring will also take place at the work sites and along the transfer route.
“We are fully committed to ensuring that the debris is moved from the temporary site to the permanent disposal site as quickly and safely as possible,” Mayor Richard Bissen said.
“Our partnership with federal agencies is critical in making this happen efficiently, and we will continue to push for the swift completion of this process. We made a promise to the Olowalu community, and we intend to keep it by prioritizing the responsible and timely relocation of the debris.”
As for the Army Corps’ work, crews will be removing more than 200 concrete pilings in Lahaina that previously held up retail buildings overlooking the water on Front Street. In a partnership with the U.S. Navy, it will take two to three months to remove those structures to increase safety near the seawall.
While concurrently working on the debris removal, the Army Corps will be wrapping up its assistance to FEMA with housing and infrastructure work in Lahaina, all of which is anticipated to be completed by the end of the year.
After that, the Army Corps’ role in post-fire recovery will be primarily in operations and maintenance support at the temporary King Kamehameha III Elementary School campus in Pulelehua, Kendall told HPR.
