Kauaʻi Mayor Derek Kawakami is suggesting an exemption for the island if state lawmakers pass a measure to ban the placement of landfills over aquifers.
The measure, Senate Bill 438, is largely a response to the City and County of Honolulu's plans to site its next landfill in Wahiawā — on farmland and near a drinking water aquifer.
Kauaʻi's landfill in Kekaha is also reaching capacity.
Kawakami wants to consider less desirable ag land as possible sites for a new landfill or for expanding existing ones — if the county can properly mitigate waste from leaking into the environment.
He's hoping for bill amendments that would allow Kauaʻi County to do so.
"There are many ways to move along with this bill, address our island's needs and the needs of ag, and have what you would call strike the right balance," he said.
"With that being said, we stand here in support of this current version, but we do understand that as the bill moves through, it is a work in progress. At the end of the day, if there's a way to carve Kauaʻi County out of this, we would be also supportive of that as well," Kawakami said.
Environmental groups support the measure because of the possibility that waste could leak into the environment and into Hawaiʻi's drinking water.
