Fifty trucks will spend five months hauling Lahaina wildfire debris to a landfill in the center of Maui starting next Monday, Maui County said.
There's enough debris to fill five football fields five stories high. About two years ago, the deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century killed 102 people and turned vast stretches of Lahaina into burned rubble.
The trucks are expected to make multiple trips each day, moving the debris from Olowalu, a town south of Lahaina, to the Central Maui Landfill about 19 miles away, the county said in a statement.
Part of the route follows the winding, two-lane coastal Honoapiʻilani Highway. The trucks will travel on former sugar cane plantation roads for portions to limit traffic disruption. For safety reasons, crews will only work during the day, seven days a week.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers finished clearing Lahaina properties earlier this year, but it's had to temporarily store the debris at a former quarry on state-owned land in Olowalu while authorities searched for a longer-term solution. In December, the Maui County Council approved acquiring privately owned land next to Maui's existing landfill for a permanent disposal site.
Handling debris after large wildfires is always a logistical challenge. It took Paradise, California, officials about a year to transport more than 300,000 truckloads of debris to three different landfills after the 2018 Camp Fire killed 85 people and burned most of the town.
Maui County said it evaluated the debris with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Hawaiʻi Department of Health and determined that transporting and storing it at the landfill didn't pose a public health risk. Workers will lightly wet it before loading it onto trucks to control dust. The debris will be wrapped in thick plastic sheets. In total, it weighs about 400,000 tons.
Some Olowalu residents were worried the debris would stay in their community permanently, potentially desecrating Native Hawaiian shrines, ancient burial sites, and offshore coral reefs and marine life.
Most of the steel and concrete left behind by the fire was to be recycled. Much of the debris heading for the landfill is ash and small particles, which state Department of Health tests found had arsenic, lead and other toxins.
“This is an important step in our recovery efforts and fulfills our promise to the residents of Olowalu that this debris storage would be temporary,” Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said in a statement. “We appreciate the patience and understanding of our residents and visitors as we transfer Lahaina’s wildfire debris safely and respectfully.”
