Hawaii ready to send its trash up the Columbia River Gorge

[depakid]

Activists fear Hawaiian Waste Systems plastic-wrapped garbage bales will tear and end up releasing invasive species. The company says it will repair damage before shipping. Robert Harris of Hawaii's Sierra Club took this shot today at an industrial park storage site.
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After four years of delays and regulatory review, a Seattle contractor is ready to ship tons of globe-trotting trash from Honolulu across the Pacific and up the Columbia Gorge to a landfill just north of the Washington-Oregon border.

The Yakama Nation and environmental groups are still trying to stop the first shipment, which could come as early as Friday. The trash has become a political hot potato on Oahu as garbage awaiting shipment has stacked up since October in an industrial park used for storage by the contractor, Hawaiian Waste Systems.

Today the Yakama and others filed a federal lawsuit and said they plan to file injunctions that could quickly block the shipments, which they said would be the first from Hawaii to the U.S. mainland. The suit contends that the U.S. Department of Agriculture didn't properly consult the Yakama tribes and bands or adequately evaluate the potential for invasive species escaping from up to 150,000 tons a year of compressed, baled and plastic-wrapped municipal garbage, a potential threat to crops and natural areas.

Harry Smiskin, Yakama tribal council chairman, said federal officials told him the garbage could be shipped Friday, heading to the Port of Longview on container ships and then carried by truck or train to the Roosevelt Regional Landfill in Klickitat County. The landfill sits near the Yakama Reservation on part of the Yakama's ceded territory and traditional hunting and fishing grounds.

Federal inspectors suspended the company's right to ship on July 8 because of "pest risk concerns" after finding punctures and tears in some bales of trash. The company and federal regulators say the bales will be rewrapped before shipping to prevent invasive species from escaping.

More: http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2010/07/hawaii_trash_could_be_headed_t.html

[kestrel91316]

1. One wonders why HI couldn't just dump all of its trash into the gaping maw of

its biggest active volcano for incineration, lol. Seems like an elegant solution to me.....

[EmeraldCityGrl]

2. While that's sounds like an ideal solution...

where would the profit be?

:sarcasm:

[kestrel91316]

4. ZOMG, profits!!! Sorry. My bad.

[customerserviceguy]

3. I wonder how fuel efficient it is

to ship garbage from Hawaii to the Pacific Northwest. That should be the real issue.

I have severe doubts that pests that thrive in the warmth of Hawaii would have much chance of survival in the chilly Columbia River. Still, it seems goofy to ship garbage that far. Aren't there some piss-poor nearby island nations willing to take it?