Hawaii will transform state land into a memorial for the 97 people killed in August’s devastating wildfires, officials said.
The plot in Olowalu, five miles south of where the wildfires devastated Lahaina, will also be used as a landfill for ash –some of which still contains human remains.
“It allows the ash from Lahaina, which contains human remains, to stay in West Maui,” Shayne Agawa, the director of Maui’s Department of Environmental Management, told the state Board of Land and Natural Resources before its Friday vote approving the plan.
The ash contains high levels of hazardous arsenic and lead and is currently being exposed to wind and rain, Agawa said.
Removing it as soon as possible will reduce the risk to residents returning to the town.
The debris will be put in dumpsters lined with plastic, wrapped up and sealed with glue and before being covered in another layer of plastic.
The packages would then be buried at the landfill and covered with grass.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency teams have been removing toxic items including the remnants of burned cars and buildings, pesticides and solar-powered batteries.
Steel and concrete at the site would be recycled, officials also said.
Some raised concerns about the landfill’s impact on nearby coral reefs and historic sites.
Scott Crawford, the Maui marine director for The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, said he understood the need to quickly find a landfill site and believes a memorial is important, but urged that agencies mitigate the environmental effects.
The county said it plans to talk to the public about what the landfill site would look like.
With Post wires