Wailuku, Maui – On May 31st, the Intermediate Court of Appeals unanimously affirmed the 2019 decision of retired Judge Joseph Cardoza that voided an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for a wastewater sludge drying project proposed by Maui County and Anaergia Services at the Wailuku-Kahului Wastewater Reclamation Facility – situated between the Kahului shoreline and Kanahā Pond State Wildlife Sanctuary. Maui County taxpayers have saved significant money, and the environment is safer, as a result of legal action taken by Maui Tomorrow Foundation and Sierra Club Maui Group.
The experimental sludge drying project would have processed energy crops to produce biogas, which in turn would have been used to fuel a combined heat and power (CHP) engine to generate electricity and to dry municipal wastewater biosolids.
“The County’s contract with Anaergia would have started out paying almost four times the going rate for power purchase agreements, with increases year after year,” said Albert Perez, Maui Tomorrow’s Executive Director. “In addition to this waste of taxpayer dollars, the County would have invested more money in an old Kahului wastewater plant that is next to a wildlife refuge – a facility that needs to be moved out of the tsunami inundation area. Although we favor increased use of renewable energy, it must be done in a responsible way that doesn’t threaten the shoreline environment.”
Maui Tomorrow Foundation and the Sierra Club Maui Group filed numerous objections during the draft EIS review, but the County still approved the EIS. The biggest concern with the process was that the developer had been allowed to prepare the EIS on the County’s behalf under a narrower review process known as an “applicant action,” instead of the more thorough “agency action” review process for projects that use taxpayer dollars.
After the community groups challenged the EIS, Judge Cardoza, who was then Maui’s Environmental Court judge, ruled in their favor, saying that the County needed to redo the EIS as an agency action. The County and Anaergia appealed, but on May 31st, the ICA affirmed Judge Cardoza’s decision, linked here.
The project had first been proposed through a County procurement. Anaergia was the sole bidder in that process. At the time, Anaergia was already under contract for a separate waste-to-energy project at the Central Maui Landfill, which an independent auditor later determined would cost the County $35 million more than originally anticipated.
“Someone had to say the emperor had no clothes,” said Sierra Club Maui Group Chair
Lucienne de Naie. “Thanks to community support, Maui Tomorrow and Sierra Club were able to shine a light on the County’s illegal actions – and keep taxpayer monies from being tied up in this costly long-term contract. The Intermediate Court of Appeals decision completely validates citizen concerns.”
Stewart Stant served as the County’s Director of Environmental Management from 2015 to 2018, and strongly advocated for the sludge drying project to be approved. Stant, who is now serving a ten year federal prison sentence for public corruption, admitted to taking more than $2 million in bribes during those years to award no-bid contracts to another wastewater contractor, Oahu businessman Milton Choy.
“The Anaergia RFP was drafted in a way that only Anaergia could submit a bid,” said Lance D. Collins, attorney for the community groups. “Our lawsuit challenged a wholesale disregard of good government laws.”
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