WAILUKU - The Maui Planning Commission gave initial approval Tuesday to county plans for improvements to the Hana landfill.

Following a nearly four-hour question-and-answer period with Department of Environmental Management officials and their consultants, commissioners voted 8-1 to grant a county special use permit and recommend approval for a state Land Use Commission special permit for the "expansion" of the Hana landfill.

Maui Tomorrow Foundation Executive Director Irene Bowie, state Senate candidate John Blumer-Buell and East Maui fishpond owner Leslie Bruce all testified Tuesday against the permit approvals, saying more studies on cultural and environmental impacts of the landfill operations needed to be done.

County officials proposed redrawing boundary lines of the dumpsite to reflect how the land is actually being used, including an accidental encroachment onto state property and off-site water and gas monitoring stations.

In addition, the county needs the permits to incorporate proposed drainage improvements, including the construction of a 100-foot-by-100-foot storm runoff detention basin, which would be built southwest of the existing landfill site and within the realigned landfill boundaries. There are also plans to maintain a conservation buffer on the makai side of the landfill, which is accessible by Waikoloa Road via Hana Highway.

An environmental assessment on the landfill and the county's plans to adjust the landfill property and makeup was approved in November 2007.

The approved EA did not provide enough information for Commission Chairman Jonathan Starr, who said he would not consider approving the permits without more information on issues brought up by the opponents and commissioners, including groundwater testing at the landfill, consideration of cultural impacts from cinder cone mining and solid waste disposal alternatives for East Maui.

Commissioner Ward Mardfin, a retiree from Hana, also said he wanted additional information before voting on the permit requests, but not at the risk of the landfill being shut down for lack of permits.

Starr dissented on recommending approval of the state and county special use permits, but he joined his fellow commissioners in a unanimous decision to defer action on the Department of Environmental Management's request for a special management area permit. The commission was advised it had to wait for the final decision by the Land Use Commission on the state special use permit before granting an SMA.

Environmental Management Director Director Cheryl Okuma told commissioners she appreciated the questions and concerns raised during Tuesday's four-hour meeting. However, without the permits, her agency is "technically" in violation of state Department of Health regulations that require the county obtain permits for the landfill.

Once her department receives the permits, it can then make other decisions including whether to continue cinder cone mining, which is in done in part to provide cover for the landfill waste, and how to expand a recycling program.

Okuma pointed out that her department is holding islandwide public meetings on an integrated solid waste management plan. She said the Department of Environmental Management has also begun to study the possibility of converting the Hana landfill into a transfer station, from which all of the area's residential trash will be trucked to the Central Maui Landfill.

A transfer station was set up at Olowalu after the West Maui landfill was closed.

* Claudine San Nicolas can be reached at claudine@mauinews.com.