Below are relevant questions to the safety of Debris Removal

Workers will be using protective clothing to avoid contact or breathing in the ash. All applicable work health and safety standards will be followed.

Ash will be collected by hand tools (rakes and shovels), mini-excavators and front-loaders into dump trucks lined with heavy plastic, which will be sealed and tarped (aka ‘burrito wrapped’) prior to leaving the property. The trucks will follow designated routes (avoiding the Pali) to the temporary storage and/or disposal areas. Sensitive dust monitors will be in place at both the source and destination locations. Loads will be slowly dumped at the disposal areas to avoid generating dust. Dust will be controlled by water misters applying a gentle spray of water. The staging pads will be lined with heavy plastic to prevent leaks and will be covered every day to avoid drying and dust generation. US ACE will oversee all contractors involved in this process.

Yes. Sensitive dust monitors specifically designed for this purpose will be set up each day by trained personnel during all excavation and dumping operations. The public will be able to view air monitoring data at https://fire.airnow.gov/.

The best course of action to reduce ash runoff is to expedite the removal of ash from affected properties. Erosion control features called best management practices (BMPs) have been placed around storm drains to reduce discharge. USEPA soil stabilization efforts applied in Upcountry and currently underway in Lahaina primarily serve to control dust, but these efforts also help mitigate runoff. Once ash and debris reach the final disposal areas, this risk is significantly reduced by runoff control features and impermeable liners.

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Bulk asbestos containing material (ACM), mostly from building materials such as siding, caulk, floor tiles, and insulation will be managed along with the ash and debris carefully to avoid disturbing it and by application of a gentle water spray for dust control during collection, transport and handling in both the TDS and proposed final containment area.

No. From a regulatory perspective, ash and debris area considered ‘household waste,’ which is different from ‘hazardous waste’ designation and can be managed at municipal solid waste landfills, such as the Central Maui Landfill, according to federal law. Though the levels of arsenic, lead and cobalt make the ash harmful to human health (via exposure to skin or inhalation), these levels of contamination do not necessarily make the waste a ‘hazardous waste.’ A thin (1/2 – 1” thick) layer of ash will be removed along with underlying soils (6” thick layer). When this material is mixed together, it is unlikely to contain leachable levels of arsenic and lead that would classify the material as a ‘hazardous waste’ per federal regulations.

Concrete and metals, which compose of approximately 25% of the ash/debris being removed, are being separated, rinsed and sent for recovery and recycling on the island. Though alternative technologies such as pyrolysis, anaerobic digestion, or gasification continue to be developed by academia and industry, they are not considered practical for the wildfire ash/debris in Lahaina from a legal, technical or logistical perspective. Aside from the developmental nature of these technologies (very few if any commercially viable facilities exist), the amount of space needed, siting requirements, time and cost to permit and construct, energy required, and composition of the ash/debris (which contains pieces of glass, ceramic tile, drywall and metal) make these options not viable for the wildfire debris on Maui. Also, even if these technologies were viable on Maui, there would still be a need to properly manage a substantial volume of solid byproduct (such as biochar) generated by the process, which currently have limited commercial or agricultural applications, as these products are derived from waste material.To learn more about these emerging technologies, see these reports from USEPA:

Though detectable levels of dioxins and furans were found in ash samples collected by Hawai’i DOH (see https://health.hawaii.gov/news/files/2023/12/Lahaina-Ash-Data.pdf), they are not considered harmful to human health according to Hawai’i DOH guidance on dioxins and furans in soils found at: https://health.hawaii.gov/heer/files/2019/11/ealhdohdioxinsoilactionlevelsjune2010.pdf.

Dioxins do not typically exist in materials before they are incinerated. However, when materials and waste are burned, dioxins are produced and introduced into the environment. A large part of current exposures to dioxins in the U.S. is due to releases that occurred decades ago (e.g., pollution, fires). Even if all human-generated dioxins were eliminated, low levels of naturally produced dioxins would remain. More than 90% of typical human exposure is estimated by EPA to be through the intake of animal fats, mainly meat, dairy products, fish, and shellfish.

For more information, see https://www.epa.gov/dioxin/learn-about-dioxin.

The proposed final containment area will in effect be the same as encapsulation, without the substantial amount of cement that would be required. If ash/debris were to be encapsulated in cement, there would also be increased chances of leaching, leakage in production, mixing and solidification.