The court found that the county should have done the environmental review of Anaergia Services’ proposed sludge-drying facility. Maui County should not have let a private company write a legally required environmental study for an experimental wastewater project the business planned to build in Central Maui, the Intermediate Court of Appeals has ruled. By allowing Anaergia Services to prepare the environmental impact statement itself instead of county employees doing it, the county violated the Hawaii Environmental Protection Act, the court said in its ruling.
The dispute dates back to March 2016, according to the May 31 court decision. That’s when the county, during the administration of Mayor Alan Arakawa, issued a request for proposals for the design, construction and operation of a gas turbine system that would dry sludge at the Wailuku-Kahului wastewater reclamation plant. The county wanted to replace existing fossil-fuel generated electricity with locally sourced, renewable energy, meet the plant’s power needs and reduce costs associated with managing sludge, the solids that are left over after sewage is treated.
Anaergia got the waste-to-energy contract in May 2016 and formed a subsidiary called Maui All Natural Alternative to do the work. The county and MANA penned a service agreement in February 2017 that laid out the terms, including the supply of firm, renewable energy for the wastewater treatment plant and a “drying service” for all county-generated slud.