The big stink: Unisyn bites the dust

By Ed Rampell

AFTER years of controversy and bitter divisiveness, on March 31 Hawaiian compa ny, Unisyn, announced it was halting recycling operations at its Waimanalo facility, which caused an odor nuisance and alleged health hazards. But victorious taro root activists of that south east Oahu indigenous enclave are not exact ly dancing the Carmagnole or an Irish jig on Unisyn’s grave yet.

“The stench is even greater now than before,” lamented anti-Unisyn crusader Joe Ryan on Earth Day. “It will take at least as long as 90 days to process the muck they received March 30 through the digestion system... The generator is not running, and the plant has no incentive to not create an odor since they are no longer even attempt ing to comply with permits.”

Ryan, whose ranch is next door to Unisyn, is the retired HPD detective tumed-eco-warrior who spearheaded the apparently successful campaign to drive the industrial activity out of the district zoned

for agriculture.

Ryan went on to say; “There are four million gallons of polluted effluent in the Wing King reservoir and another million in the digesters. Clean up is the focus. Looks like the taxpayer is going to pay for it.”

The Unisyn saga is long and complex, one that HW took the lead in exposing start ing in 1997. In a nutshell: Unisyn Biowaste Technology subleased 21 state-owned acres in Waimanalo from and next to Meadow Gold dairies to process manure and other organic wastes from dairies and farms.

Apparently, this did not prove to be prof itable, and by the 19905, it expanded into a

full-fledged assembly line-style recycler of

about 35 tons per day of wet waste (food scraps, manure), green waste (cuttings from gardens, lawns, yards), grease-trap sludges, and other organic disposables. This new anaerobic digestion system recycles the biowaste into a compost used as a lawn

enricher, soil amendment, or fertilizer. The methane produced by this industrial-type method provides power for the plant.

Clients included hotels, restaurants, and supermarkets such as Hilton Hawaiian Village, Planet Hollywood, and Foodland.

The good news was that the recycling prevented the spread of landfills.

The bad news was that, according to eco-activists, Unisyn turned Waimanalo into a sort of “airfill,” to coin a phrase, pol luting the atmosphere with a stench described as “nauseating,” which allegedly adversely affected the health of residents especially those with respiratory problems.

Waimanaloans opposed to Unisyn charged the installation was an industrial operation improperly operating in a district zoned for agriculture. As Hawaiian Homelands are concentrated there, “envi ronmental racism” - the polluting of disem powered minority communities by busi nesses - was alleged, with Waikiki busi nesses turning Waimanalo into its dumping ground. Waimanalo’s Neighborhood Board asked Unisyn to relocate outside the com munity.

Compounding this was the checkered past of Unisyn’s dubious then-owners, mainlander Barry Silverton and local busi nessman Clyde Kaneshiro (still believed to be a part-owner), who had repeatedly run afoul of the law, leading Ryan and company to charge backdoor political deals allowing

Unisyn to blatantly defy zoning ordinances

and laws.

This led, for several years, to a series of waste management and building permit imbroglios, plus law suits (mainly filed by

Ryan against the private and governmental

parties responsible for Unisyn) too complex

to enumerate here.

With some justification, Unisyn com plained of being caught up in the maw of the byzantine bureaucracy of the state, county, and city governments, even as Ryan sought to sic the feds on them via the Environmental Protection Agency.

New owners (attorney Terry Lee and

developer Greg Kemp, who did not return calls for this story) claimed to be trying to fulfill an October 15, 1997 Department of Health mandate to mitigate Unisyn’s smells. But finally, on March 31, Unisyn’s able and much put upon PR man, Ray Sweeney, performed his last official act for the company, issuing a press release announcing the cessation of Unisyn’s recy cling. It applauded “the value of Unisyn’s patented technology” that “provided a vital environmental service,” which Unisyn pre sumably wants to sell elsewhere.

The announcement went on to say: “we have been in the process of construction to upgrade the facility and until very recently were prepared to invest significant funds...

Unfortunately, the estimated cost to com

plete improvements required by the govern

ment in addition to uncertainty about future requirements no longer make the business economically viable.” To the end, Unisyn blamed the regulatory system for its demise - not itself, for making Waimanalo “pretty stinky,” as DOH spokesman Patrick Johnston put it last January.

The straw that broke this Joe Camel’s back may have been the Feb. 17, 1999 let ter from the state’s Deputy Director for Environmental Health, Gary Gill, which threatened a $lO,OOO per day penalty for Unisyn’s violations.

In the meantime, Unisyn’s employees are out of work and luck, Ryan’s suit lan guishes in the court system and according to him, EPA is reviewing his petition for Washington to cut off federal funding for state environmental activities due to the state’s previous alleged inaction vis-a-vis Unisyn (which could cost Hawaii millions), while the smell and muck linger. And Unisyn’s current owners will presumably seek to sell its recycling technology abroad.

Hopefully, next time, to an appropriately zoned area, where a good neighbor policy of not intruding onto one’s neighbors will be observed, along with the golden rule: “Do unto others - or else others will do you in.” ■