Lt. Col. Adrian Biggerstaff, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Honolulu, said there haven’t been any incidents of contamination at the temporary disposal site at Olowalu. The site is scheduled to be closed by the end of October after all of the ash and debris from the 2023 Maui wildfires has been moved to the permanent disposal site next to the Central Maui Landfill. The Maui News/Gary Kubota

The largest disposal of wildfire materials ever in Hawaii is scheduled to be completed on Maui by the end of October.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers estimates some 400,000 to 500,000 tons of debris will be moved from the temporary disposal site at Olowalu to the permanent location at Puunene next to the Central Maui Landfill.

Maui County Mayor Richard Bissen said he feels good that a critical part of the work is nearing completion and a promise is being kept to return the land to the Olowalu community.

“We’re on the threshold of finishing what we said we were going to do, at least as to this project,” Bissen said. “I feel good for the community.”

Bissen and officials from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials spoke at a public gathering Saturday at the Lahaina Resource Center where residents were given a status report and able to discuss debris transfer issues.

Bissen said that with the debris cleanup, the West Maui community has been able to start restoring Lahaina.

He said 60 families have moved back into their homes in Lahaina and that 68% of the 1,200 homeowners who lost homes either have a building permit or are in line to get one.

Lt. Col. Adrian Biggerstaff, the Honolulu District Commander for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said transferring the debris is going well.

“There haven’t been any incidents in terms of contamination,” he said. “We’ve had some weather events, which we’ve responded to as we had planned, but we have been very fortunate with both traffic conditions and environmental conditions.”

According to the Army Corps of Engineers, during the life of the temporary disposal site, the water tested within the area did not reach beyond action levels set by the state Department of Health and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Tests were done quarterly at two monitoring wells, and the site experienced little rainfall during the monitoring period.

Once the transfer is complete, the land for the temporary disposal site — formerly used as cinder quarry — is to be returned to the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.

The temporary disposal site at Olowalu, located next to a former landfill and about 1.3 miles north of Olowalu Store, was established on Jan. 11, 2024, with approval from the Maui County Council.

The county acquired 79 acres of land next to the Central Maui Landfill as a permanent location for the wildfire debris.

West Maui resident Malihini Keahi Heath said she has fond memories of the Olowalu area as a youth and attended the gathering to see what the current plans by the county were for the area.

“I think they did the best they could do,” she said.

West Maui resident Malihini Keahi Heath attends a meeting Saturday in Lahaina to get an update on the effort to move hundreds of thousands of tons of wildfire debris from the temporary storage site at Olowalu to the permanent disposal site in Puunene. The Maui News/Gary Kubota