HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – The state Department of Health is seeking about $475,000 in fines from ABC Junkyard in Waiawa after months of failed attempts to shut down the operation, which was still accepting waste as of Wednesday.
Expansion triggered complaints and violations
Neighbors, including Andre Perez, said they endured nine months of dust and noise after ABC Junkyard’s new operator, Kainoa Ah Sing, expanded the site from a car recycling scrap yard to accepting construction debris — sorting it and batching it for transport to recycling facilities or a construction landfill.
“How were they allowed to build and develop out a landfill with no monitoring and no regulating and no controls in place?” Perez said. “Where was the Department of Health? Where was the state regulatory agencies to manage this? They allowed this to blow out of control.”
ABC had applied for a permit to expand from auto scrap recycling to processing construction waste, but that permit had not been approved.
Violations documented over months
In February, the state issued its first notice of violation — a $55,000 fine for failing to protect Waiawa Stream, which borders three sides of the property…