SAND ISLAND TREATMENT PLANT -
WHERE DID THE METAL GO?
Zimpro Heat Treating Unit in action at Sand Island Treatment Plant
Expensive equipment is disappearing from the Sand Island Treatment Plant, costing Hawaii taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars.
We recently tracked down three large motors worth approximately $150,000 that were taken unlawfully from the Sand Island Treatment Plant property. Now we have tracked down one of three Zimpro units, pictured above, that was sold to a metal recycler for $20,000 in 2004 (receipt). The other two units are still on the ground at the treatment plant. If the units are no longer needed (due to startup of Synagro). why weren't they sold to other cities that could use them instead of being sold at considerable loss?
On October 8, 2008 we filed a FOIA Uniform Protection Act public record request for information regarding the disposition of the Zimpro units. We were told "what you asked for cannot be granted because the agency does not maintain the records", and "we do not have any such records because those units are still on the premises of Sand Island WWTP. "
Waste, Fraud and abuse runs rampant in city agencies, and the practices at the Sand Island Waste Water Treatment Plant is no exception. This, combined with high levels of hydrogen sulfide and methane gases, and the Mayor's eqgerness to contest the EPA proposal to upgrade the plant, makes up the perfect scenario to defraud the taxpayers of the City and County of Honolulu.
We tracked down this motor that unlawfully disappeared from the Sand Island Treatment Plant