The Pearl City Neighborhood Board is demanding the state Health Department clean up two decades of neglect on Waimano Ridge, contending that stored and junked hazardous materials there are a danger to the community.

Chairman Albert Fukushima with unanimous approval of the Pearl City Neighborhood Board on Nov. 23 sent a letter to Gov. Linda Lingle asking for the formation of a task force to clean up the ridge, properly demolish condemned buildings and dispose of trash, abandoned vehicles and hazardous materials and other potential contaminates on the site.

Lingle had not responded as of yesterday, Fukushima said. But Dr. Chiyome Leinaala Fukino, director of the Department of Health, said her department is attempting to make strides.

"We're perfectly willing to work in the parameters of our budget," Fukino said, "but we can't fix all of it overnight."

Board members, however, are unwilling to accept budget concerns as an excuse for little progress. "They can't blame it on the Legislature and say we don't have money to do 20 years' worth of cleanup because they had money to do day-to-day housekeeping all those years," Pearl City board member David Lemon said. "This is a blatant neglect of laws governing hazardous waste disposal and common community cleanup responsibilities."

The board formed a task force last year to review a state Health Department's master plan and the University of Hawai'i's proposal to construct a level 3 regional biosafety laboratory on the ridge. They started taking on-site tours, during which they found abandoned vehicles, trash and hazardous materials, such as old paints, chemicals and car batteries.

"I am sure," Fukushima wrote in the letter, the state "would be actively prosecuting any private individuals responsible for these violations of our laws. To allow the Department of Health, Public Safety and Accounting & General Services (among others) to dump or abandon their trash on the site and to permit the buildings to rot away and literally fall down and 'wash down' into our community is inexcusable."

The board is sponsoring a forum on the Waimano Ridge Master Plan tonight, 6:30-8:30, at the Pearl City Cultural Center annex.

Reach Rod Ohira at rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.