Oregon Public Broadcasting

Friday was the day that Hawaii was to begin shipping trash to a landfill in Washington. But a federal judge in Spokane has put a stop to that.

Judge Edward Shea issued a temporary restraining order after an emergency hearing. He said the garbage shipments from Hawaii are a significant risk to the Northwest environment.

A Seattle-based company, Hawaiian Waste Systems, proposes to ship bales of trash from Honolulu to ports on the Columbia River. It would then send the bales by truck and rail to a landfill in Washington's Klickitat County.

The Yakama Tribe and environmental groups sued to stop the shipments.

Michael Lang is from the Portland-based Friends of the Columbia Gorge. He says Hawaii is home to insects and other pests that could harm Northwest farm crops.

Michael Lang: “What we're asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to do is a full environmental impact analysis of the potential risk of importing Hawaii's garbage. That hasn't been done yet.”

Our call to Hawaiian Waste Systems wasn't returned.

Judge Shea said the restraining order will remain in effect until an August 30th hearing.