Pearl City may become home to the first state facility to process wet waste from highway storm drains.

The state Department of Transportation has proposed building a $3 million "dewatering facility" at its Pearl City base yard under the H-1 Pearl City Viaduct. Waste such as sediment, oil, grease, gravel and other debris washed into highway storm drains would go to the facility to be dried before being taken to the landfill. Regulations prohibit disposal of wet matter there.

The DOT said plans for the facility come from a federal mandate to improve the condition of the state's storm drains.

But the project has raised concerns in the community about issues such as odor, noise and traffic, and is one of the more controversial issues in the area, said Pearl City Neighborhood Board Chairman Albert Fukushima. The neighborhood board will hear a presentation and discuss the project at its meeting tomorrow night.

State Department of Transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa said hazardous materials will not be taken to the dewatering facility, and that the department moved the plant's proposed location to about 800 feet from Lehua Elementary School and the Pearl City Hongwanji Mission after complaints that it was too close.

But concerns remain.

Traffic and safety are the main issues for the Hongwanji, which is across Second Street from the base yard and next to homes and an adult daycare center.

Hongwanji leaders say they're concerned that trucks traveling to and from the facility will endanger pedestrians and drivers who also use the aging roadway, which is crowded with cars and has no sidewalks.

Ishikawa said the department estimates a maximum of one truck will go to the plant per hour, and that heavy vehicles already travel to the base yard. Debris will be transported only during the day, he said.

But "to me, one truck is one truck too much already," said Richard Tokuoka, president of the Hongwanji Mission Kyodan. "It's pretty dangerous."

Ishikawa also said experience from the city's dewatering facilities shows there shouldn't be a strong odor.

"If you ... put your nose up to it, there's a musty smell, but not something you can smell from a distance," he said.

The department also hopes the proposed facility will clear out drug dealing and other criminal activity that occurs in that space, he said.

The DOT has released a draft environmental assessment for public review and comment through April 9. Construction could begin as soon as summer 2008.

Transportation officials also want to build a dewatering facility in Wai'anae but are running into archaeological issues there, Ishikawa said. The department is also considering other locations in addition to Wai'anae and Pearl City, he said.

Plans for the dewatering facilities were prompted by one of the nation's largest storm-water violation settlements, in which the DOT agreed in 2005 to pay $52 million as part of a consent decree with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health.

Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com.