WAI'ANAE — If there's one thing that infuriates the average resident on the Wai'anae Coast more than efforts to extend the city's Waimanalo Gulch landfill beyond its scheduled cutoff date in May 2008, it's talk of putting its successor somewhere else on the Wai'anae Coast.

In particular, folks here get outraged when Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann suggests that should his Waimanalo Gulch extension application fail to go through, in all likelihood the next landfill will end up in Nanakuli — at either the PVT construction debris landfill site, or the neighboring location known as Nanakuli B.

Hannemann got an earful of local ire when he reiterated that statement at a special town meeting in Nanakuli on Aug. 28.

And area legislators lined up at another town meeting in Nanakuli last week to say they would do everything in their power to make sure that no new landfill would be added to the coast's landfill locator map. Period.

One area resident even stood up to say the community should help the legislators by establishing a legal fund to sue anyone who as much as attempts to stick a landfill anywhere else on the Leeward Coast — and then backed it up by forking over $1,000 of his own to get things rolling.

More and more members of the audience decided to back up the plan.

"It's definitely a concept worth looking at," Honolulu City Councilman Todd Apo, who represents the Wai'anae Coast and coordinated the meeting, said on Thursday. "And I did commit to it with monetary support as well.

"I obviously gave it my support and said that I will oppose any attempt to put in any new landfill or moving the MSW (municipal solid waste) landfill onto the Leeward Coast. And if a legal fund helps that, and we need to take that kind of action, we need to be prepared for it."

State Senate president Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha), added: "It just shows you how much this community is absolutely frustrated and is willing to do what needs to be done in order to stop the landfills coming into our area."

Hanabusa, an attorney, offered to volunteer her legal expertise in setting up the nonprofit legal fund that would finance lawsuits aimed at thwarting efforts to put another landfill on the coast.

Hanabusa said that folks' willingness to donate their time, talent and cash to the cause exemplified their level of determination and commitment.

"We're not a rich community," she said. "And for people to be willing to put their money where their mouth is like this almost reminds me of the movie 'Network,' where the guy yells out, 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore.' "

The legal fund idea was apparently prompted spontaneously by area activist William Aila, who stood up to say he'd put up $1,000 of his own to kick off the fund, and then invited others to open their wallets. Those who couldn't afford to make a monetary donation could volunteer their time, he said.

By late last week, Aila said the fund had grown to between $4,000 and $5,000 — and it didn't even have a name yet.

"We're going to put people on notice: You declare any more dumps in Wai'anae, you can count on a lawsuit," Aila said. "And part of that fund is going to be set aside to bail people out when they do acts of civil disobedience.

"We're drawing a line in the sand, and we're telling people, 'We're building our fort already.' "

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.