State lawmakers are mounting opposition to the city's attempts to expand the Waimanalo Gulch landfill by 92 acres and its life by 15 years, preparing legal arguments and legislation banning new landfills on the Leeward Coast.

On Feb. 17, the city sent out letters informing the community about a new application before the state Land Use Commission for a special use permit allowing the 92-acre expansion and 15-year extension.

"In addition to the fact that the city already owns the Waimanalo Gulch property, which with expansion has over 15 years of capacity at current rates of disposal, the infrastructure is already in place," said Timothy Steinberger, director of the city Department of Environmental Services. "Other sites will require a large capital outlay to acquire land and develop and construct the site. A landfill management contract is already in place (and) it is the only site where costs and revenues for a landfill are known factors, and the current landfill operator is committed to implementing (and has implemented) necessary improvements."

The Land Use Commission last year granted an 18-month extension to Nov. 1 to stop accepting waste at Waimanalo Gulch. According to the city, it was made clear throughout hearings on that extension that the time was needed to complete an environmental impact statement for expansion.

The city has completed the EIS, and is seeking the necessary approvals.

State Sen. Mike Gabbard, D-19th (Kapolei, Makakilo, Waikele) has introduced a bill that places a moratorium on any new solid waste landfills and the expansion of any existing private solid waste landfill on the Leeward Coast on or after Aug. 1. The measure is now before the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

Gabbard's bill would not block the city's expansion plan, but the former City Council member supports efforts to shutter the landfill when the special use permit expires Nov. 1.

"After 18 years, the people of the Wai'anae Coast literally feel dumped on," Gabbard said. "The people in East O'ahu and on the North Shore aren't going to say, 'Hey, it's our turn.' I don't think we need a landfill."

The city handles 1.76 million tons of garbage per year with approximately 600,000 tons going to the H-Power waste-to-energy site, 600,000 tons recycled, and the remainder landfilled.

The existing 107.5-acre Waimanalo Gulch was scheduled to close last May, but last March the Land Use Commission voted to allow the city to keep it open until November 2009.

The commission's decision was made despite legal challenges and protests from Wai'anae Coast residents, elected officials and environmental activists who feel the city should be doing more to expand recycling and waste-to-energy conversion while attempting to close the landfill.

Critics claimed the continued arguments for the landfill expansion are recycled anecdotes dating to 2002, when the city proposed expanding the landfill by 60.5 acres, before changing course and expanding it by 21 acres.

Gabbard said he testified in favor of extending the landfill's life for five years, until May 8, 2008, before the Land Use Commission in 2003 and "caught a lot of heat for it."

"When I was on the City Council, that's when I really got an in-depth education about the whole trash situation," he said. "This (bill) is for the people of the Wai'anae Coast who are fed up with having landfills in their backyards for the last 18 years."

City Council Chairman Todd K. Apo said he wants to facilitate the expansion of the city's waste-to-energy conversion facility by 2012 and ship more than 100,000 tons of trash to the Mainland each year so the need for a landfill is eliminated.

He said state land-use commissioners made it clear during the March 2008 proceedings that the city had to stop sending trash to the landfill when the 18-month permit expires in November 2009.

"There is a big disconnect with what is going on and what is right. When you look at the history of this landfill and what was promised, under oath by the city in 2003, and you add on the fact that there are real solutions that the city is implementing, there is no reason to even attempt dumping waste into the land for another 15 years," Apo said. "It doesn't match up. Starting the shipping (of trash), budgeting over $100 million for the expansion of H-Power, and yet it appears the administration is not putting those two pieces into a plan to get out of landfilling. They are intent on continuing to dump waste into the ground."

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha) filed a lawsuit on behalf of herself and the Ko Olina Community Association last year asking a judge to overturn the approval of a special use permit on the basis that procedural protocols were broken. An O'ahu Circuit Court judge in October denied Hanabusa's arguments and upheld the Planning Commissions' rulings.

Hanabusa did not appeal the ruling but has said she will prepare a legal challenge to the city's efforts to expand the landfill by 92 acres. She did not return several messages seeking comment.

A bill identical to Gabbard's was introduced by State Rep. Sharon Har, D-40th (Royal Kunia, Makakilo, Kapolei) and Rep. Henry Aquino, D-35th (Pearl City, Waipahu), but is stalled in committee.

"If the Land Use Commission approves the expansion, it will be yet another example of Leeward Coast residents getting the short end of the stick," Har said. "Over the years the people out here have had to deal, disproportionately, with the unfortunate realities of municipal government. It's not fair."

The city maintains that there will be a need for a landfill for the foreseeable future because there always will be waste material that cannot be reused, recycled, further combusted or shipped.

"If the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill is not expanded, but instead forced to cease accepting waste on Nov. 1, there will be no permitted facility to handle the municipal solid waste that is now being disposed at Waimanalo Gulch," said Steinberger, the city Environmental Services director. "Consequently, there will be an adverse, islandwide impact on all communities of O'ahu, and major public health and safety problems for the city, its residents, visitors and businesses, as there would be no sanitary and secure means of landfilling municipal refuse."