The Honolulu Planning Commission voted 5-0 Thursday to approve a permit allowing the city to continue operating the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill until it meets capacity — without a set closure deadline.

For decades, Waianae Coast residents have been pressing the city to close Oahu’s only landfill and move it somewhere else. Permits issued by state and city commissions previously set deadlines for its closure only to have the city ask for — and grant — extensions and expansions.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell and other city officials have argued that expansion and extension of the 92.5-acre landfill, which sits on a 200-acre site, is the best alternative as rapidly changing technology in refuse disposal makes the need for a dump increasingly unnecessary.

The Ko Olina Community Association and state Sen. Maile Shimabukuro (D, Kalaeloa-Waianae-Makaha), through attorney Calvert Chipchase, could not convince the five commissioners present to agree to a timeline requiring the city to stop sending nearly all of its solid waste to the landfill immediately through March 1, 2024; allow only ash and residue from the city’s HPOWER waste-to-energy plant and automobile shredder residue between March 2, 2024 and March 1, 2027; and “stop accepting any form of waste and close” no later than March 2, 2027.

“We believe that we had a number of conditions that were appropriate, including conditions that ensured the landfill was a good neighbor while it remains open and that it closes as repeatedly promised to the community,” Chipchase said after the decision.

Among a slew of other conditions the association sought: limiting operations to between 7 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. except for ash and residue disposal; ensuring proper dust control; implementing a landscape plan; preparing a noise and odor reduction plan; and notifying neighboring communities immediately when there is a release of waste or leachate.

The Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Decision and Order that passed 5-0 (four commissioners recused themselves from the proceeding) requires the city to identify an alternative site by Dec. 31, 2022, “that will be used upon Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill reaching its capacity.”

The decision also requires the city to provide semi­annual status reports on efforts to identify and develop a new landfill as well as the landfill’s operations and its compliance with state, federal and city laws, and its efforts to use alternative technologies.

Attorney Richard Wurdeman, representing Waianae Coast native and former U.S. Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, said that without a deadline for complete closure, “the city will never take the steps necessary to look for an alternative site.”

“Unfortunately, there’s really been a callous indifference by the city on the impact the landfill has on the Leeward community, and the Planning Commission in its ruling today allows the city to continue with that callous indifference,” Wurdeman said.

He noted that the state Department of Health has allowed the city to continue operating the landfill without a valid permit.

At least one of the five commissioners agreed with imposing a timeline. “Am I the only one that feels there should be a timeline?” Commissioner Theresia McMurdo asked.

Other commissioners, led by Ken Hayashida, said there was no clear record to substantiate a closure timeline.

Acting Commission Chairman Cord Anderson said identifying a new site takes priority over setting a closure deadline.

The permit still needs final approval from the state Land Use Commission, which is required to meet on the matter in the coming months.

The debate over the future of the landfill has dragged on almost from the time it opened in 1989.

Former Mayor Jeremy Harris sought to expand it in 1999. In March 2003 the LUC voted to OK a 1-acre expansion that allowed the site to stay open until May 1, 2008, but required the city to name a new site by June 1, 2004.

In March 2006 then-Mayor Mufi Hannemann vetoed a City Council resolution calling for the landfill to close by mid-2008. In July 2015 the Council approved a resolution calling on Caldwell to expedite its closure. Environmental Services Director Lori Kahikina testified that while the city has taken significant steps to divert sewage sludge, bulky items and shredded automotive residue to HPOWER, a landfill is necessary for emergency situations.

In June 2017 LUC members criticized city officials for dragging their feet.

For a full timeline, go to bit.ly/WGSLTimeline.