The Honolulu Planning Commission says it will soon decide on the city’s request for a two-year extension to find an alternate site for the 34-year-old Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill in Kapolei.

To help it arrive at a decision, the commission Wednesday heard final oral arguments on the request made by the city Department of Environmental Services in December 2022 to amend a special-use permit the state Land Use Commission granted to the city in 2019.

If approved, the prior deadline to identify an alternate landfill site would be extended to Dec. 31, 2024, from Dec. 31, 2022.

Waimanalo Gulch Landfill, which first opened in 1989, was originally slated to close eight years later, by 1997. The city now says the existing 200-acre dump is scheduled to close by 2028.

At Wednesday’s meeting, Cal Chipchase, an attorney representing Ko Olina Community Association Inc., or KOCA, and state Sen. Maile Shimabukuro, whose District 22 covers Ko Olina to Kaena, continued to oppose the city’s extension request to find a new landfill.

Besides the existing dump’s proximity to Ko Olina and negative quality-of-life issues on residents including odor, litter, traffic and noise, Chipchase argued the time of the city’s extension request — made a few days before the Dec. 31, 2022, deadline — caused the city to be “out of compliance” with its state-­issued special-use permit related to the landfill’s ongoing operations.

“That finding is really indisputable,” he said. “The (Land Use Commission) required, as a condition of the (special-use permit), that the city identify a new site by Dec. 31, 2022. We sit here in February 2024 and there is no site. We sit here today under an order that has, as of yet, not been amended; there is no extension of time … therefore, the city is out of compliance.”

Moreover, the lawyer asserted the city would seek Waimanalo Gulch Landfill’s closure date well beyond 2028.

“The city has emphasized that it’s only here to modify the site selection deadline of Dec. 31, 2022; its proposed findings suggest otherwise,” he said. “Its proposed findings suggest that this is the first step to a future petition to extend the closure deadline for the landfill.”

He said Environmental Services stated among its submitted proposed findings that the current landfill would reach “full capacity” in 2036.

“That has nothing to do with whether the city needs an additional two years to site a landfill,” said Chipchase. “But it might have something to do for a future request to extend the deadline to close the landfill.”

He said the city “is looking to stack the deck today on a seemingly minor amendment in order to lay the groundwork for a future” extension “or at least that’s how it appears from many of the city’s proposed findings.”

But city Deputy Corporation Counsel Jeffrey Hu rebutted those allegations, claiming the request for an extension was proper, and that the city was not “out of compliance” with its landfill permit.

“I want the Planning Commission to be careful here about making a finding that ENV (Environmental Serv­ices) is out of compliance with this permit,” Hu told the panel. “Because that might lead to lasting issues that are going to affect the entire community. … Does that mean that we have to cease running the landfill at this moment in time? That’s going to affect everybody. It’s going to affect KOCA, it’s going to affect KOCA’s resorts, its clients, KOCA itself.”

He added “it’s ENV’s position that we’re not out of compliance.”

“We’re following the legal procedures,” said Hu. “That’s what is set out in the rules here, and we’re properly following those.”

After oral arguments, Commission Chair Pane Meatoga III told those attending the meeting that the panel will deliberate the matter. “This may take a day, it may take longer,” he added.

In October, city Environmental Services Director Roger Babcock testified before the Planning Commission on the city’s need to find an alternate landfill.

Babcock’s testimony related to amending or rescinding an existing state law, Act. 73, that placed restrictions on locating waste disposal facilities, particularly those close to conservation lands or near half-mile “buffer zones,” in the vicinity of residential areas, schools or hospitals as well as near airports or tsunami zones.

During his Oct. 18 testimony, Babcock said it might prove too difficult to amend this state law, at least for the time being. Rather, the director said a new landfill site might be acquired through eminent domain of private property or on land owned by the military or federal government.

To that end, four possible alternate sites — all on federally owned land in West Oahu and the Windward side — are under consideration to replace the Waimanalo Gulch landfill, according to Babcock. The sites include Lualualei in Waianae, Iroquois Point and Waipio Peninsula near Pearl Harbor, and a property near Bellows Beach in Waimanalo.

Six prior sites for a new landfill were rejected in October 2022 following a presentation by Board of Water Supply Manager Ernest Lau and Deputy Manager Erwin Kawata, who urged Mayor Rick Blangiardi’s Landfill Advisory Committee not to place any landfill in the so-called “no pass zone,” an area that covers the interior of the island where Oahu’s potable water aquifer is located.

The prior proposed sites, all in Central Oahu and the North Shore, were in that zone.

In October, Babcock told the Honolulu Star-Advertiser that the latest four sites were “on a list of all of the potential military lands that were just inside of the ‘no pass zone,’ and don’t have other restrictions barring their use.”

Meantime, the U.S. Navy confirmed it has held discussions with the city over possible landfill lands.

“It would be premature to discuss any specific parcel of land or conversation details, as we are still in the early stages of planning, but the military is part of the community and is committed to finding solutions to the issues we collectively face,” a Navy spokesperson previously told the Star-­Advertiser. “The military currently uses between 4% and 5% of the land in the state, and we are meticulously evaluating each parcel to determine if any of these meet the parameters established by Act 73 and are in a condition suitable for transfer to the City and County of Honolulu for a landfill.”