The list of things that people don’t want “in their back yard” is long, but it certainly includes garbage — which makes siting a replacement landfill on an island with limited land exceedingly hard.

The trouble lies in the expansive ways of defining that “back yard” — and in the general distaste for compromising on this issue. Still, some accommodation is mandatory in any solution, one that balances competing needs.

This is why replacing the 35-year-old Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill in Kapolei has been such a battleground on Oahu. The state Land Use Commission set a deadline, now extended to the end of this year, for a replacement landfill site to be selected. The prospects for future landfill sites is a worry on other, less congested islands across the state as well.

That much became clear in 2020, when lawmakers passed a bill that became law as Act 73, a stringent effort to restrict eligible locations for landfills. Now city officials have come to the reasoned conclusion that something has to give. Elected officials should examine ways to fine-tune Act 73 in the next legislative session.

Oahu officials were not the only ones to sound alarm bells about Senate Bill 2386, the measure that was passed to become Act 73. Michael Victorino, then mayor of Maui County, gave lawmakers his opposition to the measure. The law bars waste disposal facilities in a conservation zone except during limited emergency periods to mitigate public health and safety risks. It also prescribes a half-mile “buffer zone” near residential areas, schools or hospitals.

Buffer zones already come under regulation of county ordinances and state Health Department rules, Victorino said at the time.

“So the mandatory half-mile buffer proposed has limited benefit to further protect human health and the environment, and comes at an exorbitant expense to County of Maui taxpayers,” he added.

Similar concerns have been raised by other counties — Oahu at the top of the list. The problem became more acute last week when proposals to add military-owned sites to the landfill candidates were ultimately rejected.

The more recent objections from Honolulu Mayor Rick Blangiardi include a written campaign statement he submitted to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser before his reelection.

In that statement, Blangiardi cited both Act 73 and another barrier to landfill siting: the preference by the Honolulu Board of Water Supply (BWS) that no landfill be located in its “no-pass zone” over the Oahu aquifer areas.

It’s a rational concern of the water board, given the years of worry stemming from the catastrophic leaking of fuel oil from the Navy’s Red Hill underground storage tanks.

However, maps the city submitted to the state Land Use Commission underscore the real issue: The six remaining landfill sites under consideration fall within either or both of those restricted categories.

“We are going through the process to either amend Act 73 or seek relief from BWS based upon available technology, which promises to effectively render landfills safe over time,” Blangiardi said in his campaign statement. This does seem to be the most logical course of action at this point.

Among the alternatives frequently aired in the years-long discussions are technological advances in development, aimed to drastically reduce the volume of trash bound for the landfill. There is also the possibility of shipping waste off-island, and of finding a privately-owned site to acquire.

But all these strategies will be costly. The most realistic solution is for an analysis of all available sites, choosing one that serves public needs, with the least environmental risk.