City Councilwoman Kymberly Pine hopes to expedite the closure of the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill, a contentious issue prompting years of frustration and concerns.

Pine has introduced a resolution calling for the city to take steps to close the landfill and to implement sustainable waste-management practices, urging city officials to conduct studies to evaluate alternative technologies.

City Council members are scheduled to vote on the proposal at a Wednesday meeting at Kapolei Hale.

"This isn’t just to help my community. It’s to help other communities," Pine said. "I think the main focus is that we shouldn’t have a landfill anymore. Technology has come to a point where we can push ourselves to find ways to use the additional waste in a more positive way."

But city Director of Environmental Services Lori Kahikina told Council members at last month’s meeting of the Committee on Public Works, Infrastructure and Substantiability that engineers estimate that the landfill has about 25 to 40 more years until it reaches capacity. She said the city has made strides to divert most of the waste, about 90 percent, from the landfill and are exploring new technologies to divert more waste.

About 81,000 tons of waste are sent to the landfill each year, most of which is ash from the HPOWER waste-to-energy plant at Campbell Industrial Park, Kahikina said.

"I think it would be impossible to not have a landfill. We definitely need it for emergency purposes," she said. "The city has done, to me, a phenomenal job of diverting from the landfill."

Councilwoman Carol Fukunaga proposed a few amendments to Pine’s resolution, including providing for the landfill’s closure "sooner than its projected life span of another 20 years."

In April, Mayor Kirk Caldwell and other officials dedicated a sludge-receiving station at HPOWER with the goal of eventually eliminating the need for a daily landfill.

The 200-acre Kahe Point facility, Oahu’s only municipal solid waste landfill, near Ko Olina Resort was granted an extension to November 2009 when facing a May 2008 deadline to close. But the Land Use Commission granted another extension to allow the landfill to remain fully functional through July 2012 with the condition that it would intake only ash after that date.

But the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled against the commission’s decision to prohibit the landfill from accepting municipal solid waste after July 2012. City officials had testified that it would take several years to select and develop a new site.

Waste Management of Hawaii, operator of the landfill, and two of its top officials were accused of mismanagement that led to waste spilling into the ocean in 2011. The company and its two executives are scheduled to go to trial in August.

The Ko Olina Community Association has opposed the landfill’s ongoing operations for years, previously challenging the city’s efforts to extend its life.

Several residents have also pushed the city to close the facility.

"There’s always been frustration with the landfill," said Kioni Dudley, vice chairman of the Makakilo/ Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board. "People have a reason in the past to really object to it."

Dudley said he hopes there will be more sustainable policies in place to eliminate the dependence on the landfill.

Cynthia Rezentes, chairwoman of the Nanakuli/ Maili Neighborhood Board, said residents remain frustrated with the extensions after being told it would close by certain deadlines.

"We’re an island state. So what happens when we fill up all the fillable land with trash?" Rezentes asked.

"I think it’s been a long time coming," she added, referring to the landfill’s closure.

Council members Ikaika Anderson, Brandon Elefante and Trevor Ozawa expressed concern over closing the facility too soon, while also sympathizing with Leeward Coast residents.

"Unfortunately, it seems that at this point in time, we do need a landfill for all practical purposes of the services that this county provides to our people," Anderson said at the June committee meeting. "Ever since I’ve started service on this Council six years ago, I’ve long maintained that this landfill needs to remain open until it reaches capacity."

But Pine maintained that the intent of the resolution is to also honor the commitment made by officials several years ago that the facility would close.

"That’s just a travesty to treat any community that way," Pine said. "We must push ourselves to find a solution. We have to start talking about this now."