One of Oahu’s most persistent questions — “Where can a new municipal landfill be placed?” — has returned to the front burner. With a 2028 deadline to close the current facility in its sights, it will be inexcusable for the current city administration to kick the can any further.

Fully a decade ago, former Mayor Peter Carlisle named an advisory committee to choose a replacement site for the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill. Already 2011 had supplied extra motivation for the search: A January flood had washed medical waste and other rubbish from that very municipal dump into the neighboring Ko Olina area.

Even before that disaster, the shrinking capacity of the landfill had turned most residents of the Waianae Coast into hard-liners. They were not going to let another dump be placed on the west side.

That committee ranked the Kapaa Quarry site of HC&D, then owned by Ameron Inc., as its top choice. A different search consultant hired under Carlisle’s successor, Kirk Caldwell, revised the site rankings.

Caldwell himself wanted to continue at the existing site while alternative uses for the residue buried there could be found. He had hoped alternative diversions for trash would mean no new landfill would be needed, except for emergency uses.

Before any technological solutions could emerge, the state Land Use Commission issued what would be the last special use permit for Waimanalo Gulch, expiring March 2, 2028.

And now, Mayor Rick Blangiardi has the new Landfill Advisory Committee, convening for its first meeting at 2 p.m. Monday. The public can register to attend online at 808ne.ws/landfill, and read up on the process on the city’s site (www.honolulu.gov/opala/newlandfill.html).

So far, the administration has trimmed a list of 12 potential locations to four — two near the North Shore, one between Makakilo and Waipahu, and one near Wheeler Army Airfield.

What all these shifting site lists tell you is that nobody wants one of these things near them. And yet — with limits to what the recycling market will bear and the fact that not everything can be zapped to ash by the city’s HPOWER plant — the overflow has to go somewhere.

Barring a technological solution making its appearance, a replacement landfill is needed. It’s best that the public takes the chance the city provided to have its say.