Once again, the City and County of Honolulu is in a pickle over the continued operation of the Waimanalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill, O`ahu’s only municipal solid waste facility.

The city’s special use permit from the state Land Use Commission, which allows it to deposit solid waste in the agriculture-zoned landfill, expires on November 1. A planned 92.5-acre expansion would add some 15 years of capacity. But without amendments to the special use permit allowing for that additional capacity, the state Department of Health appears to be unable to approve a new solid waste management permit for the facility – or even deem the city’s permit renewal application complete.

And because the city and landfill manager Waste Management Hawai`i (WMH) are currently accepting waste without a solid waste permit, if they falter even just a little in complying with past permit conditions, operations could come to a screeching halt.