Some Nanakuli residents said they feared there was growing political pressure to put the landfill there, and urged the council to resist.

Others pressed for closure of the current dump at Waimanalo Gulch, near Kahe Point, and for no new landfills on the island.

The council is scheduled to take a final vote tomorrow, and members are eyeing three options closely: expanding Waimanalo Gulch, or creating a new dump in Nanakuli or Campbell Industrial Park. Additional sites also could be considered, including a coral mine in Ma'ili.

Nanakuli resident John Kaopua said a private landfill for construction debris in the community is bad enough. Allowing a new dump on an adjacent site called Nanakuli B would lead to "twin towers of trash, creating a health hazard and an eyesore for miles around," he said.

A council panel voted earlier this month to put the landfill in the industrial park, on a city-owned lot that other officials say is too small and too flat.

Councilman Rod Tam announced last week that he would hold yesterday's special hearing and was "very serious" about considering Koko Crater for a dump. After a public uproar, he said he does not plan to pursue that option.

Lori Watland, who lives in the Princess Kahanu Estates subdivision near Lualualei, said she's fed up with the abrupt changes and announcements.

"It is obvious that you have been hiding your own agenda under the table," she told council members at the hearing. "Your intent all along has been to cause confusion, stall for time, then simply put the landfill at Nanakuli B."

But Kamaki Kanahele, president of the Nanakuli Hawaiian Homestead Community Association, called Tam's Koko Crater suggestion "brilliant," because it made people who would not otherwise care about the issue take notice.

"I think it was wonderful because it ruffled their feathers and shook them up," he said. "It only goes to show you that no one wants a landfill."

Tam insisted he merely wants everyone with an opinion to have their say, but blamed news reports for controversy surrounding the council's deliberations.

"The news media does this all the time to create confusion," he said.

Council chairman Donovan Dela Cruz said he is confident the group will be able to reach a decision tomorrow.

"It's our duty, but it's not an easy decision because we're sensitive to the impact on communities," he said.

Tam said that any choice made tomorrow could change, however, depending on new developments and any preferences of Mayor-elect Mufi Hannemann, who takes office in early January.

Hannemann spoke out about the issue yesterday for the first time since winning the election. He said in a telephone interview that Mayor Jeremy Harris should apologize to Leeward residents for recommending that the Waimanalo Gulch dump be expanded, after earlier promising it would be closed in 2008.

"He needs to go to that community and apologize, and sort of have a town meeting and explain why he has changed his mind," Hannemann said.

The question of where to put the landfill currently rests with the council, but Harris said last week that its members should delegate that authority to him if they are unable to reach a decision. He said he would immediately choose to expand Waimanalo Gulch.

Harris had sought earlier to nearly double the landfill's capacity and keep it open until 2017, but agreed to a compromise last year that allowed a smaller expansion and set the 2008 closure date. He said the council is not bound by that decision, but that his position has been consistent.

"There seems to be some confusion; I haven't changed my mind," he said yesterday in response to Hannemann's comments.

Harris said his goal has always been to eliminate the need for a landfill. The council set those plans back by delaying an islandwide residential recycling program and the expansion of the H-Power incinerator, he said.

"It's no secret that our choice all along has been Waimanalo Gulch," Harris said. "We've never changed our mind on that. We've always maintained that from a scientific and environmental and engineering standpoint, Waimanalo Gulch is the best location. That doesn't change because of the politics.

"But the goal should not be a landfill. The goal should be to eliminate the need for a landfill."

Jeff Stone, developer of the Ko Olina resort near Waimanalo Gulch, said the promise to close the landfill in 2008 made it possible to attract investments worth millions of dollars.

The resort's expansion "is resurrecting a side of the island that has literally been impoverished in many ways," he said.

Harris' plans for home recycling remain stalled. The United Public Workers union is fighting a move to hire private companies to collect recyclable materials, instead of having city refuse workers do it. The union won a court order last month that forces the issue to go before an arbitration panel before any privatization could begin.

Harris has long pushed for expanding the H-Power plant, but the City Council in 2002 required that a study of other forms of waste processing be conducted first.

The administration later rejected proposals for plasma arc plants that would blast garbage with super-heated air, saying the process was too costly, that the companies didn't have enough experience handling the amount of trash Honolulu generates, or it would take too long to build a plant.