An O'ahu circuit court judge has upheld rulings by the state Land Use Commission and the city planning commission allowing the city to extend the life of the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill until November 2009.

Senate President Colleen Hanabusa, D-21st (Nanakuli, Makaha) had filed a lawsuit on behalf of herself and the Ko Olina Community Association asking a judge to overturn the approval of a special use permit on the basis that procedural protocols were broken.

Hanabusa cited state Supreme Court rulings, previous landfill permit applications, what she called the need for another environmental assessment and the land use commission's own rules in her objection.

On Friday, an O'ahu circuit court judge denied Hanabusa's arguments and upheld the planning commissions' rulings.

"We are pleased with the court's ruling upholding the Land Use Commission decision to extend the deadline ... ," said Eric S. Takamura, director of the city Department of Environmental Services. "That extension provided additional time to complete the Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed future landfill expansion and, in that regard, the final EIS should be publicly available in the near future."

Hanabusa said she has not decided whether to appeal the decision to a higher court or focus her energy and legal arguments toward blocking a city plan to expand the landfill by blasting new space out of Waimanalo Gulch to create room for more waste.

"In order to expand Waimanalo (Gulch), what needs to be done is they are going to have to start blasting," said Hanabusa. "They are going to have to remove 8 million cubic yards of native soil to give us landfill space. I am very concerned by what that means."

She said she is also concerned the city will have to reapply for another extension rather than follow through on a promise made during the administration of Mayor Jeremy Harris to close the landfill.

The existing 107.5-acre Waimanalo Gulch Landfill was scheduled to close at the end of May, but the state Land Use Commission voted 6-2 in March to allow the city to keep it open until November 2009.

That was despite protests from Wai'anae Coast residents, elected officials and environmental activists who feel the city should be doing more to expand recycling and waste-to-energy conversion while attempting to close the landfill.

Critics claimed the arguments for the landfill expansion sound the same as they did in 2002, when the city proposed expanding the landfill by 60.5 acres, before changing course and expanding it by 21 acres.

City Councilman Todd K. Apo said he is looking forward to the completion of Mayor Mufi Hannemann's plan to expand the city's waste-to-energy conversion facility and ship more than 100,000 tons of trash to the Mainland each year so the need for a landfill is lessened.

He said state land use commissioners made it very clear during the March proceedings that the city had to stop sending trash to the landfill when the 18-month permit expires in November 2009.

"The mayor's own plan says we do not need a daily landfill operation. That is still the goal," said Apo. "In his State of the City address, he said he wants to expand H-Power and ship trash to the Mainland. When you implement those two pieces and couple it with recycling, you'll be able to divert more (waste) than you're putting in. I'm surprised we need a landfill."

Last week, Apo met with the city's corporation counsel, budget and fiscal services representatives and environmental services officials to urge them to resolve a bid dispute that has delayed efforts to award a contract to a Mainland firm to ship trash to a Washington state landfill.