The city is asking the state Land Use Commission to reconsider its September decision that O'ahu's only municipal landfill must be closed to all materials except ash and ash residue by July 31, 2012.

The city is seeking permission to continue placing certain types of trash in the Waimänalo Gulch Sanitary Landfill until the landfill is full.

In its request, submitted last Friday, the city also asks for permission to use the landfill after 2012 for debris left by disasters and "special wastes," as well as any waste that cannot be accommodated by other means.

In setting the July 2012 deadline, the commission's members said they wanted the landfill to close after expansion of the city's H-Power waste-to-energy incineration facility, which is slated for late 2011 or early 2012.

But the commission "may have overlooked or misunderstood certain facts established in the record," the city says in a 16-page memorandum submitted in support of its request to reconsider the deadline.

"Because the record is clear that there will always be material that cannot combusted, recycled, reused or shipped ... (a) landfill disposal option is required after July 31, 2012," the memorandum says.

The request says that the city's permits to operate H-Power and ship waste off-island require that there be an active landfill to deal with waste during routine maintenance or unanticipated shutdowns, or if there is too much waste for H-Power or shippers to handle.

"The ability to utilize (the landfill) for waste diversions in such instances is necessary," the letter says.

The city also asks that the commission rescind a condition requiring the administration and City Council to hold public hearings quarterly on the status of the landfill because, the letter says, the LUC lacks the authority to make such an imposition.

Also yesterday, the City Council's Public Infrastructure Committee deferred a bill that would require the city to close the Waimänalo Gulch landfill by 2012. The bill was introduced by Councilman Todd Apo, a critic of the landfill's expansion.

City Environmental Services Director Tim Steinberger testified against Bill 76, saying there is not enough time for the administration to come up with an alternative landfill site. Steinberger reiterated yesterday that it would take at least seven years to get another landfill on O'ahu up and running, and said that the process is scheduled to begin early next year.

During the committee meeting, Steinberger also told council members that Hawaiian Waste Systems, the firm the city contracted with to ship garbage out of state, has yet to ship its first load to the Mainland and that it had turned away trash on several days since it began accepting city waste on Sept. 28.

Tim Hodges, legal counsel for Hawaiian Waste, said the issues are not serious. The company has all its necessary permits and expects to send its first shipment of waste to the Port of Longview in Washington state once it has enough trash to ship. That's expected to take place around the middle of this month, Hodge said.

That's about two weeks later than the city had initially anticipated.

Hawaiian Waste Systems did not accept waste for about six days at the Campbell Industrial Park baling facility, Hodge said, because it did not have containers needed to store the trash.

The company's contract calls for it to take in a minimum of 100,000 tons annually, at a cost to the city of $99.89 a ton. The contract is to run for three years, or until the third boiler at H-Power is operational.