NANAKULI — Mayor Mufi Hannemann got a close-up look last night at the frustration folks on the Wai'anae Coast feel when it comes to having O'ahu's landfill in their backyard.

More than an hour before the mayor arrived at Nanaikapono Elementary School cafeteria to host a town meeting on the Waimanalo Gulch landfill near the Ko Olina Resort, dozens of protesters lined Farrington Highway fronting the school with placards saying "No More Landfills!" and "Enough is Enough!"

A busload of more than 24 people from the emergency homeless shelter in Wai'anae arrived about 7:10 p.m. Others milled around outside the cafeteria handing out leaflets to almost everyone who entered the building.

The building capacity of 265 was easily met before the meeting began at 7:35 p.m. With a crowd conservatively estimated at between 300 and 400 people, emotions were soon as heated as the non-air-conditioned room.

The meeting itself began civilly enough, with the mayor greeting the crowd and reciting improvements his administration has made for the community. The purpose of the town meeting was to open a dialogue with the community about the landfill issue. From the beginning, Hannemann reminded those present that he had not created the landfill issue.

His intention, he said, was to figure out a solution to the "terrible, terrible problem that I inherited."

He said it is "patently unfair" that the assumption is that Leeward O'ahu is where the landfill has to be.

To change that, Hannemann mapped out a strategy that began in July when his administration applied for a two-year extension of the current landfill, which will be decided by the state Land Use Commission. If the application is accepted, Waimanalo Gulch would remain open for two more years or until it reaches its permitted capacity, whichever comes first.

In the meantime, he said his administration would improve the landfill's operations, diversify its usage, and continue the community benefits package.

The mayor reiterated what he has said before: Without an extension, the current landfill is scheduled to close next year. If that happens he has no idea where it will go, but the odds are one of three Wai'anae Coast locations would be selected.

Many from the audience who stepped up to the microphones during the question and answer period said they thought the city has not done enough to come up with alternatives to landfills.

By the time Hannemann got around to asking for the community's support in his bid to extend the current landfill, he was already hearing from hecklers in the audience.

"Shut down the landfill now," some shouted.

There's no place else to put the county's waste, Hannemann said more than once.

"You promised you'd close the landfill," one woman yelled at the mayor, who by this time was starting to show his own frustration.

"I never made a promise to close the landfill," he responded.

"I heard you," she replied.

"You heard wrong," he shot back.

By the meeting's end it was not clear if the mayor would get the support for expansion he was seeking from the community. If there was any point of agreement, it was that neither the community nor the mayor liked the idea of putting a landfill in any location on the Wai'anae Coast.

Longtime resident James Manaku came close to expressing what might be a prevailing attitude:

"If they close down Waimanalo Gulch, where will the rubbish go — right now?" he asked, before answering his own question. "They don't have nothing set up for it."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.