Mayor Mufi Hannemann's request for support in his effort to extend the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill for two years or longer suffered a setback in recent days when two area neighborhood boards rejected the plan.

On Sept. 27, at a special Wai'anae Coast Neighborhood Board meeting in Nanakuli, board members rejected separate motions to support a two-year extension or a 15-year expansion of the landfill.

That was followed on Wednesday by a unanimous vote by the Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board expressing its desire that the Waimanalo Landfill not be used beyond its 2008 shutdown deadline.

"I think the message to the mayor is that the entire area is fed up, and that he has not fulfilled his promise," said Kioni Dudley of the Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale board.

City spokesman Bill Brennan said he doesn't believe the actions of the two neighborhood boards will impede the mayor's landfill extension plans.

"It would have been nice to have had their support," he said. "The neighborhood boards took their votes and basically opposed the city's plan. And that's fine. That's what community boards can do, and that's what they chose to do.

"That community is frustrated, and the mayor understands it. He knows that no community wants a landfill in its backyard."

Neighborhood boards are advisory panels only, and their decisions carry no weight of law. Still, as a representative body of the local community, officials and lawmakers understand that the boards generally represent the moods and passions of the areas they cover.

The landfill, which opened in 1989 near what's now Ko Olina Resort, is scheduled to close in May 2008. In late August, the mayor asked residents at a community meeting in Nanakuli to support his application to the state Land Use Commission to extend O'ahu's current municipal landfill for two years, with the possibility of expanding it later for up to 15 years.

In return, the mayor offered to double the $2 million the city has given the community in the form of improvement grants. He also told the community that should the Waimanalo Gulch landfill close next May, the likely alternative would be to put a new facility at a location in Nanakuli or Ma'ili — a notion most of the area's residents adamantly reject.

Honolulu City Councilman Todd Apo said "the community's position is clear, from both the boards in Kapolei and the Wai'anae Coast."

"This is a fight they have been pursuing for a very long time," Apo said. "They aren't willing to accept an extension at this time.

"And I think both groups are asking the city, 'What's the plan? — because it can't be 15 or 17 more years of this.' "

Apo, who has led the fight to shut down the Waimanalo Gulch landfill next year, has said it's time city officials came up with alternatives for handling solid waste.

He has called for curbside recycling, improving H-Power's waste-to-energy operation, and hiring vendors to ship rubbish out of state until appropriate waste-to-energy technologies can be implemented on O'ahu.

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.