Municipal trash likely won't be leaving O'ahu's shores until at least early February, according to the company with the contract to ship solid waste to the Mainland.

Hawaiian Waste Systems is seeking an amendment to its compliance agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, or APHIS, because it wants to drop the garbage off at a different port and use a different shipper than originally approved.

City officials were told by company chief executive Jim Hodge early last week that Hawaiian Waste would begin shipping on Tuesday of this week.

Now the timeline has been pushed back for at least another month.

Hodge said his company is still waiting for permit approval of his amended compliance agreement, and that APHIS wants to allow a 30-day public comment period before issuing the OK.

NO HEALTH ISSUES

City Environmental Services Director Tim Steinberger said he doesn't believe there is an immediate health issue with the approximately 15,000 tons of trash that Hawaiian Waste has purchased but not shipped. Some of that trash has been in the company's hands since the contract began on Sept. 28. The rubbish is compacted, baled and stored in shipping containers near Kalaeloa Harbor.

"The longer this goes on, obviously, the more concerned we're going to get," Steinberger said.

The city isn't affected financially because the company doesn't pay for the trash until after it receives proof from a private Mainland disposal company that it has been put in a landfill.

Hawaiian Waste wants permission for Sause Brothers to ship the trash to the private Teevins Dock, which is along the Columbia River in Rainier, Ore. From there, the trash is to be either moved by truck or train to the private Roosevelt Landfill in Klickitat County, Wash., about 120 miles away, he said.

Hawaiian Waste originally had sought to ship the trash directly to the landfill and was given a compliance agreement to do so, Hodge said. But it's less expensive and much quicker to haul it by train or truck, he said.

Lyndsay Cole, an APHIS spokeswoman, yesterday said while Hawaiian Waste has a compliance agreement to ship waste directly to Roosevelt Landfill, that facility does not have a suitable dock.

Cole said the permit requires that the waste must be offloaded at a stationary dock. "There is not a stationary dock at this time at that port," she said.

The company also has a compliance agreement request that would allow it to ship to the Port of Longview, on the Washington side of the Columbia River. But Hawaiian Waste has not yet received a compliance agreement approval for that operation either, Hodge said.

He pointed out that both applications were made in June.

Because most of the route has been approved for Hawaiian Waste or other companies who originally sought the city's contract, Hodge said, he doesn't view the situation as a problem.

"We just need approval to go from an approved port to an approved landfill," Hodge said. APHIS wants a public comment period "in an abundance of caution," he said.

CONCERNS ARISE

Cole would not provide information regarding any pending compliance agreement requests by Hawaiian Waste, citing confidentiality concerns for the company.

In general, however, any compliance agreement requires that an environmental assessment be completed and published in the Federal Register, and then subjected to a 30-day public comment period, she said.

If an amendment to an existing compliance agreement involves a port change, it's most likely APHIS would at least require that a notice be published in the Federal Register and a 30-day comment period, even if no new environmental assessment is required, Cole said.

Hodge said the delays on the shipping end have not interrupted the flow of garbage being accepted from city trucks at Hawaiian Waste's baling facility at Campbell Industrial Park.

The city pays the company $99.89 for each ton of refuse it accepts. The company is expected to take 100,000 tons annually for three years, or until a third boiler is built at H-Power, the city's waste-to-energy plant, in early 2012.

Space has been leased near Kalaeloa Harbor to hold the baled trash for now, he said.

Hodge also stressed that his company and the city have worked together well since he began accepting trash in September.

"The city is being very cooperative and patient," Hodge said.

The city had originally believed the waste would begin being shipped to the Mainland in October.

"Obviously, we're concerned about the accumulation and the storage, and we're going to remain concerned until it is properly landfilled," Steinberger said.

Both the state Department of Health and APHIS are also monitoring the unshipped trash, Steinberger said.

The company and the city previously had a rocky relationship.

While Hawaiian Waste submitted the low bid for the shipping contract last year, city procurement officers initially declined to award the contract, citing noncompliance with several conditions of the bidding process.

A yearlong stalemate ensued but was resolved in August when Hawaiian Waste agreed to give the city control over the flow of solid waste.