City officials authorized a contract last year with a Washington company to ship 100,000 tons of trash to the mainland, but the garbage has been piling up at Campbell Industrial Park since then. The company says it is awaiting federal approval, but the state now has fined the company $40,400 for illegally storing waste. The city should end the contract.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture gave its initial approval for the shipments nearly four years ago but has delayed its final decision because of environmental opposition in Washington state, the intended destination. The city made the mistake of entering into the contract last September with the company, Hawaiian Waste Systems, while the federal approval still was pending.

The company told the city it would begin shipments last October. In the meantime, it has collected 100 tons of compacted bales of trash and recently placed them in 250 shipping containers at Campbell Industrial Park.

Several weeks ago, the city was asked to halt trash delivery to the site because “;they didn't have room to accommodate more,”; according to city spokesman Bill Brennan.

Hawaiian Waste Systems was fined for storing the trash at two sites without permits, said Steve Chang, program manager of the state Health Department's solid-waste branch. Chang said Michael Chutz, the company's new president, told him it still is awaiting federal approval to ship the garbage to the mainland.

The contract calls for the city to pay the company $100 a ton for the shipment of 100,000 tons to the mainland each year, but it has withheld payments because the solid waste remains on the island. That has left in city coffers $10 million that had been set aside for the contract.

City Council members have talked about using some of the money to help balance the city's budget. The city should first nullify the contract for lack of the company's performance. Tim Steinberger, the city's environmental services director, has said that Hawaiian Waste Systems had assured the city prior to the contract that it had permits to begin shipping the garbage immediately.

Voters approved a City Charter amendment in 2006 that authorized collection of recyclable materials the following year, and officials should have speeded up the recycling program instead of relying on trash shipments to the mainland.

City Councilman Todd Apo, whose district includes the city's lone landfill at Waimanalo Gulch, pushed for the shipment of garbage to the mainland.

Distribution of curbside recycling bins was not completed on the island until last month. After July 2012, only ash and residue from the HPOWER waste-to-energy facility will be allowed at Waimanalo Gulch. The landfill may have to stay open for 15 years, as the city administration has suggested, while alternative technologies are developed for dealing with Oahu's trash.