Tuesday, May 21, 2013

Massive Pollution Floods Predicted For Future Waikiki


Massive Pollution Floods Predicted For Future Waikiki

Historic Photo Show Here:

 
The Ala Wai canal development destroyed vital wetlands and productive tropical agriculture, including farms and fish ponds that had sustained Native Hawaiians for decades. The wetlands, fed by the streams running down from Makiki, Manoa and Palolo, filtered trash and sediment and kept Wakiki’s storied beaches sparkling.
Over the decades, all sorts of pollution — pesticides, heavy metals, sediments and even raw sewage — has flowed into the canal. As Honolulu's upstream population mushroomed, contamination in the canal has steadily increased and over the years levels of pollution have tested well above limits considered safe. One local man died from bacterial infections he picked up after falling in the water.
Now, federal flood control experts are worried that a heavy rain could cause the Ala Wai to overflow its sides, creating a fast-moving flood big enough to wipe out Waikiki. They say a major rainstorm and serious flood could put the area from Diamond Head to Ala Moana all the way up to Moiliili under five feet of water. The consequences of such destruction are enormous.
For years, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers along with state and city officials have been struggling to put in place measures that would prevent disaster. Significant dredging, a deeper channel, a wider McCully bridge, even walls along the canal are being considered.
Derek Chow, chief of the civil and public works branch at the Corps of Engineers in Honolulu, has been one of those studying the Ala Wai Canal for years.
 
He doesn't mince words when it comes to the potential risk to the area he recognizes as "the main economic engine of Hawaii." He talks earnestly about what could be immense property damage and loss of life from a major swiftly moving flood.
The speed of the water would knock you down, he said in a recent interview with Civil Beat that included about a dozen federal, state and city officials sitting around a conference table at the state Department of Land and Natural Resources to describe their combined efforts to address the situation.
Major rainstorms in 1965 and 1967 sent water overtopping the canal’s banks, stranding cars and forcing pedestrians to wade through hub-cap-deep flows on Ala Wai Boulevard and Kalakaua Avenue.
Mud and sediment from the poorly flushed canal built up in the waterway, leaving some areas only a few inches deep. The state dredged the sediment in 1967, dumping it with all its contaminants into the ocean.
A 1976 report from the Department of Health warned that the canal water regularly violated fecal coliform counts — an indicator that high levels of bacteria persisted in the waterway.
The canal was also filling up with muck again. The DLNR dredged it for a second time in 1978. The rotten-egg odor that came out of the muck — caused by the lack of oxygen in the water — is something that residents still complain about.
In 1983, a power outage disabled the city’s sewage pumps and officials simply dumped 2.5 million gallons of raw sewage into the Ala Wai Canal. Signs were posted — “Warning Polluted Water” — but area residents, by now accustomed to the idea that the water was polluted, didn’t take much notice.
People continued to fish and crab in the canal and canoe clubs held practices — until they realized that they were paddling through brown, smelly water.
In 1991, the Department of Health posted signs warning residents not to swim in the canal. Tests on fish and crabs turned up dangerous levels of lead, prompting additional warnings not to eat out of the canal.
As awareness about the pollution mounted, government officials found themselves under increasing pressure to clean up the canal. Dozens of studies were done and a major community task force pressed into service.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency funneled a couple million dollars to community groups for cleanup efforts.
If there were any doubts about the serious situation surrounding the Ala Wai, they were laid to rest in 2006. A broken pipe sent raw sewage flowing onto the streets of Waikiki. Then-Mayor Mufi Hannemann decided to dump 48 million gallons of sewage into the Ala Wai Canal to stop the smelly mess from backing up into hotels, homes and businesses.
Oliver Johnson, a 34-year old Honolulu resident, fell into the Ala Wai Boat Harbor about a week after city officials began dumping the sewage into the canal. A massive bacterial infection claimed his life a few days later.
Contamination won't get better until the state and city do something about upstream pollution. That means a politically difficult community discussion is in order — cracking down on property owners, big and small, who are major sources of trash, waste and chemicals that run down into the canal every time it rains.
"The Ala Wai is an urban sink," says Gary Gill, deputy director for environmental health at the Hawaii Department of Health. He tried — unsuccessfully — to get the Legislature to do something about runoff this past session.
"So everything that washes off the land sits in there. And because we don't have high tides in Hawaii, it doesn't flush."
Despite the fact that the Ala Wai repeatedly falls far short of meeting state safety standards for recreational use, there is no move to prohibit paddling or recreation.
“In the 1990s, the Ala Wai got a lot of attention and a ton of money,” said Robert Harris, executive director of the Hawaii Sierra Club, which also has not pursued environmental cleanup of the canal as actively as it once did. “Now, a lot of that money and attention has faded away.”
VIDEO HERE:
http://www.civilbeat.com/articles/2013/05/20/19079-video-canal-builders-didnt-look-to-the-future/

 

No comments:

Post a Comment