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/
