SPRECKELSVILLE, Hawaii >> Some Maui ocean users are complaining a privately funded effort to restore a Paia beach is damaging the reef.

A group of beachfront homeowners is funding the Stable Road project, which uses sand-filled structures called Geotubes to control erosion.

Divers have complained pipe anchors on the structures, or groins, had broken free, allowing the pipes to pound and scrape the coral reef.

Property owners down the coast also say the groins have disrupted the usual movement of sand.

Critics are pressing the Department of Land and Natural Resources to order the Geotubes removed.

But Conservation and Coastal Lands Administrator Sam Lemmo says he’ll wait until coastal geologists finish their evaluations of the project to decide.