BRUCE ASATO / BASATO@STARADVERTISER.COM
The Manoa Neighborhood Board took testimony from community members and voted on a resolution Wednesday in the Ala Wai Canal project for stakeholders and community members to provide more input. Dave Watase and his daughter, Kari, listened.
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No one is asking that the Ala Wai Flood Control Project be stopped (“Manoa board calls for pause in Ala Wai Flood Control Project,” Star-Advertiser, Feb. 7). They are asking that it be re-evaluated in light of some of the decisions and modeling that were made out of sight of public input.
There are other options that should be considered. The best way to have it re-evaluated is to hold up funding.
If the proposed detention basins have to be built (which is questionable), they could be built on Board of Water Supply or state or city lands rather than private lands. There are alternatives to detention basins that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Land and Natural Resources should explore. Timely maintenance of these basins to remove debris and silt is crucial. The city will maintain these basins; it already has problems with other maintenance projects.
Most of the public is unaware of other issues, such as the four-foot concrete wall along both sides of the Ala Wai Canal. The last time the Ala Wai flooded was in 1965.
Sidney Lynch
Palolo
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