Honolulu City Council is pressured to support Ala Wai flood project

The Honolulu City Council is expected to consider a resolution today that would keep the controversial Ala Wai Flood Risk Management Project moving forward.

The federal government has said it would provide some $220 million of a $345 million Army Corps of Engineers project to shore up the Ala Wai Canal and its watershed to protect Waikiki and several other Oahu neighborhoods from flooding. To lessen flood risks, the corps would build a wall around the canal and put huge flood-control structures in the upper reaches of the watershed.

But the corps needs the state or the city to agree to become project signatories. The state has agreed, at least in theory, to pay $125 million for the project, the amount required to receive the $220 million in federal matching funds. The city has agreed to serve as the project’s sponsor and maintain what gets built. But so far, neither entity has signed an agreement, and they were still at an impasse July 31, which was a deadline set by corps officials in Washington, D.C.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell said Monday that he has been notified by corps officials in Washington that after “Aug. 31 we enter into a period where the money could be taken away.”

Caldwell said the city and state are “very close” to reaching an agreement, but that to actually sign he’ll need the Council to pass Resolution 19-182, which would allow him or a designated person to accept $125 million from the state.

The project hasn’t been widely accepted across affected communities. Seven out of eight neighborhood boards in the Ala Wai watershed have passed resolutions urging government officials to delay the project.

In July all nine Council members supported a resolution urging the mayor and city administration to address the concerns of the affected communities regarding the Ala Wai project and to consider and explore alternative plans that minimize impacts to area residents, schools and other stakeholders.

Council members Carol Fukunaga, Ann Kobayashi and Tommy Waters held a meeting on the topic Monday attended by more than 50 people, including Caldwell and Jeff Herzog, the corps’ Ala Wai Flood Risk Management Project manager.

Fukunaga and Kobayashi also sent letters to the city clerk Monday objecting to the administration’s attempt to fast-track the project.

“Council member Koba­yashi and I have concerns about the resolution and how it is worded,” Fukunaga said. “When we met with the mayor and the army corps staff, we expressed the very same concerns that many of the residents raised tonight. I hope they are taking all of this to heart.”

Caldwell said Monday that he urged Fukunaga to “consider the risk of losing federal dollars.”

“The goal here is to make sure there is sufficient time to continue to adequately design this project to the satisfaction of all stakeholders,” he said.

Caldwell said the design of the corps project is only 35% complete and that there’ll still be room for community input after the city and state reach agreement.

Herzog said the corps is using updated engineering modeling taken from November to May to determine how to tweak the project.

“There will be changes, but we don’t know to what degree or what those exact changes will be,” Herzog said, adding that the project’s features “won’t fundamentally change because of the nature of the watershed.”

Robert J. Kroning, director of the city Department of Design and Construction, said, “If we can’t get the best solution with what is currently going forward, we’ll terminate. Right now we are confident that we are headed in the right direction.”

But their reassurances did little to assuage some community members gathered at Monday’s meeting.

Waters said, “I think we are all in agreement in this room that we don’t want the project to fail. How do we ensure that the community input is taken seriously? What I’m hearing from you folks right now is not very reassuring.”