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Why is our Protect Our Ala Wai Watersheds group suing over the Ala Wai flood mitigation project?
This is not about flood mitigation; it’s about the money. There are better plans, but the current traditional Army Corps of Engineers plan is the one that got funded. The Army Corps rejected input by community members, as well as by local engineering company Oceanit.
The plan is being shoved down people’s throats because Mayor Kirk Caldwell and Gov. David Ige don’t want to let the money go. The plan was reviewed and authorized by Army Corps people in Washington, D.C., who are not familiar with Hawaii’s topography and instead, evaluate it against mainland standards of flood mitigation.
Will people in Waikiki be safe? Not from sea level rise, storm surge or hurricane. But the state of Hawaii, the city of Honolulu and the federal government will be spending $345 million to prevent against the 1% chance of a 100-year flood.
Over the past few months:
>> The 2019 Legislature did not pass the state portion of the funding ($125 million) for this project.
>> Seven of the 8 neighborhood boards asked for this project to be put on hold while alternatives are evaluated.
>> Lip service is being paid by the mayor, city Department of Design and Construction Director Robert Kroning and Army Corps project manager Jeff Herzog that people’s input will be listened to and the project may change, giving false hope that alternatives can be adopted.
>> The assistant secretary of the Army Corps of Engineers says that the potential for changing the main elements of the project is almost zero without the project going back to the drawing board and seeking new funding.
>> The City Council voted unanimously to ask the mayor to halt the project while people’s input was evaluated. But not even two weeks later, city Resolution 19-182 was railroaded through the Council by Caldwell and Council Chairman Ikaika Anderson, giving Caldwell permission to sign an agreement with the Army Corps, which will lock the plan into place.
>> As the Legislature has not funded this project, Ige is circumventing the legislative process by issuing certificates of participation and bonds.
We have no choice but to sue to stop the 4-foot-tall wall along the entire length of the Ala Wai, and the 30-foot-tall dams in our streams.
In the 2017 Army Corps’ environmental impact study valuation report on this project, the Army Corps looked at a flood gate and pump system, which would negate the need for a wall and detention basins. Yet it was rejected because it would kill some fish in the Ala Wai, be noisy when running, inconvenience paddlers when the gates were closed and impact view planes. During a high-flood event, will residents care about the noise and will there be paddlers out during the 100-year storm?
On the valley streams, the planned dams would be over 30 feet tall (three stories high), irrevocably changing these streams. Our community and others live one football field away from one of these dams. Our houses are above the 100-year flood line but not above a dam failure event. At no time have we ever been informed by the Army Corps or city officials of these proposed dams.
Halau Ku Mana, a Hawaiian school on the Makiki Stream, is located directly where one of the dams would go. Yet Army Corps maps showed that space as empty. This poor level of research does not augur well for the overall background research done for this project.
Underground detention basins under numerous parks, and using the Ala Wai Golf Course as a wetland detention basin/golf course are realistic alternatives.
UPCOMING FORUM
On Oct. 29, from 6:30-8:30 p.m., Protect Our Ala Wai Watersheds will host a “Forum for Better Alternatives for the Ala Wai Flood Control Project” at the Ala Wai Golf Course clubhouse second floor. See what work is currently being done in the streams and see alternatives.
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