A state Department of Land and Natural Resources proposal to remove the 83-year-old Diamond Head Breakwater, which parallels the seawall beneath Doris Duke’s Shangri La to form a popular ocean swimming hole, will be discussed Thursday at a public hearing.
The same conservation district use application was rejected in 2018 by the Board of Land and Natural Resources. It was originally submitted by the Doris Duke Foundation for Islamic Art, owner of Shangri La, citing public safety and liability concerns due to people diving off the breakwater and seawall.
In 2014 the foundation constructed a 6-foot metal fence around the pool, but people climb over it and some dive from it.
In 2018, widespread public opposition to dismantling the breakwater, built for a boat basin by Doris Duke Cromwell in 1938 along with the seawall and adjacent Koko Head Breakwater, came from the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, the Waialae-Kahala Neighborhood Board and numerous individuals, including 1,400 signers of an online petition, who called it a valuable recreational area and haven for marine life.
It’s also a haven for local youth, providing shoreline access from Diamond Head Beach and a sheltered swimming spot, said Bill Saunders, a 50-year neighborhood resident.
While the final environmental assessment says unsafe behavior escalated after 2015, when tourist hordes discovered the pool through social media, “it’s local kids who are down there every day. They take the bus from all over,” Saunders said in a phone interview, adding, “With all the beaches disappearing, it’s one of the few remaining beautiful, natural places (on the South Shore) — and it’s cool, just like when I was young.”
In September the Land Board agreed to accept a quitclaim deed to the breakwater from the foundation, along with $1 million to underwrite the estimated $2.5 million cost of removal.
The environmental assessment says ocean access would continue to be provided by the stone stairs at the Koko Head Breakwater, used by fishermen.
It says boulders from the dismantled Diamond Head Breakwater would be used to reinforce the seawall and enhance public safety.
Saunders argued the removal of the 7- to 8-foot-high breakwater would result in more wave energy striking and eroding the seawall, posing more of a safety hazard combined with sea level rise.
He suggested a contract lifeguard be hired to warn against reckless behavior rather than spending $2.5 million “in 2016 dollars” on the dismantling.
In 1937 the original plan was to construct the breakwater upon a volcanic, basalt dike about 5 to 6 feet above the water’s surface, which already formed a natural pool in the coral reef.
However, the dike broke during blasting and drilling, and the rubble mound breakwater was constructed over its remains.
“This project is billed and justified as a public safety project,” Saunders wrote in an email to DLNR, “(but) this would actually make the swim basin within the harbor far more dangerous and result in significant liability exposure for both the State and the Duke Foundation.”
In emails, Saunders and Fred Fong, a medical doctor and area resident, said the assessment fails to adequately analyze impacts on native species, including endangered sea turtles and monk seals, that frequent the area, and colonies of opihi that local residents gather from the rocks.
The assessment concluded the project would have no significant impact.
TO COMMENT
>> What: Online public meeting on DLNR proposal to remove Diamond Head Breakwater below Doris Duke’s Shangri La
>> When: 5 p.m. Thursday
>> Where: Go to dlnr.hawaii.gov/occl and click on video stream link for Diamond Head meeting.
