Climate change is unquestionably reshaping island life — from comparatively pronounced seasonal changes and increasingly powerful storms, to existential threats including wildfires and sea level rise. On the latter, government leaders after decades of palliative action are turning focus toward tackling rapid coastal erosion, an insidious danger now causing chunks of inhabited land to fall into the sea.
Among a clutch of bills signed into law Monday by Gov. Josh Green was House Bill 2248, which earmarks $1 million to develop a North Shore Beach Management Plan targeting an area from Sunset Point to Sharks Cove. Answers can’t come soon enough for the vulnerable stretch of shoreline, where Green said “houses are falling into the ocean.” Funds will be allotted to the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program, now tasked with the creation of a management plan that considers “innovative means” to address erosion on both private and public property, as well as preservation of the area’s natural beauty.
HB 2248 calls for diverse community input, something that’s in no short supply on the North Shore, where certain residents have flouted protection laws and hardened shorelines with sandbags, concrete, boulders and more invasive artificial structures in a desperate bid to save their oceanfront properties from being reclaimed by the sea. In January, the state Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) meted out two nearly $1 million fines against a pair of North Shore homeowners for damage caused by shoreline hardening practices. It’s clear such slapdash solutions are not tenable in the longterm.
Owners should know the perils of investing in picturesque-but-vulnerable North Shore properties, but the state has done little to codify its stance on what, if anything, can or should be done to combat natural erosion cycles. That began to change in 2020 following an investigative series by the Star-Advertiser and ProPublica that revealed the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) between 2000 and 2020 issued dozens of emergency approvals for private landowners to bypass environmental reviews and temporarily install so-called sand burritos — long sandbags attached to black tarps — which remained far past a typical three-year permit. DLNR and BLNR have started to crack down on the practice as the state moves to a more proactive posture on the wider erosion issue — finally.
With $1 million in state funding and the option to raise more privately — provided that donors remain anonymous and do not exert influence on development proceedings — the UH Sea Grant College Program will draw up a comprehensive and “actionable” plan for consideration by top government officials. The process builds off a successful beach and dune management plan for Kailua Beach completed in 2010, involving a multitiered government and community response to sea level rise.
Along with community input, the UH program is to consider a variety of concerns including climate change scenarios, temporary and emergency erosion management, public access to shorelines, modification of public parks, shoreline setbacks and rolling easements and beach nourishment. Broad latitude for new and advanced solutions is provided in a directive to research longterm coastal protection and land use strategies.
That is reassuring because the current situation underscores a need for innovative competencies to bring the North Shore, and other Hawaii coastlines, closer to equilibrium. The plan, when it arrives by December 2025 and depending on its subsequent implementation, could serve as a pilot for other coastal erosion “hot spots” and, more importantly, act as solid footing for long-overdue state efforts toward restoring one of Hawaii’s most precious resources.
