Posted on: Friday, April 20, 2001
Trash hinders Kahana Bay fish pond restoration
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser North Shore Bureau
KAHANA — Tons of trash accumulating near a fish pond at Kahana Bay have turned the site into a dump, but a handful of "friends" decided to change that.
The Friends of Kahana Valley, who have been restoring the Huilua Fishpond for about four years, began removing trash, old wrecks, building material and automobile parts about five weeks ago. The group found at least 19 abandoned cars, 10 refrigerators, 20 propane tanks, 50 tires and the remains of two homes that were demolished last year and left on the site.
"Homeless people stayed there and left all their junk," said Ben Shafer, president of the friends.
A handful of people working every other day with the aid of equipment on loan from RCI Construction Corp. Pacific have taken more than 24 truckloads of debris to a La'ie dump site, Shafer said. At one point the group rented a truck to clean the state park.
"We're doing it at no cost to the state," he said, adding that the group saw the cleanup as a necessary extension of the pond project.
"It's all part of the restoration of the fishpond," Shafer said. "You cannot restore the pond wall without cleaning up the surrounding area. Why clean the pond if everything around is dirty?"
Martin Miller, vice president of RCI, said the company has donated manpower and equipment when it can. The company is installing water mains on Kamehameha Highway in Kahana and on Kahekili Highway in Kane'ohe.
"We've been impacting their community, so we're trying to give back a little something," Miller said. "We feel it's our responsibility as a contractor to participate in community activities and we felt this was a good one."
On one recent day, Ululani Beirne and two other women continued the cleanup with the help of a man operating a Bobcat from RCI. Beirne said some of the trash was left by a previous resident, but the pond caretaker's family who lives there also contributed.
The mess has overwhelmed the caretaker and help is needed, Beirne said.
The state parks division added to the mess when it knocked down two homes at the end of August and left the debris in a heap, she said.
"If the state demolishes a building, they should follow up and clean up," Beirne said.
The state wants to remove all of the beachside homes, which were present when the state purchased Kahana in the 1970s, said Dan Quinn, acting administrator for the Division of State Parks.
The demolished houses were vacant when the state made the decision to tear them down, Quinn said. But someone had moved in without authorization and was told to leave.
"In order to get rid of the attractive nuisance of reoccupation, we just had our lawn mower tractor in Kahana pull down the structures," he said, adding that the state planned to remove the rubble.
Because of the threat of natural disaster, the parks division wants all residents off the beachside property just outside of Ka'a'awa, Quinn said. Those people who qualify for lease land in Kahana Valley have been given an opportunity to move, he said.
"We couldn't allow the houses to remain in a flood and tsunami zone," he said. "That is an extremely exposed location."
Quinn said the friends' involvement is good for the entire community.
"The clean-up effort by the friends is a big help," he said. "It would have been eventually picked up by the state, but any help that the residents can provide is certainly welcomed."
