Water woes stymie Kahuku
By Eloise Aguiar
Advertiser Windward OÎahu Writer
KAHUKU — Optimists here can look ahead and see a revitalized community, from an economic center built around its plantation heritage to new residential development.
Gregory Yamamoto • The Honolulu Advertiser
But they also see years of waiting before any of it comes to pass.
Costly infrastructure fixes and flooding have thwarted efforts to save the Kahuku Sugar Mill, which is off-limits to visitors.
Improvements that will resolve drainage problems and provide an adequate water supply have begun. But until they're completed, efforts at improvement will remain stymied.
Take the old Kahuku Sugar Mill, the historic landmark that residents hope will be the magnet for tourism and small businesses as well as the town center.
Established in 1890 when sugar was Hawai'i's largest single source of income, Kahuku Sugar Mill operated until 1971. Today, nature has taken its toll on the mill, causing its owners to recently declare it off-limits to visitors because of safety concerns as the old machinery inside slowly falls apart.
A handful of small businesses operating in its shadow remain open, but the mill's closure has troubled many.
Efforts to save the mill have been foiled by the high cost of fixing infrastructure and flooding problems, said Ralph Makaiau, vice president of Kahuku 2000, a nonprofit organization focused on economic development.
The mill is one of many entities frustrated by conditions here.
"If we don't solve the larger drainage picture in the region, the schools cannot improve, the hospital cannot improve and improvements for just the existing residences don't happen," Makaiau said.
The city, state and federal government joined to tackle some of the flooding problems with a new $5.4 million bridge over Malaekahana Stream, a project completed this year. The area still needs drainage swales makai of the highway to direct water toward the ocean and is awaiting construction of three more bridges from Kawela to Malaekahana that will also help prevent flooding. Work on the bridges is expected in the next couple of years.
"Our biggest problem is the drainage," said Clyde Connor, a second-generation Kahuku farmer. "A couple of big storms ago we lost all our crops."
Help for the area's water supply is also coming.
Kahuku is served by a stand-alone system consisting of two wells and a 500,000-gallon reservoir.
For years the Board of Water Supply wouldn't approve new development in the area because the water supply was already at or above capacity, said Barry Usagawa, principal executive of the Water Resources Unit for the board.
"The mill was trying to renovate; we denied that," Usagawa said. "The hospital was trying to expand; we denied that."
But this year the board proposed to convert two exploratory wells in Malaekahana into production wells.
Once the wells come on line, the area will have a more reliable system and added fire protection capacity, and will be able to proceed with managed growth, Usagawa said.
Construction on the wells is scheduled to begin in late 2002 or early 2003.
While people such as Makaiau and Connor wait for the improvements, there is work to be done to save the old sugar mill.
Connor sees the day when the mill will reopen and farmers can set up a market to draw in the community.
But getting the mill owner, The Estate of James Campbell, to buy into the idea is another hurdle Kahuku 2000 will have to overcome, Connor said.
Donna Goth, Campbell Estate's director of Hawai'i properties, said the owners haven't decided what to do with the mill.
Makaiau believes Kahuku 2000 can forge a partnership with the owners to obtain grants and clean up the area, improve the building and maybe save some of the old machinery.
For him, this last vestige of the community's past is the key to its future.
"Revitalization of the sugar mill has a large potential, particularly if we look at it from a nonprofit standpoint," he said.
Reach Eloise Aguiar at 234-5266 or eaguiar@honoluluadvertiser.com
